Hip-Hippo-Ray - AHSC #312

Hello and welcome to this week's edition of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge! Today's card is sweet and simple and will be sent to one of my nieces for her 9th birthday at the end of the month.

While it may be hard to see from the top photo, I did add some dimension to the card front by using adhesive foam dots on both the back of the hippo circle and the sentiment banner.

This sweet little hippo is from a set I got from Itsy Bitsy when I was on their design team and I colored her up very simply using watercolor pencils in gray and pink. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but I also used a shimmer brush for the shadow under her feet.

The patterned papers are left over from a paper pack that my daughter left behind when she went to grad school several years ago...gotta use up that crafty stash, lol!

Until next time~

Cactus Hello - AHSC #310

Hello again and welcome to the month of April! Hopefully spring is now headed to your neck of the woods, but if not you can always try growing succulents indoors like the ones I feature here today on my AHSC design team card using this week's sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. I will also be entering it in the following challenges @ The Paper Players for "Tic Tac Toe" (on the diagonal using diecut/embossing/floral), @ Dare2BArtzy for "Anything Goes" and @ Penny Black and More for "Going Round in Circles". 

I have admired succulents for a long time and successfully kept aloes and Thanksgiving Cactus alive over the last few years, but after the harsh Midwestern winter we are coming out of I decided to try my hand at acquiring a larger indoor succulent collection to help keep the feeling of spring alive all year long. (below, is a pic of the first 6 babies I just got a few weeks ago...all have been re-potted and are doing well) 

When I looked through my stamp collection, I was very happy to find that I already owned several nice sets that contained succulent or cactus images...the card today was made by combining plant stamps from a  Stampin' Up set with pot stamps from a Close to my Heart set. Turned out to be the perfect combination!

I fussy cut all the plant and pot images and then mounted them flat to the card front. I also used a diecut from Spellbinders for the "hello" edgecut and then carefully dry embossed selectively the area below with the tiny circle dots to tie it together with the blue pattern paper at the top of the card and add some dimensional interest.

That's it for me today, but I would love for you to join us in our sketch challenge and I am sure you will be seeing more succulents featured on cards here in the future too.

AHSC #304: CAS Die Cut Birthday Wishes

Today's card creation for the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team uses only diecuts on the front and a single sentiment stamp on the inside. 

I went for springy shades of blue-greens since we're still seeing piles of snow and gray skies where I live, lol. 

Sweet and simple inside too...

The tiny pearls added the perfect finishing touch!

That's it for me today ~ Happy Monday!

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.

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~