Very Merry Ribbons

For this month's design team project with Happy Little Stampers, the optional theme is "Ribbon", so I dug out an old ribbon stamp set from CTMH and started getting crafty! Sadly, this will be my last post with Happy Little Stampers as my design team tenure there has come to an end, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them and love that I got a jump start on my holiday cards!!!

While I wasn't completely thrilled with the end result -hey, they can't ALL be our favorites, right? -I did definitely achieve success incorporating both ribbon stamps and actual ribbon in my design, lol.

In preparation for our upcoming big move several hundred miles away, (Yikes -it's only 6 days away now!!!) my stamp room is more than half packed up and I get very frustrated not having everything right at my finger tips! So I think this will be my last post for awhile...just until I can regroup in my new craft room, in a new state. If you still want to follow along on my crafty adventure, I have been able to post a few cards and/or planner spreads at least once a week on my Instagram account @create.365. See ya on the other side of the move~

Christmas Tree Bear

Today's design team project with Happy Little Stampers is all about the tree...a Christmas tree, that is. 

This teddy bear stamp from my stash is an oldie but goodie that I got from The Angel Company. I colored him up with water color pencils and fussy cut him out to pop him up on to the card front.

The background I sent through my embossing/die cut machine with the circle tree embossing folder and then swiped a green ink pad across the top. I couldn't decide on where to put my sentiment and which one I wanted to use, so I just left that part for the inside of the card at a later date and time.

That's it for me today -I'll be back next month for another holiday card to add to my stash. 

Looking Ahead...Happy New Year!

Today's design team post is my last collaboration with Lemon Shortbread Digital Stamps. I had a lot of fun working with their images these last few months! But my hubby and I have a big relocation move coming up and I don't have a lot of time for creating and blogging right now. So I am taking a step back and hopefully will be back in the full swing of things later this fall. 

I loved this image from the first time I set my eyes on it last winter. She is called Bohemian Winter Girl and you can find her in the Etsy Shop. She comes with the image full sized and also cropped -like I used here.

I embossed vellum using a snowflake embossing folder for a subtle textured background layer...hard to see good here, but it's very pretty in person! I colored her using colored pencils and highlighted her earmuffs and the circle layer under the sentiment using the clear Wink of Stella glimmer pen. The punched snowflake was cut from holographic paper for added glitz.

That's it for me today...I'll be back next week with my September  Christmas card for Happy Little Stampers.

Crafting Forever - Housework Whenever!!!

Today's design team post for Lemon Shortbread Digital stamps was made on a 5" x 7" white card base and uses Painter Artist Girl from the Lemon Shortbread Etsy Store. I will be entering her for "Anything Goes" @ the following challenges...Dare2BArtzy, Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends, Catch the Bug, Creative Fingers,  and Polkadoodles. 

To make the background, I used a splatter stamp set from Close To My Heart along with some Sparkle Silk from Fun Stamper's Journey. 

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up and I sponged on some blue ink around the edges after cutting it apart. The holographic oval behind the artist is from a paper pack made by Die Cuts with a View. I colored her up first with Spectrum Noir markers and then layered in some depth and shading using Prismacolor Pencils. 

Until next time...

Peaceful Spirit

Today's design team project with Happy Little Stampers is for their Christmas Challenge where the optional theme is "Sequins" this month.

This 2 piece stamp set is an oldie from Stampin' Up and I colored it with pencils on kraft cardstock. The vellum frame was added to help ground the design and draw the eye into the depth of the scene.

The iridescent sequins are meant to imitate the dreamy quality of a soft snowfall...not sure if I captured that exactly the way that I had originally intended too, but I guess not every card can be our favorite once the creative process is finished, lol. 

That's it for me today...Until next time~

Hey Hedgie!

Today's design team post with Lemon Shortbread Digital Stamps using Hedgehog Leaves was a fun change of pace from summer themed cards! 

The background papers all came from Stampin' Up and the card base is a 5 x 7. Coloring was done using a mixture of Spectrum Noir markers with Prismacolor pencils over the top. Accents with a Star Dust gel pen finished everything off nicely. The light blue background was done with decorator chalk and distress ink along the edges.

Until next time~

We Make a Perfect Pear

Today's design team post for the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge uses stencils, diecuts and digital stamps.

The subtle gray background was done with ink and a stencil. The pinked circle from patterned paper is a diecut as is the notebook/planner page edge to the right of the card front.

I colored the pair of pears using colored pencils and die cut it out, mounted it on black cardstock and fussy cut around it then mounted it to the card front using foam tape for a bit of dimension.

Until next time~

Flapper Twirl Girl

Today's design team project with Lemon Shortbread Digital Stamps uses the gorgeous Flapper Twirl Girl. I will also be entering her @ Southern Girls Challenge for " Tic Tac Toe" (using the middle horizontal row), @ Craftaholics R Us for "Turquoise", @ Unicorn Challenge for "Stitching Real or Faux", @ Pile it On for "Vintage/Retro" and @ Crafty Calendar for "Totally Girly".

I used a square punch to cut the patterned paper squares, die cut and layered the "amazing" and hand stamped the "you are". 

The faux stitching around the oval was done with a die cut and Distress ink was blended around the image to help with the vintage/retro look. 

I used Prismacolor pencils to color the Flapper Twirl Girl image in shades of turquoise and highlighted her jewelry with a sparkle gel pen.

The card base is a flecked and speckled ivory card stock cut to 5 x 7.

Until next time~

OWL Always Love You!

Today's design team blog post with Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge was a fun way to take out some stencils that were in need of love! 

First, I matched my inks to the cardstock colors and then used a feather stencil on the  sea foam background. On the kraft layer I went with the circle pattern and on the peacock blue I layered two different stencils -both the tree rings and the paint splotches.

The owl and sentiment are from a cute stamp set from CTMH and I stamped using Memento ink so that I could color with Spectrum Noir markers.

We are headed to the beach here for a few days, so.....

Until next time~