Going Postal!

 Waffle Flower Stamps has a new series of dies, stencils, and stamps that are postage stamp themed. It's a bandwagon I'm happy to jump on!

The critters are from Waffle Flower's older set called "Rock On", and I had to have it because of the accordion playing bug. I love accordion music and I cannot lie. The plaid paper is from an old 6x6 pad from My Favorite Things.

This final example is using the stencil that accompanies the die.  It's ok but not to exciting, if you know what I mean.

To your continued greatness!

I have a new card kit from My Favorite Things, "A Good Time to Wine". It has the prettiest sparkle gold paper I've ever worked with. OMG it doesn't shed glitter!!  So, what did I do? I added glimmer paste, which actually does shed a little.

The kit contains a shaped bubble that creates the body of the wine glass (die included), so I filled it with a small amount of white wine colored beads. The wine glass is cut from some of the Mercury Glass paper I've been using for Christmas cards. I love that stuff.  The background is an embossed swirly pattern that I've only used horizontally to indicate wind before, but it's very festive here vertically, right?  I used Tonic moonstone glimmer paste through a spotty stencil. Stingy old me only used tiny strips of the gold glitter paper on the side and bottom of the card.  The sentiment was gold embossed on a kraft strip, and the card base is kraft, also.

I have notice that I only do 4 or 5 cards from a kit before I "quit".  My goal is to do more than 5 with this one.  I may even go back to the Festive Flamingos and do more there, too.  I think they may still be in the bag. Except for the stamps and the dies, that is. Oh who am I kidding, it has been broken down into components into the stash at this point.

Oh, and those beads?  Well, they are just barely a little too thick for the shaker pouch. I had a little trouble gluing that glass down flat to the card. My bad, I know that sequins are better for shaker cards for a reason. Oh well, live and learn.

MFT Sketch Challenge 367

Wow, 2 sketch challenges in a row! I must be on a roll here.

This is for My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge 367. Here is the sketch:

I used My Favorite Things' Meant to Bee stamp set, with a beehive, clouds, and bees. I used a kraft card base of 100 lb Neenah Desert Storm card stock, and used an old background stamp from Red Rubber. The bees and beehive are colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. The white frame is from MFT also. The background is stamped directly on the kraft with Versamark. This background stamp is a few years old, and isn't big enough to cover the front of an A2 sized card. That's why I was excited to see MFT had a full-sized honeycomb background. You could say that it was a companion stamp to the Meant To Bee set.

Here's my whine:

I tried to get a couple of MFT items in mid-December, but I hesitated and they went out of stock. But wait-- they are in stock over at Simon Says Stamp! So I ordered from them on December 9th.  That was a big mistake since they were out of stock on at least 2 of the MFT items I ordered from them. Did their online store mention this? No. Long story short, they cancelled 2 of my items, and the ones they didn't cancel came in on January 11th.  Yes, one of them was a Christmas stamp, which I'm betting wasn't one of the ones they were holding up for. So, that'll show me, don't be so impatient or it will come back to bite me. My impulse purchases don't always work out.

Fun fact:

My brother is a beekeeper and I got the BEST honey from him, ever.

Thanks a Ton!

I love this little elephant from My Favorite Things' "Sweet Safari" set. Why they retired this set is beyond me, but I was happy to get it in the big retirement sale a few weeks back!

This guy was colored on heavy watercolor paper with Zig Real Brush Clean Color markers. The background was water colored over a stencil from The Crafter's Workshop Designs by Jaime, with watered down Distress Oxide ink.

I discovered, when I made the banner, that the heavy 110 lb cardstock from Michael's cuts fine with a die, but maybe doesn't emboss and fold so well. Yes, the greeting is crooked, and I don't care.

Unicorns or Pegasus?

I discovered, to my amazement, that I didn't have any unicorn stamps. None except the toy pony with a tied on horn and wings.

I went a little crazy and got several unicorn products, including this Avery Elle "Pegasus Pair".  Expect more unicorn cards from me in the future!

These cuties were colored with Spectrum Noir markers, coated with Spectrum Noir sparkle pen, and  cut with my Brother Scan and Cut. I took a white rectangle panel and smeared on some Distress Oxide Inks. Gosh, I love working with that stuff! I then put the whole thing on a plaid background paper from My Favorite Things and added a sentiment strip that is white embossed on black cardstock. I finished the whole thing off with some Nuvo Jewel drops in coordinating colors.

So, if it has wings that makes it a Pegasus? I'm still calling these guys unicorns though.

Puppydog kisses

Today's birthday card is from a new-to-me stamp that is being retired. Boo hoo, and it's so cute! This is from My Favorite Things' Top Dog.

I colored the dogs with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, cut them on the Scan and Cut, mounted them on an ink blended panel, and added a tan mat with a dot detail around the edge (Sizzix die). The sentiment and dogs are mounted with foam tape.

Good news: as I mentioned before, these quirky images look ok if they are colored primitively. Bad news, my Scan and Cut follows the edge, even the ones where I painted out of the lines.

Now, I'm off to watch Sharknado 5, Global Swarming.

