You Are Fabulous!

I made this Spring themed card of Retro Marci from La-La Land Crafts. I've been meaning to give this to a friend of mine at work. Retro Marci reminds me so much of her fabulousness I thought I'd give this one to her.

I used my newly replaced Chameleon Pens to color Marci. Black (BK4) for the hair, glasses and shoes, Bubble Gum (PK3) for the headband, scarf and skirt, and Spring Meadow (YG3) for the belt and skirt accent. Skin color was colored using Bisque (NU1). The purse was colored using Hot Cocoa (BR2). I'm still trying to practice on the Chameleon Pens, so bear with me. I promise to keep on practicing until I perfect the flicks and strokes of the pens.

The flowers are from Close to My Heart stamp set Happy Birds. They were stamped with Lagoon, Sweet Leaf and Blush inks to complement the background paper and Spring colors.

Here is the Close To My Heart stamp set I used.

C1600 Happy Birds

I hope my friend likes it! And I hope you do too!

Happy Spring!!

A new day,  a new card! I'm on my Taylored Expressions binge week so here's another TE card I'd like to share with you. This Spring card uses Spring from the You've Got Mail collection. I love this collection and I think I probably have most of them by now. They are so simple, so cute, and I just love the many things you can do with this image.

I colored it using Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, and I went crazy with Wink of Stella clear glitter brush with all my projects this week. The background solid paper was embossed using a Sizzix embossing folder that we got from the Scrapbook Expo Make and Take crop, and the other half of the paper is from DCWV Spring Mat Stack. I can't believe I let such a beautiful stack of paper just sit in some container for years!

I embellished the bottom with adhesive ribbon and topped it with a floral puff from a Recollections sticker pack that I got on clearance.

I so love this time of the year. I know living in California it's not really Spring given it's almost 90 degrees out today, but still, seeing Spring themed items everywhere, spring colors, from dresses to Easter themed projects, I just love it! Hope you guys like it!

Enjoy! Happy Spring!

Easter Tags

I made these Easter tags using Taylored Expressions Tag-A-Long Easter stamp set. These images are so cute and tiny, I thought of using them for tags. Not sure what to do with them yet, maybe give them away to my daughter's teachers, or co-workers. But either way, I got to finally use them! Aren't they just the cutest??

The papers are from DCWV Spring Mat Stack from ages ago, and the tags were die cut using Paper Smooches Tag Stitched Die. The images were colored using Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, and some glittered with Wink of Stella clear glitter markers.

Enjoy!

August Birthdhays

I have a couple of friends whose birthdays happen to be in August and thought I'd make their birthday cards in advance.

I used The Stamps of Life's stamp of the month for this card below and DCWV birthday paper pack. It's so simple yet the big candles sure do make a statement!

This card below also uses DCWV birthday paper, and I embossed the Cricut Happy Birthday folder to add some design and texture. The balloons were cut using Cricut's Birthday Bash cartridge.

Sympathy Card

I've been away for awhile, dealing with some personal issues and I'm just starting to ease back into crafting again. Unfortunately my first couple of cards back are sympathy cards. My daughter's teacher's dad passed away recently, and my co-worker's father in law also passed away recently. Both prompted me to make a card, and I hope it helps to make them feel a bit better.

I haven't crafted in awhile so here goes. The gray/black cardstock is from Recollections neutral paper pack, and the purple floral background paper is from DCWV's Floral stack I believe. The tags were cut using Silhouette and the stamp is from The Stamps of Life. It's a quick card, I actually made 2 of the same as I'm not 100% really back yet. I have yet to find all my supplies, and sort through a lot of new materials.

Birthday Box Card

I took advantage of the 50% off promotion Silhouette has ongoing until the end of March. I stocked up on some box cards and some other SVG designs I have on my wish list. I’ve always wanted to make one of these and try my hand at it. It’s supposed to be quick, but I have to admit it took me awhile and at the last minute I switched to chipboard adhesives and puff stickers that I have in my stash. It was too cumbersome to cut the small cake and gift box images and I didn’t feel like wasting paper on a super tiny image. Making the box and pieces were quick and easy, it’s cutting the small files that got too much for me. This is a Lori Whitlock design, and for the decorative paper I used a mix of DCWV and American Crafts. The base is Recollections cardstock. This card folds into an A2 size, which is super convenient as I don’t have to make a custom envelope for it. It folds flat after which is super cool! I’m sending this one to my mom for her birthday and I hope she’ll love it! I use Photoshop to clean up my image since I took it last night and the really dark background and shadows didn’t look great. I’m not an expert in Photoshop so forgive the little messes here and there.

Happy Birthday Gift Tower

Made a quickie birthday card for a co-worker of mine. Used scraps I have and a Hero Arts Birthday Gift stamp. Colored it using a mix of Memento Markers and Distress Markers. I just got my first set of Distress Inkers today and thought I'd try them out. I've heard so much about it but I have to say I was disappointed by it. The colors weren't that vibrant, and I found myself using the Memento Markers to color over it again. I will have to work on that again. Maybe I have to use watercolor paper? Not sure.

Anyways, here's my birthday card. I background pink paper I think was from one of the DCWV stack. It was leftover scrap for when I did my daughter's birthday party favors tags. I rounded the corners of the tag and embellished with a couple of gemstones hoping to make it pop.

Make A Wish!

It feels good to be able to pick up my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers again and do some good old coloring fun. For this birthday card I used a regular 5x7 American Crafts gray card stock as a mat. DCWV's 6x6 Eat Cake stack has this colorful polka dot fun looking design which I used as a base. Since the background is too loud I layered it with white scrap paper which I punched borders around using We R Memory Keepers Doily themed punched. I then used Cricut's Something to Celebrate cartridge to cut out the "make a wish" sentiment and gift. And my highlight is the Penny Black  Birthday Girl Big Wish stamp set I colored. I love Penny Black's girl stamp sets since they look so jolly, cheerful and they are so much fun to color.

For the hair I blended the Browns  (GB8/10 and EB5). I used the Reds (CR8/10/11) for the hair ribbons except for the middle button which I decided to use a lighter shade as contrast (PP3). For the dress I used the darker shade of Red for the polka dots (DR5/7) and Pinks (PL1/BP2) for the main dress itself. For the Skin tone I must have gone back and forth with the Pale Hues (FS2/FS3) and Yellow CT1, and to top it off I added a light touch of Essentials EB1. The Icing on the cake was colored using Yellow (CT2/1), with the cake itself using Browns (EB5/GB8). Since this birthday cake is for a guy, I decided to color the cake brown for chocolate (his favorite flavor), and the serving platter a touch of blue (TB1). The candle flame was colored using GB5 for an orange glow, and just TB9 for the candles. I haven't colored in a while so forgive me if it seems a bit off. I am obviously lacking in practice, as I seem to have spent so much time lately revisiting my Cricut cartridges and obsessing with K&Company's Smash books.