My Favorite Monsters

I love these silly monsters from the Chicken Girl Design set called, um, Silly Monsters. I’ve been looking for an excuse to use them again, so when I saw this week’s Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 58, I knew just what I was going to do with it.

The monsters are colored with Copic markers, and here’s a little trick I just figured out: if you want to have a mat that’s the exact same color as your images, create one with the same Copic marker! I added drops of Glossy Accents on the monsters’ eyes to make them pop.

Oh, and for those of you who love children’s book illustrator Jannie Ho’s images, and have been waiting for more Chicken Girl Design stamps, a little chicken told me that you might not have to wait too much longer. But you didn’t hear it from me!

Happy Purim!

OK, this is definitely NOT a stamping entry, but if you want to see a thing of beauty, look here!

Purim is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the miraculous vanquishing of an enemy’s plot to annihilate all the Jews -- through the strength of faith. It is a happy, joyous celebration that is often characterized by parties, parades, costumes and noise-makers. In fact, it is mandated that this holiday be celebrated with “extreme joy.”

One of the traditional foods of this holiday is Hamantashen, a filled cookie which mimics the shape of the three-cornered hat worn by the vanquished enemy, Haman.

This was my first time making these yummy treats. A recipe came across my desk at work last week (one of the benefits of working for a Jewish organization) that uses a box of yellow cake mix as the basis for the dough recipe. Too easy to pass up, since I had everything in the house already! OK, I had to go out and buy a jar of preserves to fill them with, but everything else was in the house. I used apricot preserves for these. I must say, they taste as good as they look!

So in the spirit of Purim, go do something joyful; dance around, sing a silly song. Eat a cookie!

Shimmery Butterfly

I got a package of new goodies from Kate at i {heart} papers the other day, and it was just what I needed to get my mojo going again! This month’s Unity Stamping Store Kit, called Life is Fabulous, has some gorgeous images, and I really wanted to work with this butterfly.

I took a look at the various sketch challenges around this week and once again decided that Karen’s Sweet Sunday Sketch was the best one to use with this image. I swear, I think I’m going to make Karen my official muse! Of course, you’ll notice that I turned the sketch on its side so I could use a sentiment (also from that Unity kit).

I cut up some slices from my Basic Grey Lemonade pad and  picked my Copic colors from there. I stamped and colored the butterfly twice – once to cut the circle, and once to cut out and layer on top. I sprayed the cut-out butterfly with some awesome Pssst! Shimmer Spray Frost to give it some dazzle, and glued just the body on, leaving the wings free to flutter. Unfortunately, neither the shimmer nor the dimension of the wings shows very will in my crappy photography. I put my photo light box away a couple of weeks ago to clean up for company, and I’m too lazy to pull it out and set it up again. Although clearly there is a need to do so.

And since Kate is now selling Copic markers (I’m soooo  excited about that!), I figured I’d show you exactly which ones I used. Of course, there’s no fancy Copic blending in this card – just good old streak-free solid colors (one of the BEST things about Copics!).

Well, I hope to get more sketch challenges done this weekend. I’m not exactly itching to go outside and wade through the snow and slush, so staying in and stamping sounds like a plan!

IHP February Challenge

It’s time once again to see what the i {heart} papers Design Team has come up with in response to Deb’s challenge. This month we were each given the same pieces of paper and ribbons to use as we wished.

The Green Day Stripes paper is double-sided, but of course I chose the side with all the shine and glitter, and made a card for St. Patrick’s Day. Hmmmm…does anyone actually send cards for that?

I used a heart punch to make my four leaf clover, outlining each heart with Lime Stickles. For the center I colored a clear adhesive rhinestone with a Copic marker and my airbrush – it’s a great way to have bling that perfectly matches your project!

For the greeting I used a little Hero Arts set called Happy Greetings, which I tend to use a lot. I curved the bottom part on the acrylic block to match the curve of the circle. I LOVE that about clear stamps!

We were given a few different ribbons to use. The ribbon I chose is some of the yummy Glimmer Ribbon that Kate has in many colors. This one is Lime.