It's always an adventure!

Everybody loves a challenge, right? This is a combination of the Color Throwdown Challenge 454, and My Favorite Things sketch challenge 344. The color throw down challenge this week is kraft, green and white.

Further, I wanted to use one of my new-to-me stamp sets from My Favorite Things. These are from MFT's newly retired set called "Warm and Fuzzy Friends". I couldn't believe some of the sets that were being retired! Cat-itude! Imagine that!

One of the greatest things about these quirky images is that they look fine colored as if a kid did them. Really. I did these with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers on Bristol Smooth card stock, with no more than 2 colors per section. The fish is embellished with my Spectrum Noir sparkle pen. Fish are usually iridescent, right?

Flippin' awesome!

I have been experimenting with brick backgrounds this week, and here's my latest.

The brick background is from a cheap embossing folder (maybe Darice?) that I've had for a while, and I lightly went over it with Distress Oxide in Iced Spruce.

The fat chef is from My Favorite Things' Recipe for Happiness, and the red frame is from MFT's Blueprints 27. The blue background panel is cut with my new rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs' limited run of double stitched inside and outside shapes.

The shapes mostly cut well enough, but I get better results if I use my precision cutting plate in my Big Shot. Also, one end embosses the stitching better than the other, so I put a shim on one end to try to equalize things.

I am getting a little smarter, though. I've started to mark the end of the die that needs the shim so I won't have to test it each time. Live and learn, right?

Mr Chef and his kitchen tools were colored with Spectrum Noir markers.

And now, my random craft room thought: Where can I have put that BIG pad of Bristol Smooth cardstock? It's too big to be so hidden.

Share my lunch?

More cats from My Favorite Things' Cat-itude! What can I say but, "why not"?

Oh happy day! (Pigs round 4)

Ok, not my favorite coloring, but I'm putting it out there anyway. I colored the pigs (My Favorite Things' Sow Much Cuteness) with Prismacolor pencils on kraft card stock. I may stick to flowers for this in the future.

I stamped an inside panel, since I used a deep brown card base, and for good measure I put a little butterfly from the same set on the inside, too. I went a little crazy and put a pig on the envelope as well. 

I had a watercolor panel in shades of lilac, and I used a crazy rays stencil that I've had for a very long time to back the pigs.

We have great stories!

Yes, we do! You know, as a librarian, that I'm going to go ga-ga over book or reading related stamp sets. This one is so cute it hurts.

I colored the little My Favorite Things' Pure Innocence Bookworm girl with Zig Real Brush Clean Color markers, put her on an ombre background and embellished her with some Nuvo Jewel Drops. In hindsight, Crystal Drops or enamel dots would have shown up better.

By the way, here is my messy desk and photo setup. I still don't have the right lighting setup, but the lamps are kind of in the way when I work. Oh well.

So sorry!

Ever look at a scrap in your pile and say, I'm going to toss that. Well, maybe if I don't use it soon. Well, maybe, just maybe I'm so stubborn I force things.

So, I had a piece of white card stock with a practice blend of Distress Inks that had gone south. It was OK, just not what I ever needed. So, stubborn old me put even more color on it, splashed on some water and dabbed it off, and slapped a white die cut flower over the two colors.

I used My Favorite Thing's "Roses in Bloom" die, and another sentiment from MFT's "Deepest Sympathy" set.

I have on order some Nuvo Jewel Drops which I will add when I get them. I just didn't want to wait to post this, since it has been a while.

Amazon tells me I'll be getting it today, but the package tracker says USPS plain as day. Doesn't their software recognize national postal holidays? That will be tomorrow, at the earliest, for sure.

Random thank you notes.

Today's entries are random thank-you notes I made with leftover flowers I colored last week. These are all on Kraft colored bases. The flower above is My Favorite Things' Fancy Flowers, colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, and the two cards below feature flowers cut with MFT's Stitched Flower dies and water colored with my Mission Gold set. The background on the bottom part was tone on tone stamping with Versamark.

The script thanks is from The Alley Way Stamp's Jibber Jabber set. It's an oldie but goodie.

And here, completely off-topic, is a picture of me and my badly colored sign at the West Palm Beach Women's Rally yesterday.  I was trying to use my Sharpies up, and at least 2 of them DID seem to dry up on me.  When it comes time to making more protest signs, I'll use my Brother Scan N Cut to make the letters bigger and tidier. I'm not afraid of glue!

Hey, how about the felt ears on my bucket hat? It was WAY too hot for knit hats here in south Florida.

Happy Turkey Day, Part 2

I did another card with the same Lawn Fawn Turkey Day stamp set. I kept it simple with an oval frame cut from a plaid paper (also Lawn Fawn). I still had another turkey, so I put him inside.

The gold rectangle is cut from an Avery Elle Wonky Stitched Rectanges, as is the sentiment strip.  The oval frame is cut with 2 of the largest ovals in the My Favorite Things Wonky Stitched Ovals. Over all, the whole thing is wonky, but I'm not starting over!

More dragons!

