You are my number one!

More cute bugs from Waffle Flower's Rock On set. Colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers on Fluid Hot Press paper. The background is blended Distress Oxides in a radiating rays formation. What can I say, but "Cute".

Accordions are the best. Ever.

Oh wow, I finally have a stamp set with an accordion player in it! THANK YOU Waffle Flower. This set is Waffle Flower's Rock On, and features a whole band of musical bugs. LOVE!!!!

Anyway, I colored them with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, cut them with my Brother Scan N Cut, and put them (the pink ones) on a standard 2 color card. The sky seemed kind of empty, so I added some stitched clouds from Lawn Fawn.

Here are the bugs, all colored up and ready to go. Yes, I did extras of the accordion bug.

Catitude, part 2

Just a quick card for the latest MFT sketch challenge, # 365. I did it from memory, and got it all backwards, of course.

Most of the cats are from My Favorite Things' Cool Cat, except for one from Catitude. The sentiment is from Catitude, also.

I used the inserts from MFT's Tiny Tags for the cat squares, and used MFT Blueprints 27 for the scalloped panel and sentiment strip.

I may try this one again. Next time I'll do something with coloring, LOL.

Believe in cocoa.

I might just sneak in under the deadline for this one. This cup of cocoa is from a die from Gina Marie Designs, as is the die that I cut the "Believe" from. The reindeer is sporting Doodlebug Erie Eyes. This will be my second entry into the Winter Coffee Lover's Bloghop. 

The second card is a bonus, designed with patterned paper and MFT's Blueprints 27 dies.The greeting is from MFT's "Snowfall of Blessings" sentiment set. 

Coffee Lover's Blog Hop! It's here!

Yay, it's here! Let the coffee/tea/cocoa themed cards begin, again!

Here's my first card for the bog hop:

Another cute example of My Favorite Thing's Polar Bear Pals, on a background of Lawn Fawn's Let's Bokeh in the Snow paper. The inside sentiment reads: Have a Beary Merry Christmas.

Christmas chalkboard greetings

I have an explosion of die-cuts and bits and pieces on my work desk. I cut several wavy snow banks a few weeks back and used one for this Santa card, and used the Paper Smooches Ivy die for the simple "happy holidays" card. The Santa,which is from My Favorite Things's Happy Everything, is colored with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. The chalkboard sentiments are from a paper pack I got at Michael's last year. I cut the panels around the obvious sentiments.

I have enough Christmas cards to take care of my whole list, but I don't want to stop making them. Should I sent multiples to family and close friends? Or hoard the extras?

Snowfall of blessings!

I have the November My Favorite Things Card Kit, "Snowflake Splendor", and I have been unable to get to my craft room long enough to do anything with it until now. And did I use any of the paper or stamps in the kit? I did not!

I've had this adorable bear from MFT's Polar Bear Pals in my creature cup for almost a year now, just waiting for the right opportunity. The snow bank is created from MFT's Whimsical Waves die set, on a swirly background. The sentiment is from MFT's "Snowfall of Blessings" set.

Anyway, I decided to go with monochromatic, gray, white and silver, with a touch of purple. In real life, snowy skies are gray, right? Next time i use these snowflakes, I may go for a more bright look. Maybe.

Oh the irony. I can't send an authentic snowfall of anything from south Florida. Maybe a sandfall. LOL.

Most wonderful!

Another Christmas card, this one with some new dies from Gina Marie Designs. This white panel was cut with the Snowflake border die, and stamped with a sentiment from Avery Elle's Comfort and Joy. I put die-cut sprigs of greenery at the top and bottom.

The pine sprigs were harder to glue than I thought they would be, especially since I put them at an angle near the edge. I tried to add a bow at the top but couldn't get one to stick properly. I may sneak in a sequin or two, because it looks like it could use a bit of red in the greenery.

BOO!

Today's simple and funny card is inspired by Vicki Papaioannou. Her's are more colorful, though.

I used old patterend paper from my stash, and tore it into strips. I dirtied up the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink and glued them to a black panel, leaving the gaps. The eyes are from Doodlebug's Erie Eyes Sprinkle collection.  I finished it off with a sentiment created with Lawn Fawn's Violetta's ABCs.

