{MFTWSC22} My lil' Artist

Hello my friends! It's Wednesday again and I am soooo excited to be able to FINALLY share this card with you! I have been not-so-patiently hanging onto to it for a few weeks, dying to show it off to the world! Mostly because it features some handmade art (Yes- I let him use my copics just this once! And boy was he excited!). Because my sweet little man helped me make it, I think I'll keep it forever:)
Here is the fabulous My Favorite Things sketch this week:

Both her arm and pocket are boosted up using dimensionals. Pants and apron are paper-pieced. I coloured her with copics and then masked her and used my SU! colour spritzer tool and various bright SU! markers to add a paint-spattered background. I used the notebook edge dienamic to create the chalkboard border and wrapped it with some skinny red SU! ribbon. Jake's 'artworks' are framed with bright cardstock and hung with SU! mini library clips like real artwork! I think it looks so sweet and I'm pretty proud of my little guys drawings:)

Check out the MFT Forum on SCS for more details on how to play this week for your chance at a gift voucher!

{TCPTUES161} Bright & Cheery Birdhouse

Hey there! Time for another Tuesday Challenge from The Cat's Pajamas! This week Jen is our hostess and she always provides the most beautiful inspiration pictures! This is probably my favorite since I started playing along back in the fall. Soooooo serene...ahhhh! I just love:) Thanks Jen!


I wasn't kidding! Isn't it just a feast for the eyes!! Here is how I found inspiration, using the colours, the plants and the little pink bird on the apron.

I used The Tweetest Things set and the Home Tweet Home Cutup die, as well as the Big Scallop Cutup die.

See my little perch for the birdie? I used a brad and simply held onto the 'front' of it with my tweezers and bent half the arms down to secure it..that way some of the arms of the brad stay on the front side of the card instead of having the brad flat against the paper.

For the card's inside, I sponged white CS and stamped the branch all while still in the nestie die, then coloured the branch with copics and stamped the sentiment in pink ink (I curved the stamp a bit to follow the curve of the branch...easy to do with clear stamps!). I then added some leaves with dimensionals.

Here are the TCP products I used on this card:

Okay, now it's your turn! Make a card inspired by Jen's picture, and link it up to Alma's blog for your chance at our random weekly draw for some cat-cash as well as your chance at the Swanky Stamper of the Month title!

Supplies: stamps- TCP, ink- memento rich cocoa, SU!- melon mambo, marina mist; DP- SU!; CS- choice snow white- TE, SU! (rose red, early espresso); dimensionals- SU!; brad- neutrals SU!; ribbon (rose red) SU!; embossing folder (sizzix); sponge; Dies- TCP, circle and scallop circle spellbinder nesties.
Sketch: Mojo192

{TCPTUES160} Baby Bear & Balloons

Well, what do you know!? I have another card to show you using the fabulous sketch from Leigh O' Brien for The Cat's Pajamas Tuesday challenges. This is such a fun sketch that it was easy to whip another card out using it...so what the heck are you waiting for? There's still a few more days to get your submission in and fame and fortune could be yours!!
Again, here is the sketch:

I have a few friends that will be having baby girls in the near future...ahhh- the power of a 3D Ultrasound! And I do love this little 'Big Bear' from the 'Catch my Drift' set for baby cards, so I inked him, or her in this case, up and got to work. I paper-pieced the balloons with scraps, and used a really nice, soft pallette for the baby feel. And guess what? I am combining this weeks TCP challenge with another...The Color Throwdown #143!

My optional colours used were a little sky blue for the airbrushed sky of course, and the nice lilac purple (looks more plum in the challenge pic, but that wasn't working, so I went lighter).

And here is a close-up of the stamped image- you can see the cloud airbrushing here..as you can see from the white outline around the oval, I left it in the nestie while airbrushing. I used a scrap scallop circle punch to make the clouds.

For this inside, I used one of the sentiments from 'And Baby Makes...'. The paper I used is a mish mash of scraps, and Jillibean Soup and Lillibee....CS, ribbon and olive button are SU!

Check out Alma's blog here for more details! Thanks for dropping by!

