Cupcake invites

My daughter turns 5 at the end of the month and here are the invitations I made for her party. I had to do 2 different colors because she wanted the boys to have blue ones and the girls to have pink ones. I kept them fairly simple since I had to make a bunch of them but I do like how they turned out.

Here are the details. Cardstocks used were SU Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Basic Black, and Naturals White. Patterned paper is from BasicGrey's Lemonade collection. Ink is Versafine Onyx Black. I did a few in Memento Tuxedo Black and didn't get as rich and crisp of a black as I did with the Versafine so I'm wondering if I need to reink my Memento pad or if the Versafine is just a deeper black color.

I used my Hero Arts cupcake set for this one and stamped the cupcake onto both Naturals White and the patterned paper. I paper pieced the cupcake wrapper since I knew that I wasn't going to color in 24 cupcakes. The tops of the cupcakes are colored in with a combination of Pearlescent Watercolors and Smooch so they're nice and shimmery. The cupcakes are cut out and popped up on top of dimensionals on Naturals White which is matted with Basic Black for a little pop. It's hard to see but I stamped a row of circles from PTI's Background Basics: Retro on the cardfront in Versamark Frost Dazzle before I popped up the focal piece on dimensionals. It's pretty subtle but adds a nice effect.

So there you have it--something pretty easy to mass produce but still packs a nice wow since it's got the shimmer :-)

Thanks for visiting and come by again soon.

First of the Christmas Cards

A few years ago, I decided to make my own Christmas cards--little did I know that was just the start to this wonderful hobby/obsession :-)

The first couple years, I made all of my cards the same and did it assembly style.  I got really tired of making the same card over and over again so 3 years ago, I had one design but did it in 3 different color combos.  I did the same thing last year as well.  This year, I changed it up a little more and just made 3 different designs for my cards.

Here's card #1!  I was inspired by a card that I had recently seen in a Papercrafts magazine and I can't remember which one exactly right now.  The cardbase is Certainly Celery and I stamped the Canvas background stamp on it in Versamark Dazzle Frost--this pic doesn't capture the subtle sheen but it's so pretty!!!!!!  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Faux Ribbon and is stamped with Brilliance Rocket Red.  I stamped my Hero Arts birds on Whisper White with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them in with a blender pen and the following ink pads:  Real Red, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa,  and Baja Breeze.  I also used a few Copic Spica pens for some shimmer on the ornament and leaves. The middle bird is on a cut out square which is edged in Going Grey and then mounted on dimensionals.  This piece is layered on top of Basic Gray and then a scalloped piece of Real Red. 

I really like how this one turned out.  I love these birds and only used them on one card last year so I was glad that they got inked up this year.  I made 20 of these so it was a fair bit of coloring that I did but it didn't have to be "perfect" and time consuming since I was going for a more watercolored type feel on this one.

Thanks for visiting and check back since I've got 2 more Christmas designs to share in the next couple of days.

TECC25 with new In Colors

I've been playing to take part in one of Taylor's Cupcake Challenges for awhile and finally did one this weekend.  My blogging buddy, Donna, is this week's Featured Cupcake Sampler so I knew I just had to give it a try!  Plus, this is a super cute sketch!

I finally broke into some of the new In Colors for this card.  I used SU Pink Pirouette, Red Riding Hood Red, and Neenah Solar White for this card.  The red panel is run through my Cuttlebug with the Spots and Dots Embossing folder and then I rounded the corners with the SU Small Corner Rounder.  I attached this to the pink cardbase.  For the central circlee strip, I used a couple of Heidi Swap Ghost flowers and several punched circles of Pink Pirouette and Red Riding Hood Red. The larger circles are up on dimensionals. I outlined the ghost flowers and some of the circles with Fruit Punch and Crystal Stickles as well as went and highlighted some of the embossed circles with Fruit Punch Stickles.

 I stamped the cupcakes from Hero Arts Clear Design Cupcakes on Neenah Solar White with Memento London Fog and colored them in with Copics.  I cut them out and highlighted them with Fruit Punch, Cinnamon,  and Crystal Stickles as well as Ranger's Glossy Accents.  The sentiment is stamped with Red Riding Hood Red on Neenah Solar White and then attached to the card front with dimensionals.  The cupcakes were also attached with dimensionals.  It seemed to be missing a little something so I added 3 dew drops to the top left of the focal piece and that definitely helped.

