You're Fantastic

Hello again,

Here is the fourth card that I made last Sunday, and it's for one of my fav weekly challenges, The Paper Players. This week, LeAnne has a color challenge for us. It's a pretty combination of soft colors and like LeAnne, I used them for a masculine card. (Actually, my card would probably work for masculine or feminine, but it's for my buddy Denis.) The colors are Pistachio Pudding, Lost Lagoon and Sahara Sand.

I got this cute Lawn Fawn set called "Best Pun Ever" a couple weeks ago. I stamped the fan with SU Craft black ink on SU water color paper and heat embossed it with clear EP. The image is water colored using SU markers in the appropriate colors and an aqua painter. I colored the ink onto an acrylic block then picked it up with the aqua painter. The greeting is heat embossed as well. I finished the card by covering the fan blades with SU Crystal Effects.

Supplies
Stamps: Best Pun Ever set by Lawn Fawn
Paper: SU Lost Lagoon, Sahara Sand and water color card stocks, SU Pistachio Pudding DSP and Echo Park Summer Bliss patterned paper (the color matches Lost Lagoon perfectly)
Ink: SU craft black, SU Pistachio Pudding, Lost Lagoon markers
Other: Die-namics pinking circle and stitched circle dies, SU clear EP, heat tool, SU Crystal Effects, SU aqua painter, enamel shapes, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Thanks, and Happy Hump Day,
Colleen

Sending Smiles

Hi and Happy Tuesday,

Cruising around "blog-land" on Saturday, I came across a newly started challenge called tgif challenges. I always like a good sketch to work with and their TGIFC02 challenge is a sketch challenge, so I decided to play along.

I've been watching some Kristina Werner YouTube videos on "no line" watercoloring and decided to give it a try using these Mama Elephant stamps. This is my first attempt and it was pretty fun. I will be trying it again. I like the painted look for a change from routine water coloring or Copic coloring where the lines are usually visable.

Following Kristina's instructions, I inked the images in a light color, in this case SU Crumb Cake. I "stamped" off on scratch paper then stamped onto SU water color paper. (for the balloon strings, I re-inked them before stamping onto the water color paper so they would be darker) Using Distress markers, I "colored" them onto an acrylic block, then used a paint brush to pickup water and the color to paint the images. I used my heat tool to dry areas before changing colors to avoid colors blending together.

The greeting is stamped in VersaMark ink and heat embossed with SU white EP. The images were cut with various dies and used per the sketch layout.

Supplies
Stamps: Up and Away set by Mama Elephant
Paper: SU Mambo Melon card stock, SU water color paper, Carta Bella "Soak Up the Sun" patterned papers
Ink: SU Crumb Cake, Tim Holtz Distress markers, VersaMark
Other: SU label dies, Die-namics stitched circle die, SU white EP, sequins, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Thanks all for looking in,
Colleen

Friends. . .

Hello stamping friends,

I made four cards yesterday afternoon. I was in heaven, aka my craft room, all afternoon having loads of fun. Sunday's are when two of my favorite weekly challenges start. One of my favorites is Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge. Today's post is a birthday card that I made using this weeks #268 layout.

As you can see, I flipped the sketch to accomodate my image. Isn't this little elephant the cutest? I stamped him and his mouse friend in Memento tuxedo black and colored them with Copics.

Supplies
Stamps: Ella and Friends set by Mama Elephant
Paper: SU Calypso Coral and Smokey Slate card stock, XPress-It Blending card stock and SU Watercolor Wonder DSP
Ink: SU Island Indigo, Memento tuxedo black and Copious
Other: Die-namics stitched curved rectangle die, SU embossing folder, enamel shapes, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

You Brighten My Day

Hello,

I hope all the moms out there had a fun and relaxing day today. My mom lives far away, but thanks to the modern technology called FaceBook, I got to spend some time with her.

After our visit, I spent the rest of the day in my craft room working on some of my favorite challenges. Today's card is a thank you card made using the The Freshy Made sketch 185.

The mason jar and strawberries are stamped with Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. The jar is cut out with the corresponding die. The strawberries are stamped inside the jar using masking technique.

Supplies
Stamps: Summertime Charm set by Lawn Fawn
Paper: SU real red and crumb cake card stock, XPress-It blending card stock, Doodlebug Fruitstand patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU real red, Copics
Other: Taylored Expressions Burlap embossing folder, Lawn Fawn dies, twine, sequins, the Big Shot, dimensionals

I hope you have a great week ahead and thanks for coming by,
Colleen

Happy Mother's Day

Hello,

I've been super busy at work again this past week and haven't gotten a chance to get into my craft room since last weekend. I had errands this morning, but I am planning to do some stamping later today and tomorrow. Last Sunday, I did get a card made for my mom and managed to get it in the mail on Wednesday.

I went super simple with the design choosing to just stamp and color. After coloring the trumpet flowers with pink, I used the colorless blender marker to remove some of the ink for a softer look. The pink patterned paper boarder is popped up with foam tape for a little added dimension.

While the photo doesn't pick up the shimmer, I painted some Wink of Stella over the hummer's feathers. I used the image outline technique explained by Kathy Racoosin on her blog The Daily Marker. I love her tutorials on coloring!

Supplies
Stamps: Humming Along set by Flourish Stamps and MFT greeting
Paper: SU basic black and XPress-It card stock and Simple Stories patterned paper
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Copics
Other: Foam tape, sequins, Wink of Stella

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Thanks for looking in,
Colleen