The inside is finished with 2 sentiments from My Favorite Things' Witch Way is the Candy?

Bear and frog thank you

Here's a simple card I made for a young friend who lives in Arizona. He doesn't get back to Florida very often, and of course, I miss him.

The bear is from My Favorite Things' Warm and Fuzzy Friends, and the frog is from MFT's Witch Way is the Candy. The sentiment is from the Warm and Fuzzy set, too. The bear was colored with my Spectrum Noir markers, and the frog was colored with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.  Both images were attached flat onto die cuts that have been on my desk for months. 

I miss my friend a lot, but this card is really all about checking his address. I don't know if he's moved since last Christmas, and I want to know for sure before I send out my holiday cards. 

Christmas cards, going to the dogs!

I have the cutest stamps from My Favorite Things called "Happy Pawlidays". The dog images are the best! I made all three cards with the "Merry and Bright" sentiment from last year's "Hand Lettered Christmas". I heat embossed them in red, copper, and green.

By the way, this is what happens when too much is going on on the desk and I grab a card right in the wet Nuvo drop. I sort of fixed it later, but boy was I mad at myself.

These black pups are colored similarly to my sister-in-law's newest addition. He's mostly black with a few tan highlights, most noticeably over his eyes. I used my Spectrum Noir markers for the pups. The copper metallic paper is hard to photograph, but is shiny and bright in real life.

Lastly, for today, is this tan puppy in a dotted scarf. The holly berries are made from Nuvo drops, and once again they kind of spread and 2 became 1. I'm not even going to try to fix that one.

Super simple with a die cut!

Today I went super simple with a die cut. It's a no-name cut from China. Most of these cheap-O dies are copies from real designers, but I could not figure out where this one was copied from. I avoid those that are outright copies of designer dies. Google search keeps pointing back to it or a stock image.  For as intricate as it is, it cut beautifully.

Anyway, simple is the key. The stamp is from My Favorite Things' Gratitude set. It's embossed in white right on the black card panel.

Halloween Hello

Hello all!  Here's just a little card using the bat from My Favorite Things' "Witch Way Is the Candy" set. I haven't used the townscape from Sizzix in years. The houses are still funny to me.

The oval panel behind the bats has been lightly brushed with Wilted Violet and Black Soot Distress Oxide Ink. The bats were colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.

And to think, before I started making cards I didn't know Halloween was a card-giving occasion. Silly me.

Halloween candy? Witch way?

OK, it may be hard to believe, but I got this set for the frog, and the pumpkins. So, the first card I made with the set was with the cat and the little girl. Go figure.

The witch, pumpkin, and cat are from My Favorite Things' "Witch Way is the Candy?" set. I colored them with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, and cut them with my Brother Scan and Cut. (Which needs a new blade. I ended up "helping" the cuts with my scissors.) I had previously embossed the spider web and had applied Distress Oxide Ink.

See those googly eyes on the cat? That is totally covering up where I smeared the enhanced eye dot with the black glaze pen. He had golden eyes before I wrecked them.

Edited to add: This card was featured on the weekly "You've Been Spotted" feature on the My Favorite Things Card challenge website. 

I'm so thrilled!

Next up: The Bats!

Starting early on Christmas, for once.

Yes, for once I'm going to have at least some of my Christmas cards done before Thanksgiving. That last minute scramble may mean cool things coming out of the craft room, but it also means the cards go out the week before Christmas. That in turn means they will spend less time on refrigerators and get trashed even sooner. I'm realistic enough to know they don't get saved like precious works of art, so there you have it.

These cards have very little coloring and no fussy cutting, so they go together quickly. I did several of each design.

The green card features the dog from Avery Elle's "Happy Howidays" set. 

The red card below features the snowman from The Alley Way Stamps' Melt Your Heart Out" set from a a couple of years ago.

Both also feature My Favorite Stamps' "Hand Lettered Christmas" greeting in gold embossing. 

Believe it or not, my new Halloween stamp is coming via FedEx later today, so I may even get a few of those done before the spooky holiday, too. Shh, don't tell anyone, I only bought it for the frog and the pumpkins. 

Yay for you! Here's a Hug!

Aren't these bears the cutest in their little Polaroid frames? These are almost the last of the My Favorite Things "Bitty Bears" that I had colored up a couple of weeks ago. Only one more left!