Since I waited for the last minute to do my challenge, I was able to use this week’s Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #56 for my card. I don’t usually make square cards, but I already knew I wanted to use the four leaf clover, and this sketch provided just the right format for it! Thanks yet again, Karen, for the perfect inspiration.

Now go and check out the rest of the design team’s entries. I’m always fascinated to see how different all our projects come out using the same papers!

Cathleen
Deb
Gretchen
Kate
Kendra
Lori
Lynn
Megan
Tracy

My kind of roses…

As promised, here’s a picture of the red velvet cupcakes that were part of today’s Valentine’s Day brunch. Well, what’s left of them, anyway. I confess, I cheated this time –I piped the leaves myself, but I bought the little red roses instead of making them. I just didn’t think I’d have the time, and I sure didn’t. I’m glad NY Cake & Decorating is so close to my office. OK, sometimes I’m NOT so glad. Sometimes I feel like I should just sign over my paycheck to them.

Anyway, it was a wonderful day, surrounded by family and good friends. Everyone loved the food, and I’m fortunate to have some leftovers to enjoy for the next day or two. Now to clean up…

Hope you had a wonderful day too!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

When my family gets here this afternoon for brunch (well, 2:00 is not exactly brunch, but we’re odd like that), these are the favors I will have for them. 
I told you I was working on using my seasonal supplies! Here is yet another project with the Love Me Do collection. I used my Bigz XL die with my Big Shot to make the matchboxes, and they came together in a snap! The insides of the boxes use a retired SU! color – Riding Hood Red. It matches these papers perfectly! They are filled with Hershey’s miniatures. I really wanted to get the Dove hearts, but I waited too long and there were slim pickin’s on the shelves.

On the menu (if you’re interested) is smoked salmon frittata, seafood risotto, and salad. For dessert we’ll have cheesecake served with a raspberry coulis, and red velvet cupcakes. I’ll have to come back later with a picture of the cupcakes – they’re not decorated yet. I’d better get busy!

Enjoy your day!

Yet Another Valentine

Can you stand one more? The day is almost here, so if I don’t show it to you now, I’ll have to wait until next year.

This one was CASE’d from a card by Nancy Riley, who in turn CASE’d it from someone else. Isn’t the stamping world awesome? So much inspiration out there! I was shameless – it’s almost identical to hers, except for the colors. Oh, and I put the greeting on another heart instead of the punch she used.

The hearts were punched out of papers from the Ooh La La collection by My Mind’s Eye (available at i {heart} papers) using SU! heart punches; the border punch is from SU! also. The base is PTI white, and the red CS and ribbon are PTI Pure Poppy.

Oh, and THIS one I actually mailed! I know – don’t fall off your chair. Most of my family is going to be here tomorrow for brunch, but my son and daughter-in-law are too far away, so i sent them a little love. Not quite as good as a red velvet cupcake, but it’ll have to do.

I might have to assault you with another Valentine’s post tomorrow.

Wishing you a LOVE-ly day!

Miss You

This card was made using Karen Giron’s Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #55. At least it was supposed to be. I started out with the sweet girl in a circle, like the sketch shows, but then I went and messed it up by trying to  sponge the outer edges. It looked awful. And I messed it up so much that I couldn’t even keep it a circle – had to cut an oval out of it. So I hope it still qualifies for this challenge.

I also went waaay out of my comfort zone by using kraft as a base for this card. It’s soooo not my usual style, but I couldn’t find another neutral that worked with these particular colors. I kinda like it, though. I should use it more often.

As you can see, I used more of my Love Me Do collection. I’m determined to really USE my papers, especially the seasonal ones. Otherwise, when the holiday or season comes around the next year, I want to use the NEW stuff and the old stuff just keeps accumulating. So be prepared to see even MORE of this paper in the near future!

As for the stamps, the sweet little girl is a Pure Innocence digital stamp. I’m just starting to feel comfortable with these digistamps, but I need more practice. She has what seems to be such a wistful look on her face that the only stamp I could think of was “miss you.” The sentiment is from the PTI Mega Mixed Messages set.

