Fa la la! etc.

This reindeer is from a stamp set in my collection for years. I think I got it in 2015, but it came out in 2012. It is "Fa La La" from The Alley Way Stamps.  The actual "falala" on this card is from a die cut, possibly Simon Says Stamp. I'm entering this one in the Retro Rubber Challenge as it is an "anything goes" challenge. I never seem to have the right theme going on for them, but this is perfect because it is anything, LOL.

I cut the falala from the gold foil background panel and covered up the hole with the brown patterned paper. After adding the cut falala on top, and the Copic colored reindeer, I decided to add a bunch of small die-cut snowflakes. These are from My Favorite Things and Paper Smooches. I cut them from foil and glitter card stock, and topped each one off with a drop of copper or gold Nuvo drops.

I added red Stickles to his nose, and when it dried flat I added Nuvo crystal glaze to give it more shine and some dimension.

It is kind of tricky to photograph mirror-foiled paper, but you can really appreciate all the shine on this one. It's one of my favorites so far this year. Deck the halls you all. Whenever you're ready, of course.

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:

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.
 

Little birdie

Today's card is another from My Favorite Things' Purrfect Friends set. I was delighted when I was in the MFT store last week to see a new paper set with all black and white prints. If they had an entire set of b&w stripes I'd grab that very quickly.  One of the best parts of shopping in the store was that the new products were on the racks even though they weren't on the web site yet. Woo hoo! Of course, I didn't get to play with them until I got home and by that time they were up on the site. The pigs are so cute. I'm just sayin'.

The yellow panel was ink blended with a Tim Holtz stencil, and the sentiment is from an old set from The Alley Way Stamp called Flap Happy. The inside of the card is blank so I can choose the occasion when I need it.

Tweet-heart!

This fun card was made from a cute new stamp set from My Favorite Things called Purrfect Friends. It features 2 artsy styled cats, a bunch of birds, and 2 bird cages.

As part of the 30-day coloring challenge I stamped all the images and colored them with my Copic markers.

Funny story: I ordered the dies instead of the stamps. So I went back to order the stamps and they were out of stock. I ended up buying them from Simon Says Stamps because I couldn't wait.

Last weekend I got to shop in the MFT store in Eustis, Florida. The store is very close to my brother's house, but since I usually visit on holiday weekends, the store is often closed. That's good for my wallet, anyway.

One thing that strikes me, in the store, is how clean and perfect all the samples are.  Now, I know that sample cards need to be perfect, but since I had never seen hand-made cards in person (only on the Internet) I figured it was just really good photography. Nope, it's really good cards. But, how do they keep them so darn clean and flat in the the store? I know people are touching them, so how do they do it?

By the way, look for some new pig cards real soon.