I've got no business in Michael's. None.

Every year I buy patterned paper at Michael's that I seriously don't need. I am having a very good time making cards with the paper I already have. And yet, I did it again. Christmas Pets, this one is called.

I made a couple of quick cards with it:

I realized pretty quickly that there were not enough larger images to make focal points. These are the 2 largest, and there are 2 more duplicates in the pad. All the other images are smaller.

Ha! Serves me right for making impulse purchases in Michael's. 

Deck the Howls

Today, 2 new cards featuring the cute Christmas dogs from My Favorite Things' Deck the Howls set. The dogs are so cute, but I learned this time that when using Copic markers, the paper REALLY matters. For these cute dogs, I stamped them with MFT's Extreme Black ink on MFT's Smooth White card stock. It came in the flamingo kit, and it feels wonderful. But, I won't do that again as the Copic colors bled, a lot. I  had stamped them 2 times, so the next group will be some other color medium, like pencils. This card stock will make great bases, though.

Anyway, for the red card, I die cut the word Joy from 3 different fonts, and had the dogs (and a bone) coming through the "O"s.  On the green card, I used the new free word die, and added a couple of dogs. I will stamp an appropriate dog-themed sentiment on the inside.

Yes, another flamingo card! This flamingo is colored with my Polychromos pencils on some very inexpensive children's watercolor paper from Walmart. I like it because it has a pretty good texture for colored pencils.

More flamingos!

This card is for the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge # 408.  I used more patterned paper from the kit, but it's not my favorite paper to work with for Christmas.

Yes, I am having fun with the card kit, thank you very much! I just enjoy this other paper more.

I love flamingos! Here they come!

Yes, it's the Festive Flamingos from My Favorite Things' October card kit. I was (virtually) standing in line when these became available earlier this week. I ordered on Tuesday and they came on Thursday.

I wanted to get one of these made up as soon as I could, so I basically copied this design from their website. Thank you, Rachel Alvarado for your simple and charming layout.

I was in such a hurry to get this one done that I forgot to add the white gel pen highlights. Oh well, we'll get back to these.

Side note: I find it kind of hard to work with Barbie purples and pinks for Christmas. I think I may save these tiny plaid papers for something else.

The flamingos are Copic colored, and the card is tinted with Distress Oxide ink in Spun Sugar and Faded Jeans. The spots are Nuvo Jewel Drops in Periwinkle.

I'm a big fan of the flamingos. Did you know that all the flamingos at Lion Country Safari are named for presidents?

Another fun flamingo fact: their color depends on their diet. The more shrimp they eat, the pinker they get!  The flamingos at Lion Country Safari are well fed:

Let's ink up a book!

I took a page from an old book, and inked it up with Distress Oxide inks and a stencil, then cut out a raggedy panel with a die.

I really love the look of text backgrounds, but sometimes I find myself trying to read them. What's up with that?  It's like always noticing the tune in the elevator and trying to identify it.

The butterfly, dragonfly, and botanicals are from My Favorite Things' Fluttering Friends, and are colored with my Polychromos pencils and cut with my Brother Scan N Cut 2. I finished it off with a circle die cut and some Nuvo drops in gold.

Now, back to more Christmas cards when no one is looking.  I'll share them all in November/December.

It's your hippo day!

Today's card is a simple card with lavender hippos. Why not? The hippos are colored with a combination of Copic markers and Spectrum Noir markers. I really don't like the Spectrum Noir purples. They are very hard to blend.

The hippos are My Favorite Things' Happy Hippos. The yellow dots are Tonic Nuvo drops. I've never had issues with the bottles before, but I guess you need to start somewhere. I think lumpy dots give the card character, don't you?  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 

Pig humor

Today I challenged myself to use up some supplies or throw them out already. So, going through my box of pre-colored images, I found this cute pink pig. I think I may have done this 2 years ago when I was at my brother's house. I remember that because I bought this stamp set at the store in the town next to his, Eustis. I colored him using my sister-in-law's Crayola colored pencils. 

So, use it or toss it?  I don't want to toss it, so I started the search through the stash for the paper that would make it look better.

In real life the pinks do not clash. I wish I could photograph colors better. Sigh.

I also used the current sketch challenge at My Favorite Things, Sketch 400.

Here's the inside, with a cute flying pig peeking out from behind another strip of patterned paper. 

The stamp set is Hog Heaven from My Favorite Things, and the background paper is from the MFT set, Roses All Over.

I did end up throwing away most of a pack of paper from October Afternoon because I realized I pull it out and try to use it often and end up putting it back on the shelf. Now that it's gone I won't have it cluttering up the paper tray. It's not like I don't have 50 others to look at. Really.