Hey Chickie!

Good morning everyone! I am so happy I bought myself a Silhouette Cameo, I was so unhappy with my Gazelle that I totally left it neglected. I have a feeling the Gazelle is for much more advanced users than myself. I needed something to work with a minimum of fuss right out of the box, and the Cameo fits the bill! Now if I have a vision for a card I want to create, I plug in my laptop, a couple of clicks of my mouse and voila! I have a gorgeously cut border to grace the front of my card. This egg border is from the silhouette store. Isn't it just beautiful?!

I dug into my classic stamps stash and came out with this adorable Forever Friends bear just in time for Easter. I was worried about coloring it entirely in Copics, because there was so much open space in this large image, which would require lots and LOTS of blending! I basically just used one or two of the lighter Copics and shaded it with colored pencils instead. 

I did some cross stitching with embroidery thread around the border of the card, added a strip of grass and some tiny little flowers to finish it up. I thought the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Friendship Jar Spring fillers was perfect for this card, and stamped it on a tiny tag to tie around the bow. 


What do you think? Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Forever Friends easter clear stamp set, sentiment from PTI
Ink: Memento, Impress
Papers: Memory Box, Prima, Bella's bestest paper
Tools & Accessories: PTI ribbon, baker's twine, Martha Stewart tag punch, McGill flowers punch, MFT grass border die, Copics, colored pencils, Viva Decor pearl pen, embroidery floss, Spica pen, Silhouette Cameo

Spring's bursting into life...

Happy Friday! Although not so happy for me because I have to work tomorrow.... grrrr! But anyway, I have this cheery Easter card to share using these new clear Forever Friends stamps. If you've been following my blog for a while, you've seen me go through this bear stage a couple of Christmases ago. They are just adorable! I saw Funky Kits carrying these new clear sets and pounced on a couple. I must say I love the clear stamps better than the wood mounted ones, especially because these sets come with all sorts of 'accessory' images.

I colored this trio of pudgy bears with my colored pencils as usual, simple and quick!

I love the little Spring poem that came with the set, you can click on the pictures to make it bigger and easier to read.

Thanks for checking in, I'll be back soon!

Stamps: Forever Friends, PTI Twinkle background
Ink: Memento, Paper Salon
Paper: Papertrey Ink
Tools & Accessories: Spellbinders labels, colored pencils, OMS, Stickles, Copic Spica pen, PTI ribbon, EK Success flower punches, Viva Decor Pearl pen, Cuttlebug embossing border folder, SU edge punch

Jingle all the way

Here's another Forever Friends bear card. I love this little guy in his stocking. I paper pieced the stocking to match the rest of the SU paper. I used all different coloring markers and pencils. The bear is in colored pencil, the shading around the stocking and the stocking itself in Copics, but the bow is colored with an SU marker. I can't find any color that comes close to Baja Breeze in CP or Copic, so I had to make the marker work. Normally I would just water color with it, but the paper was too smooth for that. So I just colored the whole bow, then went back with a Tombow blender to 'highlight' certain areas by actually removing some color. Worked pretty well, I think. 

Added some white sparkle snowflakes to the stocking with an XF Sharpie poster pen then some Polar White Flower Soft to the fuzzy part of the stocking.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Forever Friends, Papertrey Ink sentiment
Ink: Memento
Paper: SU, Heavenly White card base
Tools & Accessories: Nestabilities, SU scallop edge punch, SU ribbon, Flower Soft, Sharpie white XF poster pen, SU marker, Copics, colored pencils, OMS, SU designer label & word window punches

Sharing Bear

Happy Halloween everyone! I don't have a spooky card to share with you all today, as I just am not feeling it this year. Yesterday at work I started feeling really crummy around mid morning, and it just got worse from there. Today it's the whole kit n kaboodle, sore throat, runny nose, chest cold....uggh.... 

BUT, I do have a cheery Christmas card to share. I just had to bring out some of my old Forever Friends bear stamps. I used them to death last year, but love them just as much this year. 

This time I decided to paper piece the little bear's coat and mittens with some of my favorite Cosmo Cricket Christmas papers, 'Be Good'. I really, really wish CC would keep doing some of the elegant vintage papers they used to do, although I like some of the newer collections, I like traditional colors better. I'm almost out of this paper, even though I stocked up on my fave patterns, I use it a lot!

The sentiment circle is one of the new seal stamps Lili of the Valley will be releasing soon. I love them all!

I hope everyone gets tons of candy, lots of tricks and most of all a fun, safe Halloween to all! Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Forever Friends, LOTV
Ink: Memento, Distress
Paper: Heavenly White, Gina K, SU, PTI
Tools & Accessories: Clever Lever snowflake punch, Martha Stewart edge & snowflake punches, Spellbinders Labels 17, Lacey Circles & Oval Nestabilities, McGill circle punch, Stickles, colored pencils,OMS, Jo Sonja Warm White acrylic paint, old toothbrush, PTI button

Too many shoes!