{SFYTT May} Sand, Surf and Penguins

When I think of penguins, I think of ice, cold, wind and snow..but I guess there are warm weather penguins in South Africa or somewhere?..I'll have to ask my 7 yr old- he will know! He is a bird expert...yesterday at the zoo field trip, his favorite animal exhibit was the 'Birds of Prey'...most kids would pick lions, giraffes, elephants...not Ryan- he likes birds! lol
I realized when I was cleaning my stamp room up this morning, that I had not blogged (or entered) last months SFYTT....Dangit! And there is a prize at the end awarded to some lucky girl that participated in EVERY months sketch....Guess it won't be me!! It's a stinkin' cute card, so I'll definately have to post it soon!
So here is this months sketch, and it's sponsored by Your Next Stamp...I only have two YNS images, and one is the tiniest little thing, so I went with this cute penguin.

I coloured the image with copics and added some Crystal Effects to his snorkel mask and inner tube to give it the shine. A little spica pen in orange, red, blue and clear was added here and there for light sparkle. I drew the sand in with copics and buttermilk spica for that twinkle that sand has. Some paper piercing around the circle adds interest. I dry embossed the sun and baja breeze card base for more texture and added the cord button and orange twine on the sun.

The inside of the cards uses up some scraps from the cardfront and I used a wave die in navy to keep with the beachy theme. Two rows of orange bakers twine finish it off.                                 Jen's sketch runs until the end of the month, so there's still time to get your card in!

Supplies: Stamp- YNS; Ink- memento; CS- SU!; DP- October Afternoon, Seaside; Dies- Spellbinders, MFT (sun), TCP (wave); Cord button- SU!; Twine- The Twinery; Crystal Effects- SU!; Copics; Spica glitter pens; circle embossing folder- cuttlebug; Bigshot; paper-piercing tool

Curtis Catches a Fish

It's been a dreary few days, so instead of working in my flower beds this weeks like I intended, I was able to get some stampy time in. I decided NOT to be such a procrastinator this week for the Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge. Last week, I started uploading my pic onto her website with 6 minutes remaining...then realized I need a url address to link..Ack!! So quickly uploaded it to my my blog..title and pic- thats it! I literally think I must have had seconds to spare, if that! I didn't win, but thats ok:) I just would like to be a regular participant....Kim gave me a great opportunity in April to be a Guest DT and I don't want to her to think that I am the kind of person who just takes the money (or free stamps in this case;) and runs! And Kraftin' Kimmie stamps are among the very best if you love to COLOUR!! And that is my favorite thing to do! my mom says that she could put me in the highchair, tape a peice of paper to the tray and I would sit for hours at a time and just colour- and that was at 12 months old!! Can you even imagine having a baby that entertained!? No wonder she had a clean house (my baby doesn't like to colour, hence my housekeeping is not trophy-worthy) And you know, I can still sit and colour for hours, although I have graduated from wax crayons to posh alcohol markers and I no longer need my sheet taped to the table!!

Here I used the cute little Curtis! I love him. Look at how proud he is of his catch. I used the layout from CPS #219, which Kraftin' Kimmie is sponsering this week, so double whammy! KK's challenge is 'Text Me'...use text on your project. The DP has numbers and letters all over it, so that should do!

What can I say? As per usual, I coloured Curtis with copics, drew in some long, wispy grass for him to stand in. Added clear spica to the grey parts of his rod, reel and line. Some Buttermilk spica was added to the fish to make him sparkle like real scales can, and I applied some crystal effects to give his eye that realistic, gross fish eye glossy look..ewww! That's the grossest thing about fishing- I get so creeped out by their slimey eyes!! lol

I 'hung' the sentiment by a little fish hook like thingy (actually just an SU clip;) The dp is really awesome- it's super thick and has a bit of texture to it..It's by CratePaper and it's called Toybox. I know that I am defiantely going to have to pick up some more of it for some scrapbook pages of the boys!

Inside kept pretty simple, following the oval theme from the card front. Added a bit of interest with an SU! notebook edge punch (kind of a nice, masculine punch- some punches are so girly).