Fun, fun challenge and I probably have not glittered up one of my cards this much in some time!

Thanks for visiting and come back soon!

Holiday Doves

Ok, I seriously {heart} all the Hero Arts birds and got the Holiday Doves set at my LSS the other day. I almost bought the smaller set of birds at a different stamp store a couple days later but held off. I love these little bird--I think they are so cute!!!!!!

This card took me forever this evening. My 5 yo was totally hanging on to me while I was making this and begging to help. . . finally, I let him and my 8 yo play with my Glaze and Souffle pens and eventually stamped him a bird of his own so I could finish. Then, in comes dd. . .I finally finished when I got them all in bed tonight.

I've had the SU Watercolor Pencils forever and never use them. I've tried to like them but got the Watercolor Wonder Crayons shortly after and decided that I just didn't like the pencils at all. Since we've rearranged things in our house, the stamping room has been renamed "the art room" by my 5 yo. The kids spend a lot of time in there because I've put most of their art stuff in there and they get to watch TV or play Xbox in there as well. They're being really good about not touching my stuff without permission and I'll let them use my stuff under my supervision. The other day, I stamped them a bunch of images and then let them use my Watercolor Pencils and Aquapainters and Blender Pens. They had a ball and I looked at my Watercolor Pencils in a much different way and realized that maybe, just maybe, they had a use for me.

So, I stamped the Holiday Doves on Whisper White with Pallete Hybrid Burnt Umber and then colored and blended with my Watercolor Pencils and a Blender Pen. I also stamped the birds on Old Olive Prints DSP and cut out just the wings and paper pieced them on the birds. I went over the birds with my Gold and Clear Spica Glitter Pens and then colored in the ornament and leaves with my Red and Melon Spica Glitter Pens. I cut the birds out and I do admit that I'm not the most patient person when it comes to cutting things out--3 birds and 6 wings was a bit much for me. Maybe if the previously mentioned 5 yo wasn't hanging onto my arm and talking up a storm, it would have gone a little more smoothly :-)

The card base is River Rock and I added a piece of Old Olive DSP along the center. I punched out a scallop circle from Real Red and a regular circle in Whisper White. I stamped the Linen Background stamp in River Rock on the WW circle and then stamped the saying from All Holidays in Real Red on top of this. I placed this on the card and then put the doves on it on top of dimensionals. It was still missing a little something so I punched 3 holes down the other side and added 3 red eyelets.

I like this card alot but it is a lot of work and I couldn't see myself making this in mass quantities. I think I'm gonna find some time to play with my little doves a little more in the next few days.

Thanks for visiting!

Hero Arts Birds

This is what started me on my infatuation with the Hero Arts birds. A couple weeks ago, I went to a huge sale at my LSS and there were make and takes as well. We did this which was called "one card, two ways" and I got to play with the bird! I actually like both of these cards and I don't remember all the details. The glittery one did use the Tsukineko Essential Glue pad and Souffle Glaze pens to color in the bird. The other bird was colored in with watercolor pencils and a waterbrush.

I also got some stamping done today but since I know this week is going to be crazy, I'll save it for blog fodder for the rest of the week. I'm summer school principal at the high school and it starts this week so I'm doing that and my regular job for the remainder of the month. We can't get enough teachers to meet the needs of all the kids who need/want to make up classes so I'm going to be dealing with some upsets teens and parents this week. Wish me luck!

Have a great day and thanks for visiting.

More Clear Stamps

I'm thinking that I can really get into some clear stamps :-) Here's something I whipped out Sunday afternoon while the kiddos were napping and dh was watching the Lakers get beat :-( The card base is SU Kraft cardstock and I used some more of my Basic Grey Phoebe paper on the bottom. I alternated the hearts and little squiggly from my Hero Arts Clear Design Friendship Messages stamp set with Versamagic Chalk ink in Pixie Dust and Sea Breeze. I stamped the sentiment from the same set in Versamagic Chalk ink in Jumbo Java and edged the card with the same color. A couple pieces of Flirty Ribbon from SU are adhered across the center and voila--done! I love the ribbon on top of the ribbon and they match the inks that I used so great!!! I wish this ribbon was still available or that I had hoarded some more of it when it was available but oh well--gives me a reason to find new toys to play and experiment with!

Thanks for visiting!