I wish I had this problem....LOL! A girl can never have too many shoes, right? Actually, I am probably one of the very few women on this planet that does NOT collect shoes at all. Just give me a couple of pairs of comfy sneakers and I'm happy! But I love this stamp. I colored the image with my trusty Prismacolor pencils. Added a little bit of Star dust Stickles to some of the shoes. It's my favorite Stickles, because it's got just the right amount of glitter and the color of whatever is underneath still shows through. I added some dots of yellow with a Sakura Glaze pen to the centers of the daisies, too.
The paper is new from Basic Grey's Sugar Rush kit.

If you like this or any of my other recent cards, I've posted a bunch in my Etsy store. I have got to unload some of these cards, I make way more than I can use!

Thanks for visiting, and enjoy your New Year's Eve celebrations safely!

Stamps: Forever Friends

Ink: Memento

Paper: Bristol vellum, Basic Grey, Bazzill, Heavenly White

Accessories: Martha Stewart Punch around the Page, silk ribbon, heart stick pin, colored pencils, OMS, Stickles

Wassail

Another Christmas card to share with you today, with a big fabulous striped bow on it! Lately I've been loving the wide ribbons. The card layout is from a past Mojo Monday sketch. I have a bunch of them printed out so that I can refer to them when I get stuck on a layout. AWESOME resource, check it out here.
I'm off to do some Christmas shopping, ugghh... I hate, HATE shopping. Especially the store-to-store-to-store kind. I'd rather sit on my laptop and shop online, if I could do grocery shopping this way I'd be one happy camper! But I do need some stocking stuffers and other small items, so I do have to go. Plus I promised my daughter that I'd take her to the mall. The worst of the worst places to go shopping, but sometimes you just have to do things for the kids!

Off to brave the mobs....

Stamps: Forever Friends, PTI sentiment

Ink: Memento, Perfect Match

Paper: Heavenly White, Basic Grey, SU

Accessories: Nestabilities, The Punch Bunch snowflake punch, SU striped ribbon, PTI button, colored pencils, OMS, Fiskars apron lace punch, Fun Flock, tiny red rhinestone

Peppermint Hot Cocoa Folder

When it comes to small gift giving, my all time favorite is this hot chocolate folder that I first saw on Sonja's Scene blog last Christmas. The template is bit confusing, lots of cuts and folds, but so worth it IMO. And of course, the little Forever Friends bear holding his mug of chocolate is perfect for this project. This is my favorite FF stamp!
I decorated the inside as well outside with patterned papers, and added a ribbon loop to the spine of the folder so I could slip some candy canes in it.
I had a large canister of Ghirardelli peppermint hot cocoa mix, so I scooped up one generous portion into individual clear bags and sealed them up really well. The little cocoa poem was printed and cut out with my Spellbinders die.

It's definitely a cute gift!

Hope you like it, thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Forever Friends

Ink: Memento, SU

Paper: Bristol vellum, Imaginisce, The Paper Co., Heavenly White

Accessories: Colored pencils, OMS, acrylic paint, brown satin ribbon, Fiskars apron lace punch, Spellbinders labels & Nestabilities

I'm Cheating! No Stamping...

Happy Turkey Day everyone! Hope your Thanksgiving is full of blessings!

That's right, not a single stamp on this one! Well, it's still a paper crafting card. I had to try these paper tole card kits from Docrafts in the UK. They're so stinkin' adorable, I couldn't resist. Now, I thought these would be like some of the other paper tole papers I've seen before, with a bunch of the same images that you have to cut out yourself, and then layer them. I was expecting these to be a lot of work! But no--they're precut! All you have to do is punch them out carefully, stack them with sticky foam tape and make a card with the finished image.

Easier than pie. The kit even came with coordinating papers. Really, really cute! If you're looking for easy cards, this is a kit to consider.

Anyway, it was something different to try. I had fun with it.

Now go eat, drink and spend time with family, as I'm about to do! We'll be having a small non-traditional dinner with my parents in New Jersey, totally unplanned, last minute thing. My kids were supposed to be spending Thanksgiving in North Carolina with my brothers, but my Mom had a bit of bad news from her doctor regarding a clogged artery. She has to go for surgery on Friday, so she had to cancel their plans to take my kids to NC. So, it's a nervous time for me till she gets through this.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Forever Friends Paper Tole card kit from Docrafts, White grosgrain ribbon, sheer silver ribbon, silver cord, snowflake charm, Nestabilities

Forever Friends Bears Baking

I actually own this Forever Friends stamp! Until now I was only able to use pre stamped images I got in a swap. Which is great if you just plan to use the image once or twice, but I love these stamps way too much. I plan on using them a lot more, so I lucked out on some Ebay.UK auctions!