Supplies: Stamp- Curtis from Kraftin' Kimmie; Ink- memento; CS-SU!; DP- Cratepaper; Dies- spellbinders oval and deckled oval lrg; Punches- SU!; clip- SU!; Ribbon- SU!; Copics; Spica glitter pens

{WSC21} A Picture Perfect Pair

Wednesday is already here! Happy Hump-Day everyone! Seems crazy that it's the middle of the week already, but it's a short week for us Canucks....Victoria Day on Monday and the kids had no school on Friday either- so an extra long weekend!
And because it's Wednesday and I am still the Guest DT for MFT this month, I have another amazing weekly sketch to show you!

Now, I gotta admit, I did a little cheating on this one...See where there are 2 'bubble' type circle panels? I didn't do those..not because I didn't like them, I just was so in love with my patterned paper that I couldn't bear to cover it up any more than I had too! And it just wasn't working with my hanging picture frame idea:(

Here is my interpretation of the sketch using MFT's Flapperdoodles in 'I Love Us':

I cut out strips from some thin wood veneer and made a little picture frame for the handsome couple. I also stamped the verse 'Picture Perfect' using the a la mode of the same name and punched it out using SU's word window punch and adhered it to the frame...I wanted it to look like a plaque on the frame. I stamped the flapperdoodles and coloured them with copics and cut them out, attaching them to the cherry dp that I thought looked like tacky wallpaper! lol! The picture is hung with thick brown twine and a SU! mini library clip.

For the inside I used the stamp Clearly Sentimental 'Thanks A Bunch' to make my own sentiment and finished it off with a twine bow.

Check out the MFT forum on SCS for more details on how to play along with this challenge!

Thanks for stopping by!

{TCPTUES160} Butterscotch Bunny

Time for another weekly edition of The Cat's Pajamas Tuesday and this weeks challenge is a super fun sketch brought to you by the lovely Leigh...and she so happens to be the Birthday Girl today, so go give her some bday love! Oops- hope she's not one of those people who pitch a fit about 'getting older' and don't want anyone (let alone millions of internet viewers- cuz that's where I'm at;) to know it's their special day...oh well! Happy Birthday to you Leigh!
Here is her topsy turvy, wonky-paneled sketch. This might be a challenge for ya if you're the kind of stamper that needs everything straight as a board...but give it a shot and come play with us...trust me, the worst that could happen is that your card gets selected for weekly cat cash!!

I stamped the cute little bunny from the Field of Pinwheels set onto xpress blending card and coloured him with copics, adding some grass in. I wanted my bunny to have an orangy, butterscotch kind of colour to go with the colour scheme of my card, and I kind of like the way he came out...I love experimenting with my copics! The pinwheels are all stamped and coloured separately and popped up on dimensionals, accented with various spica pens and have a twinkle rhinestone in the matching colour applied to the centre. The large pinwheel that the bunny is holding, has a larger SU rhinestone added the the centre.

I got a couple of new spellbinders die sets this weekend and this lacey oval is one of them, so I thought this would be the perfect time to try it out with Leigh's oval focal panel in the sketch. I opted for bakers twine with a button and big bows for the embellishment.

Here you can see the dimension a bit better on the popped up pinwheels:

Head over to the Dancing in Pajamas blog to see details on how you can play with us this week, and check out The Cat's Pajamas forum at SCS as well. Looking forward to seeing your creations for this fun challenge!

Jenny

Supplies: Stamp- TCP- Field of Pinwheels; Ink- memento; CS- SU: melon mambo, bermuda breeze; DP-MME: Tickled Pink; Lacey Oval Nestie, Oval Nestie; Copics; Twine- the Twinery; Taylors Tiny Twinkles; SU rhinestone; SU button; Webster's Pages Sparkler button (green); dimensionals; glue gun; big shot; cuttlebug embossing folder

Let's Here it For The Girls!

Good evening friends! What are you all up to for May long weekend? My hubby is away- so we aren't camping like most other people out there! Tomorrow is my middle son's birthday, so we are going to town to take him to the store to spend some of his loot and then to a movie! He'll be pretty excited! He has been wanting to go to bed since mid afternoon so he can get to tomorrow faster! lol

Here is my card for this past weekschallenge over at Kraftin Kimmie- the challenge was to make a card with the theme 'Girls Rock'...not hard to do with all the fabulous girl stamps that Kim features at her shop!!

I chose this sassy little vixen! She is chalk full of spunkiness! Perfect for this challenge I think! And what, I ask you, screams confidence and girl power like a red catsuit and gold heels...NOTHING, that's what!