Both patterned papers are from My Favorite Things, and the Polaroid Frames are from Pretty Pink Posh.  The colored backgrounds behind the bears are inked with Twisted Citron and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks.

Small card, big thanks!

More of the Bitty Bears from My Favorite Things. When I stamped them, I did all of them, and colored them with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, and cut them with my Brother Scan and Cut. Would you believe I still have a few of them to use?

I mounted them onto the white tags, then onto the patterned paper, which is also from MFT, called Roses All Over. I had no idea when I bought this paper that it would be so hard to use. I need more solid white panels to go over it, I suppose.

I put one of the little bears inside, too. 3 more bears to go to use all of them!

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.

Aww nuts, how did that happen?

True story: my sister's birthday card was riding around in my purse from September 11th until September 18th. I was going to put it in my mailbox, but we had just had Hurricane Irma and the Post Office wasn't delivering or picking up that day. So I put it in my purse to put in the box near work the next day. And I totally forgot it was in there. It is a very big purse. Her birthday was on the 15th, by the way. Well, she didn't have the greatest day either since she didn't have power for a week at her house.

So, enter the belated birthday card I put together this morning. It is a near copy of one done by My Favorite Things' design team member Inge Groot and a Facebook user in a stamping group I'm in, Monique van Steenbergen.

I cut the three background papers from some old 12 x 12 papers in my stash. So old! I then die cut the white circle and many leaves. I tucked all the leaves behind the white circle, along with some twine, and as I was placing the little squirrel I decided something wasn't right and went back to look at the original. Yes, the leaves and twine should have been behind the squirrel, not the white circle. So I just cut a few more leaves and some more twine and built another layer.

I used Lawn Fawn dies for the background, and a few of the leaves, Paper Smooches Dies for the rest of the leaves, and Gina Marie Designs for the white double stitched circle. The squirrel is from My Favorite Things' "Wild Woodland". He's stamped onto craft card stock and fussy cut. It feels strange not to color the image.

Now this card is going into the mail for my sister, and I can save the purse riding card for next year. I'm super early for that!

Sticking your neck out, again?

Here's a little card I made for a sketch challenge that was completed the day after the challenge closed. Yay me, always behind!

These critters are from My Favorite Things' "Sweet Safari", and are colored with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. The patterned paper is also from MFT, and it's on a kraft card base.

Bitty Bears, again

It went so well I decided to do it again. Once again I used the My Favorite Things Sketch 350. They are also drinking a hot beverage, which must be coffee. This will also go into the Fall Coffee Lover's Bloghop.

Yes, the bears were so cute I did it again! This time the My Favorite Things' "Bitty Bears" sit on leaves from the same paper pack as the plaid, from Lawn Fawn.  Again, the cups are from MFT's "Our Story", and the sentiment is from MFT's "Perk Up".

I have a lot of bears left, so expect to see them again, very soon!

So, how have YOU bean?

So, the last week and half around here has been all about Hurricane Irma. Since I live on the southeast coast of Florida, it looked like it was going to hit us, and hard. People usually don't start striping the stores of bread and water until 2 days before, but this time it was about 5 days ahead.

Anyway, we got a lot of tree damage, and many people lost power, for days. I was fortunate not to, thank God.

I made this card for the 2107 Fall Coffee Lover's Blog Hop. I also used the current sketch challenge at My Favorite Things. Whew!

I colored the "Bitty Bears" from My Favorite Things Stamps with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, and put them with coffee mugs on die-cut leaves. The mug is from MFT's "Our Story", and the leaves are from some older Lawn Fawn dies. The coffee sentiment is from Pretty Cute Stamps' "Coffee Sentiments". The plaid paper is from Lawn Fawn. It is hard to see in the photo, but I used the tiny leaves and acorn stamp from MFT's "Wild Woodland" to stamp the brown borders with a tone on tone subtle pattern.

Thanks for stopping by. Have some coffee, OK?

Cold nose, warm heart

Today's card is in answer to 2 new challenges this week. The Color Throwdown challenge this week is Hot Pink, Lime Green and Yellow. (CTD456)

I colored my My Favorite Things'  "Top Dog" dogs with Spectrum Noir markers, and arranged them on a circular panel that's stenciled with Twisted Citron Distress Oxide ink, on another panel that has Fossilized Amber, Picked Raspberry and Twisted Citron Distress Oxide ink blended on and sprinkled.