I colored the baking bears with colored pencils, blended with odorless mineral spirits. The DP is Cosmo Cricket.

Stamps: Forever Friends, Buzzcraft

Ink: Vivid, SU, Perfect Match

Paper: Cosmo Cricket, Papertrey Ink, Heavenly White

Accessories: May Arts reversable ribbon, jingle bell brad, Martha Stewart edger punch, colored pencils, OMS, Stickles

Forever Friends Card box set

Better a late post than none at all, right?!

I just can't get enough of these pudgy little bears. I love their sweet little faces and rounded tummies! I HATE that I can't get the stamps easily here in the US! lol. Although I have found a couple of auctions that were willing to ship to me, yay! I don't know why I always fall for the hard-to-get stamps. I remember it started with Magnolia before anyone even knew what they were, I had to wait weeks to get my first ones! Then there were the Rachelle Ann Miller stamps first put out by Ladybug and Friends (I think) that were only available in Europe. Thank goodness her adorable illustrations quickly grew popular and a couple of other stamp companies started manufacturing them.

Then there's the retired Penny Black's, PSX and SU sets...sigh. Most of the time, I just can't be happy with readily available stamps, it has to be a treasure hunt! Maybe that's part of the thrill.

Anyway, I love these images so much I had to create a whole coordinating set of them. I even made a little card box for all of them to fit neatly into. (Thanks to Creative Inklings for the 'Wonderful You' card box, which I had to modify slightly to make my fatter cards fit!)

I used the lovely, lovely retired (surprise, I go for all the retired DSP's too!) Wintergreen papers from Stampin Up. Love the colors!

Thanks for stopping by for a peek at my latest project, have a good night all!

Stamps: Forever Friends, Papertrey Ink, SU, Justrite

Ink: Memento, Perfect Match, SU, Adirondack

Paper: SU, The Paper Company

Accessories: Spellbinders Labels dies & Nestabilities, SU punches, Martha Stewart punch, SU ribbon, satin ribbon, Copic sketch & Spica markers, colored pencils, OMS, Marvy snowflake punch, Stickles, Flower Soft, rhinestone, pearls, PTI button, silver cord

Teddy Dresses Snowman

This Creative Imaginations paper is gorgeous, I love the colors! I hate covering up the design when I love the paper so much, but then what would be the point? No one wants a card with just some DP on it, would they? Hmmm...if it's pretty enough, maybe they would! LOL!

Anyway, I've been making these little shopping list notebooks to match the card, just because it's fun, and I love 'em! I have yet to make myself one. Just the other day while baking cookies I remembered I needed a couple of things from the store so I ran around the house trying to find a scrap of paper to jot it down before I forgot. Well, I couldn't find one in time, got distracted, and never did make that list. I must make one for me!

Thanks for looking, try to have a happy Monday!

Stamps: Forever Friends, JustRite
Ink: Memento, Distress, Perfect Match
Paper: Creative Imaginations, PTI, Stardream
Accessories: Martha Stewart scallop punch, Nestabilities, McGill circle punch, ribbon, button, Flower Soft, colored pencils, OMS, Copics

Teddy in a Stocking

This was a very easy image to color. I could imagine making a bunch of them for Christmas this year. Maybe... I don't normally send a lot of cards out to everyone I know though, just really close family and friends. And I like to make cards for the individual, each one different, suited to each of them.

I used a bit of Ivory Flower Soft on the stocking fur, I love the textural effect. The label is Claire Brennan's new stamp set, Very Vintage Labels. How awesome is that set, perfectly designed for Spellbinders labels! I swear, all these creative stamps designers are going to bankrupt me, it's a conspiracy! LOL!

Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps, Forever Friends

Ink: Stazon, Distress, Fluid Chalk

Paper: Bazzill, Cosmo Cricket, PTI, Coredinations

Accessories: Spellbinders Labels, Fiskars edger punch, PTI satin ribbon, MM antique brad, Flower Soft, Stickles, colored pencils, OMS

Santa Bear

I wanted to use this beautiful color (Papertrey Ink's Ocean Tides) for a Christmas card, and well what do you know? Paired with that deep Scarlet Jewel, it's beautiful! This is another Forever Friends bear stamped image that someone sent me, I think they're so adorable. Quick and easy to color, too.

I applied a bit of Liquid Glass over the lantern, and added Stickles as a 'halo' around it. Looks so pretty IRL!

Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Forever Friends, Papertrey Ink

Ink: Perfect Match, Memento

Paper: PTI, Prism

Accessories: Spellbinders Labels, SU oval punch, EK Success oval punch, PTI ribbon, Cuttlebug EF, PTI button/twine, Stickles, Signo white gel pen, Copics, colored pencils, OMS