Here is a closeup shot. I painted SU's shimmer paint all around her with my aqua painter...not sure if I like the results, but thought I'd try something new! It just didn't cover like I wanted it to- to streaky and I wanted more of a spray-paint type of coverage.

I coloured her with copics and used a buttermilk and red spica pen to add sparkle to eye shadow, belt and shoes and the red lips. A shwack of gold brads and gold SU CS keep this 'solid gold' girl shining!

Better go and get my monkeys to bed! Plus we are babysitting my friends cocker spaniel so I have to deal with her too! Have a great weekend!

Jenny



{TCPTUES159} Spring Flowers

This weeks challenge over at The Cat's Pajamas is brought to you by the legendary (at least I think so;) Susiestampalot....Susan Liles. A little background regarding my obsession with Susan. Way back last summer, around June/July...I stumbles upon the world of blogs. I know! I am a late-bloomer! And I only knew what a blog was from watching the movie Julie & Julia, where that woman decides to start a cooking blog...anywho- that was my intro to the world of blogging...remember, I live in hicktown, Alberta. We are people who farm/ranch/work the rigs..NOT blog! lol! So, I somehow found Susan and it was love at first sight! I really had no idea that people could make what she was making! Her absolute creative genius makes me dizzy and weak in the knees. Susie takes 'homemade' to a new level...I admit, she is a big stamping crush for me! Fastforward a few short months, and lil ol' me is on a REAL LIVE DESIGN TEAM with her???!!!! Ack! Still makes me shriek! Even though I am still a bench warmer and she is on the starting line-up, lol! If you are reading this Susan- please don't call the authorities. I do not want to wear your skin as a coat or dig through your trash, looking for hair..I am a just harmless admirer;) Trust me! Now that I've past the point of creepy cyber stalker, let us get on with the stampy business at hand.
Susan's challenge is MAY FLOWERS- use any TCP stamp with a flower on it! Doesn't sound too hard, but for some reason, I have to be in the 'mood' for floral and this really stumped me! Actually, this is my 2nd card..the first one came out hideous, so I ripped off the main circle image that i had stamped, chucked the old card in the garbage after salvaging embellies and such,  and built a whole new card:) It's still not my fav, but that'll do Donkey, that'll do. I went with a new size for me, inspired by fellow Cat packer Jen's note card size of 3.5x5...a really nice size for smaller images, such as Sprinkles the cat in her lovely spring bonnet.

If you know me at all, you'll know that I HATE heat embossing. I find it messy and annoying. It makes me cuss a blue streak everytime. I don't know why it grates on me like it does, but I have no love for it. But guess what? Once in awhile I try it again, and give it just one more chance, cuz that's the kind of forgiving gal I am. And it always dissappoints. Always. That explains why I didn't emboss the tag. Sprinkles gave me enough grief.

Once embossed, I coloured her flowers and bow with copics and added some clear spica for a bit of glitz (P.S. embossed ink bleeds with copics- you would think the 4000 degree heat would set it, but no- another reason to shun embossing). I daubed liquid pearls around the edge of the die, and matted with a scallop nestie. The multi-pattern rectangle panel was run through an embossing folder in my Bigshot (dry embossing is the way to go!;) The crinkly seam binding is SU and the bow is topped with a double Flower Button Cutup die, with a Divine Twine bow and itty bitty green button hot-glued on top.

I went for a similar layout on the inside, leaving a small circle for a personal message.

For your chance to win some weekly prize money and the title of Swanky Stamper of the Month, link up your card for this weeks challenge on Alma's blog here.

TCP Supplies: Spring Fling clear stamp set, Flower Buttons Cutup die, lemon Divine Twine

Other: DP- Jillibean Soup- Blossom Soup, CS- SU!, ribbon- SU!, Button- cratepaper, copics, spica pen, embossing powder-SU!, memento and versamark ink, heat gun, spellbinders, dimensional pearls-Ranger, embossing folder- SU!