OK, I need to go slog through the results of yesterday’s blizzard and get to work. Wish me luck – it’s messy out there!

Imagine…

This is probably one of the most understated cards I’ve ever made. I just loved the FTL77 sketch (below) on the Clean&Simple blog and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to use my Unity set designed by Donna Downey – The Artist In You. I love the images and sentiments in this set!

I stamped the vines with PTI Spring Moss ink, which complemented the strip of paper from the Basic Grey Sugar Rush pad beautifully. The black scalloped border uses a SU! punch, and adds just the right amount of contrast.

I’m on a roll now with all these sketch challenges — I’m so glad my mojo has come out of hiding! I’ll be back tomorrow with yet another card from another sketch challenge.

Baby Button Bears

Try saying that 10 times fast.

I have sooooo many stamps that I haven’t used yet! I’d have to quit my paying job and stay home stamping full time if I were to ever hope to use them all. Scary stuff!

This Baby Button Bits set from PTI is one of my newer acquisitions, and since I hadn’t put it away yet, I figured I’d take it out for a spin. Here’s a pair of baby cards made exactly the same way, except for the colors and the embossing folders on each. Oh, and I used different pierced borders on them, too. The piercing template I used was the Ecstasy Small Borders Template. Kate carries it at i {heart} papers. They add such a sweet touch, don’t they?

Most of the supplies are from Papertrey Ink. The girl card uses Sweet Blush cardstock, button and satin ribbon, and the Boy card uses Aqua Mist. The image for both is stamped on Vintage Cream with Palette Burnt Umber ink. The base cards are SU! Chocolate Chip (gotta use it up!), so I lined the inside with a trimmed piece of Vintage Cream and stamped the sentiment (from the Inside & Out: Baby set) on that.

I wish I could stamp all day today, but I have so much that I haven’t done around the house yet. Hmmm…stamping as a means of avoiding housework. Nah, I would never do that ;-)

Inspired by a Crate & Barrel Ad!

This card was inspired by a banner ad for Crate & Barrel that keeps showing up on my webmail page. I thought the color combination was so fresh and modern, and I’ve been meaning to use it myself. The ad shows this room:

For the colors, I used Papertrey’s Smokey Shadow and Spring Moss, and SU!’s Tempting Turquoise (Note to Nichole: please come out with a PTI turquoise!) The stamps used were PTI’s Background Basics Text Style and Fancy Flourishes. I used the new SU! flower punch, and the glazed brad is from the Basic Grey Urban Prairie collection.

The layout I used for the card is this week’s SFYTT from Jen’s blog. I love her sketch challenges, and I’m so glad she’s back!

I hope to get some more stamping done this weekend, but the fact is that I have a lot of cleaning and laundry to do. We didn’t get much snow here in Brooklyn, but I’m not inclined to go outside unless it’s absolutely necessary!

Another Valentine

Here’s a card full of glittery goodness. What you can’t tell from this photo is that the patterned paper has a gorgeous, pearly shimmer to it.

The tree is stamped in Palette Burnt Umber. Since the hearts in the tree are all part of the same stamp, I went over them with some Magenta Stickles to jazz them up. Because the tip of the container is so fine, it was easy to cover the hearts – even the little ones.

I used my Nestabilities to cut the main image and sentiment, then airbrushed with a Copic marker. To remove the excess airbrushing from the inside of the sentiment circle, I went over it with the Copic blender.

The glittery strip across the front and the punched hearts at the top are from the Petaloo Glitter Sheets from i {heart} papers. The particular pad I used seems to be out of stock, but let me tell you, these glittered sheets are awesome in any color. They cut and punch like a dream, and there’s no glitter mess!

What I used:
Stamps: Whoo Loves You (Hero Arts)
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber, Copic markers
Paper: SU! Chocolate Chip and Purely Pomegranate, S.E.I. Noisette, Petaloo Glitter Sheets
Other: Nestabilities, Stickles