In order to follow the My Favorite Things sketch challenge (mftwsc346), I needed to add a vertical element under the left side of the circle, but I kind of forgot until it was glued down. Vellum to the rescue! It's over, not under, but I'm going to call that artistic license.

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?

Tail wagging terrific day!

So, I've decided to do the color throwdown challenge this week. I've actually done 2 of them, but we'll talk about the other one later, ok?

This is actually stretching the limits of the color choices, as I did not actually use kraft specifically. I've had these water colored dogs for a while now. They are from Inky Antics' Delightful Dogs #2.

I started by putting down some Distress Oxide colors on some 140 lb water color paper, then spritzing with water and blotting off the excess. Then I used the same 2 colors to create some splatter. I then cut the panel using the largest die from Gina Marie's Designs Stitched Scalloped Edge Dies.

The dogs, which I colored last year using Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, were cut out using the Scan and Cut and attached flat to the water colored panel. I stamped the sentiment with Versafine black ink and mounted the panel to a bright green card base.

I observed that the Lucky Clover Distress Oxide ink was a good match for the card base before I used the water on it. I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but in some of the "lifted" areas it left behind more blue than green. Fascinating.

One more time, flamingo!

OK, one last visit to TAWS' Tropic Topic flamingo and palm tree. Those coconuts are just odd looking to me. Here in south Florida coconuts on the tree are not round, nor do they have the 3 dots on them.  But hey, the stamp artist had to take some artistic liberties, right?

Hello you! (Archaeology, anyone?)

Another example of my ancient flamingo stamp from The AlleyWay Stamp's Tropic Topic. I've colored the bird and leaves with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, cut with the Scan and Cut, and mounted it onto a frame from My Favorite Things' Blueprints 27. The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's Scripty Sayings.

True fact. Whenever you set out to do something, another thing must be done first. After months of going on a single charge, my Canon SLR battery finally ran out. It had been so long since I've had to charge it that I lost my camera bag in my walk-in closet. So I had to re-organize part of the closet today. Yikes!

The truth is I almost always use my phone camera for everything else but taking pictures of cards to post here. For cards I still love my Canon Rebel XS.

Another archaeology project

I have a very generous friend who recently gave me the gift of Lion Country Safari. It's a local drive-through zoo. She gifted me with an actual annual pass! And me with no safari themed thank you cards. Come to think of it, I don't (yet) have any safari themed stamp sets. Well, My Favorite Things' big retirement sale to the rescue. But I needed a card today.

The flamingo and palm tree are from an old The Alley Way Stamps' set called Tropic Topic. I think I have only used the snake out of that set. The sun and clouds are from Lawn Fawn, and the grassy borders are from My Favorite Things.

I colored the bird and trees with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers on real water color paper and cut them out with my Brother Scan and Cut.

Now, I'm off to get this in the mail! Fun fact: I used a shark stamp on the envelope!

Sharknado - one more time!

Yes, I just had to do one more. I just had to.

The shark is from Avery Elle's Hello Chum, and the tornado is an upside down Christmas tree die. The shark, tornado and background are all water colored with Distress Oxide. The "Smile" die is from My Favorite Things.

I printed the inside sentiments from my computer. Yes, I am stoked up about shark week and a new Sharknado. Silly me.

Challenges are a challenge, alright.

So, I decided to do a challenge this afternoon,  and ended up doing 2 of them. One was a sketch challenge from My Favorite Things, and another was a color challenge.

This was my 2nd attempt at the sketch. It turned out OK, but my first attempt, below, is not my finest work, and I probably won't be putting my name on the back of it.

Things actually started to go very sideways when I edited the photos, however. I was using PhotoShop Elements 11 and got an error message when I attempted to type in my blog address on the photo.  The interwebs told me to uninstall any fonts that came with the program, so I did. Now none of the drop down menus have any text and I have to go find the fonts I uninstalled.

I went back to PSE 2 in the mean time to finish what I had started. I've had that program for about 13 years.

I'll save my Brother Scan and Cut mat story for another time.