These Magical Dragons from My Favorite Things Stamps are just so expressive and cute! This dragon looks kind of befuddled. Was that dragon slaying supposed to be today?  It kind of reminds me of that movie where the dragon slayer and the dragon were in cahoots, doing fake slayings for profit. Dragonheart, it was, from the late 90s.

I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to color the dragon and little people, on Bristol cardstock. The sentiment is on a thought bubble from Lawn Fawn (A Birdie Told Me), and the sentiment itself is from The Alley Way Stamps’ Rock Solid set.

More dragons from MFT’s Magical Dragons. I wanted to use the Gift Box Cover Up die, to look a little like a window. The background is a printed paper from a very old stack, featuring a hay bale and blue sky, all on a fabric texture.  If I ever do this one again, the dragon won’t be bright green.

I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to color the children and the dragon. The puff of smoke from the dragon’s mouth was a last minute addition. It almost makes him look breathless, don’t you think?

Dragon fly-by

What can I say about these CUTE dragons from My Favorite Things? Well, cute, for one. I colored them with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, fussy cut them, and put them on this square frame with clouds. Sigh. So cute.  More dragons will come, shortly. Yes.

That's Magical Dragons, BTW.

Recipe for Happiness

Ok, so I had wanted these fat chefs from the moment I saw them, yet I kept resisting. They are Recipe for Happiness from My Favorite Things. When I went to the store in June, I caved and threw them and the matching dies into my basket. Committed!

I wanted to keep the colors neutral, so I went with a black, white and red theme. Then I added grey. In the first card I used a wood plank background stamp, grey on grey. It was then cut out with a Wonky Stitched Rectangle. All my chefs and accessories were colored with Copic markers. He's backed with a Wonky Stitched Oval.

In my second card, I used the Duo 3 die from Pretty Pink Posh, trying to make it look like a window with an awning. The red at the bottom also has tone on tone background stamping. This time I used an old stamp from October Afternoon's Farm Girl. Yes, it's supposed to look like your great-granny's wallpaper. I sneaked in a touch of blue, too.

For my next, and last card for today, I went with something more colorful. I recently got a whole bunch of sequins, and I really need to use some of them up before getting more. I want ALL the colors, and there are a LOT of colors.  I used my Wonky Stitched Oval dies (MFT) to make the frame and doubled up on the thickness of the foam tape behind it. Next time I'll probably stick with something rectangular.

I'm glad I didn't go bonkers collecting washi tape.

Have a tweet birthday!

Today I'm back with the outline that was cut of the 2 birds I had painted last week. This die, from Concord and 9th, cuts 2 birds on a branch and their outline. Love it!

I put the bird outlines, top and bottom, on a piece of dark brown card-stock that I had stamped with the Romantic Script background stamp from MFT. I added a white zigzag border and an abstract orange print on the bottom, then die cut some sprigs of greenery (Paper Smooches Foliage 2). The sentiment is from MFT's Birds of Paradise stamp set.

Thankful flowers

Today I took my inspiration from Stephanie Klauck from the My Favorite Things design team. I liked her card so much I practically copied it. Honestly, I suck at grouping flower stamps into a great arrangement, so I copied Stephanie's. I also liked her coloring on Kraft colored paper, so I copied that too. Thanks, Stephanie for the wonderful idea. Totally not mine.

As you can see, I did one with white embossed images, and the other I stamped in black ink.  These flowers are My Favorite Things' Funky Flowers set. The sentiments are from MFT's Grateful die and stamp set. I die cut the "grateful' word in black and purple, and put the black one slightly offset behind the purple one, to give it a shadow.

One thing I really appreciated about Stephanie's arrangement is that none of the images touch each other, so no masking was needed. Yay! 

Both were colored with my Prismacolor pencils. It's funny, I don't use them very often, so most of them are almost full length. But that dark olive green kept breaking, so I kept on sharpening it. It is now less than half length and looks odd in the tray. Plus I Googled broken colored pencils and found out I was doing it ALL WRONG. You turn the sharpener, not the pencil. I just ordered the electric pencil sharpener that was recommended by Sandy Allnock. Oh, and I may put that one in my car to soften it up and heal the core. My car can get up to 120 degrees in the sun, no kidding. Florida. Sigh.

Let's do Lunch!

In honor of the giant lizard I saw last week, I've been coloring these chameleons and iguanas from Pretty Cute Stamps. The stamp set, an older one, is called Leapin' Lizards.

I colored both the chameleon (PCS), and the bird (from My Favorite Thing's Tropical Birds set) with my Zig Real Brush Water Color markers. I really wanted them to be looking up at the bug (lunch?), but that would have required some masking that I didn't really want to do today. I MAY go back and do some surgery on the chameleon's eyes. Maybe.

I also used the bee from Spellbinder's Bee and Laurel die, a zigzag border die from Lawn Fawn, the sentiment from Avery Elle's Hello Chum, and did some background stamping with leaves from MFT's Blissful Blooms (Versamark on the grass) and the diagonal striped sky.

I am linking this to My Favorite Things color challenge # 48. This is the 3rd one for this challenge. I really like the colors!

I'm also putting this in the Pretty Cute Stamps' summer challenge.