Bee-lieving in you!

Three posts in one day.  I think I'm trying to set a record here.

This card is my second attempt to join the sketch challenge over at My Favorite Things. My first attempt to add my link didn't work, and I didn't want to fool around with it.

This is also using MFT's "Meant to Bee" stamp set, on 2 different MFT pattered papers. I think I like the little circles better than the "Hearts in a Row". I do not know why.

Now, back to my regularly scheduled activities. Carry on!

First attempt:

Crazy birds from the stash.

I'm sill avoiding any new coloring, but I have had these crazy birds from Tim Holtz in my critter cup for over a year now. I believe they were done with watercolor pencils.

Today's main lesson is buyer beware! I bought the "Happy Birthday" edge die thinking that the greeting would fit across the short edge of an A2 sized card. Nope, when you buy from the dealers directly in China you really need to read the descriptions and do the arithmetic from cm to inches.

Two things. First, now I know that this is probably a stolen design, since the store used photos of this greeting on finished cards that are clearly A2 sized. I hadn't actually seen this design on blogs or elsewhere so I thought I was safe. My bad. I should know that AliExpress dealers don't make their own card samples. We are lucky if they show a photo of the finished cut product if it is an original.

Second, I support artists and designers and would not buy something that I know to be a pirate copy. Now that I know it's a stolen design I won't use it again. Not that it was all that easy to use anyway, given its size.  I will post these cards on the unbranded Facebook group as a warning to others. I do buy dies of basic shapes from them, or designs I am pretty sure are originals (they DO exist, really).

Now I will slink back into my craft room to do something different.

Happy bee day!

Here is my entry into this week's sketch challenge at My Favorite Things. I had decided, based on the sketch, to use the "Hearts in a Row" die, like I did for a previous challenge. The previous one was a color challenge, though.

Here's the sketch:

Now, doesn't this look a a lot like this one from back in January?

Anyway, I used the Hearts in a Row die and the Meant to Bee stamp set. I did not do any coloring on this one. I don't know why I am avoiding coloring lately. I have another "Bee" idea for this sketch challenge, which I may slip in later.

Happy end of March, you all!

And a beary happy BD to you!

Today's card is for the latest My Favorite Things' sketch challenge, # 428:

I used MFT's Town Bear, and had them peeking through the peek-a-boo windows.  They are colored on mixed media paper with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.

It's here! My March card kit!

Well, 2 months in a row I ordered card kits with a big ole' sheet of stickers. Really, those cardmakers on YouTube made it look so easy!

The kit also came with 2 stamp sets and the usual bunch of pattered paper and cardstock. So, without further adieu, here are my first cards with the Simon Says Stamp March 2019 card kit called "Lucky Rainbow".  As you can guess, it is full of St. Patrick's day themed stuff. But one of the stamp sets is generic enough to use all year.

The first stamp set is Simon's "Wooly Lucky".  Here are a few of the ones I have done so far:

Then, I made a couple featuring the stickers from Doodlebug, "Lots O Luck".

Then, to slap all that green outta my eyes, I made this one with the stickers plus a sentiment from the big stamp set, "Amazing".

I'm not quite done yet, so there are more to come. I think.

Every sip of the way!

Somehow I missed posting this back in January when I made it, so here she is! That's another of the great frogs from My Favorite Things' Toad-ally Awesome, a wineglass cut from vellum from last year's "Wine Service", and a sentiment from MFT's "Good Time to Wine".

Bonus, the inside sentiment is also from "Good Time to Wine".

Trying to channel my inner Amy

I'm still on my flower kick. Today I tried to channel Amy R. from Prairie Paper & Ink.  A few years ago she did a set of water colored note cards that were truly lovely!  But I dived in face first without referencing the original set.

The cards were sketchy flowers, stamped in black and loosely water colored, then splattered, then die cut and stamped sentiments were added with unifying strips of black and white paper.

Here are mine:

First of all, Amy's were portrait style, and she had more room for the die cut sentiments.  The flowers are My Favorite Things' Sketchy Blooms 2, and the sentiments are MFT's Arrow Words.

Mine are colored with Distress Oxide Inks, and I am pleased with the messy way they came out.  I also splattered them with the Distress Oxide Ink in Black Soot.

I finished each one with black and white baker's twine, of which I have a giant spool.

My big take-away from this is that just because the pen says it's waterproof doesn't mean you can watercolor over it.  Copic Multiliners, I'm looking at you.