Sketch- Verve

{MFTWSC20} A Berry Sweet Card

Hello! Today is Wednesday, so it's time for a little My Favorite Things weekly sketch challenge. Part of my duties as this months Guest DT is to join the team in presenting samples for the weekly challenge! I love all MFT's sketches (they make cardmaking so much easier!!) This weeks sketch was no exception...
Here it is:

And here is my sample using WTG Harvest Girl:

I used this awesome new paper I got...Jillibean Soup I believe, as well as an EK Success border punch, Jenni Bowlin button, MFT felt (die cut with the mini rolled rose die-namic), SU linen thread and SU CS. I coloured Harvest Girl with copics, added the sentiment along the side and drew a line with my copic multi-liner to mimic the stamp. I also drew in basket weaving pattern on the basket with the multi-liner. I curled some CS strips with my quilling tool to look like the curly vines on strawberry plants. I used a SU swiss dot embossing folder on the green CS strip, again inspired by strawberries.

Check out the MFT Forum on SCS for details on how to play this week!

Thanks for stopping by:)

Jenny

Challenges: That's Krafty Thursday #51

{SSSC116} Dino-mite Birthday

This is my version of a CAS (clean and simple) card. This is really NOT my style, so bear with me people! I tried to follow karen's SSSC for this one, but instead of the flourish, I broke the sentiment into 3 lines and stuck them individually in place. I also flipped the sketch on it's side.

Here is a detail shot of the Dino....I used spica pitch black glitter pen on his teeth, spikes and claws and coated his big googly eyeballs in Crystal Effects. He is coloured with copics, cut out and popped up on dimensionals. I wanted the lower white panel to look like a big ol' set of chompers, so I used TCP's large pinking die.

And here is the inside. I wanted the sentiment to look like it is in the mouth of a T-rex! Very simple, but something a little boy might appreciate:)

Supplies: Stamps- Unity (dino), MFT (sentiments- 'Little Loveosaurus'), Ink- memento, CS- SU!, DP- Creative Imaginations, Other- Copics, spica pen, Crystal Effects, dimensionals, corner rounder punch, TCP pinking die

{MFTWSC19} A Fairytale Life

Now that blogger is back on track I am going like hotcakes! I had 3 cards that I NEEDED to get posted for challenge deadlines...Remember back when I posted the Bluejean & Bling card for MFT's Guest DT contest?? Well, guess what? I WON!! Yippee!! I couldn't believe it! And I didn't even find out 'til later, as we took the kids to a movie during their release party, when they announce the winner. I was in shock when I found out! Anyway- first duty as a DT is the WSC...well, crapped the bed on that one! Totally forgot! So here I am a few days late, but I am absolutely thrilled with the way this card came out...there's just something about it that makes me feel all whimsical:) And next week I won't be such a DT failure and I'll have my card ready and rearin' to go for WSC!
Here is the sketch:

Isn't it a fun one?? I have wanted to use the fishtail banner die for awhile, but just hadn't gotten around to it..well here was the perfect opportunity to get cuttin'! And cut i did- I realize that my time would be better managed if I had a few of these little wonders! Maybe next order? I also used for the first time my sweet little Jolinne with her elephant friend..I just saw the movie 'Water for Elephants' and now I am elephant-crazy! Great movie btw- I wasn't in love with Rob Pattison when he was a vamp, but as a circus man- I am smitten!

There is quite a bit o dimension on this card...the banners are popped up on double dimensionals, the main image panel is up on one layer of dimensionals, then the elephant popped up, and finally Jolinne popped up again!

I dry embossed the middle panel with a large dot cuttlebug folder. Everything is basically inked around the edge with toffee chalk ink. Between the banners are bows tied from TCP's divine twine. As you can see, I separated the sentiment to get one word on each fishtail (my trusty old scotch tape trick), oh yeah- the circles on the banners are popped up as well!

The ribbon is SU!'s seam binding that I spritzed with water and crumpled up. The yellow pom-pom trim is so fun! It's SU! as well. The dp is by FancyPants. I also airbrushed around the image while it was still in the die using my copics airbrush kit and BG0000 marker.

For the inside, I separated the sentiment again and stamped it on 4 lines, instead of the 2 line it comes as, in order to fit it on the vertical nestie panel. I airbrushed that panel as well.

I hope you enjoyed this card as much as I loved making it!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to participate in this weeks challenge for your chance to win MFT cash vouchers! See this thread on SCS for more details!

Jenny