i {heart} coloring!

I really do. I loved it as a child, too. Nothing made me happier than a new box of 64 Crayola crayons. Now, of course, my medium of choice is Copic markers. I managed to do a LOT of coloring this past weekend. Would you believe I made FOUR different cards? And I even made doubles of a couple of them.

This one was a single, though. It’s on its way now to my sister-in-law who just had shoulder surgery. When I was out in California in the spring staying with them, I watched her go through the better part of a crate of strawberries, so I know she’ll appreciate this particular image. If you click on it, you’ll be able to see a bigger shot of it (I think). I used the rectangle Nestabilities to emboss a frame around the image.

What I used:
Stamps: Flourishes Strawberries, PTI Mega Mixed Messages
Ink: Memento Black, Copic markers
Paper: PTI White, Bitty Box Basics, SU Garden Green
Other: Nestabilities, SU circle punches 

I’ll post more of this weekend’s cards over the next couple of days.

ABC-123 Challenge

Every month the i {heart} papers Design Team is given a challenge by Deb Felts, our Challenge Coordinator. This month our challenge was ABC-123, which translated into 1 word stamp (the ABC part), 2 embellishments, and 3 layers. Yikes! I mean, I’ve embraced the clean and simple look, but limiting myself like that was, well, a challenge. And this is what I came up with:

The quotation stamp is from the August Unity Stampin’ Store kit that is available at i {heart} papers. To be completely true to the challenge, I omitted the three tiny stars that come on the stamp, approximately where the tail of the rhinestone swirl starts. That swirl is a snipped off bit of one of the Zva crystal flourishes. My patterned layer is from the new Dewfrost Collection Pad. I cut the quotation out with my Labels 4 Nestabilities, and airbrushed it with a Copic marker. The ribbon is a leftover scrap of something I picked up at Target a while ago, and the bow was made with my new Bow Easy, which I LOVE!!!!!. The base is PTI Dark Chocolate.

I’m thrilled with the way it came out! Now go check out the rest of the design team and see what they came up with:

Cathleen (Crooked Card Creations)

Deb (With a Stamp and a Song)

Gretchen (Happiness Is. . .)

Lynn (Stamperosity)

Megan (Megan Lock Designs)

Tracy (Who IsTracy?)

Loretta (Love To Create)

Judy (Joy in a JAR)

Tammy (Stamp Happy)

Lori (Inking Aloud)

Kendra (Kendra's Card Company)

and of course, Kate (i {heart} papers)

…and I’ll send all my lovin’ to you

You would think that as a card maker, I’d be sending cards out all the time. Truth is, I’m horrible at it. I tend to remember family birthdays, but that’s it. In fact, a card that I made for someone special, and thought I sent out many months ago, just turned up mangled in the bottom of my tote bag. I feel awful about it! So I made another card for her today and will make sure it goes into the mailbox tomorrow!

This card uses some Unity stamps that I got free for signing up for their monthly stamp kit. Oh, I do love free! I thought this Bloom & Grow paper went well with the flowers in the stamp. I stamped in black and colored and airbrushed with my Copic markers — no surprise there! A couple of things were a challenge, though. The butterflies stamped in black, so I went over them with my Inkssentials White Gel Pen, and when it dried I put some orange Stickles on them. A similar thing with the little heart on the envelope. For this I stamped the envelope again in Ruby Red, cut out the tiny heart, and glued it onto the envelope. Then I covered it with some Stickles, too.

Incidentally, if you love FREE STAMPS too, head on over to i {heart} papers right now! There’s a monthly kit of Unity stamps that are only sold in stores, and Kate is carrying them. If you order the August Stampin’ Store kit before the end of this month, she will throw in some FREE stamps that she won from Unity.

Sending love YOUR way!

It's your LUCKY day! FREE stamps, anyone?

See this happy-looking card? It uses the ferris wheel stamp from the new Unity Stampin' Store kit for August called 100% Happy. This one stamp alone sold me on the whole set, which is full of awesome unmounted rubber stamps. It is in stock at i {heart} papers right now, and if you buy it there from Kate this month, she will throw in some extra FREE Unity stamps. See, Kate was the lucky winner of 1000 stamps from Unity that they raffled off at CHA. Yup, 1000 stamps! And she's willing to share the joy with anyone who purchases this Unity August Stampin' Store kit before the end of August. Just type in FREE STAMPS in the comments box when you order.

About the card: After cutting the image out with my Labels 2 Nestabilities, I airbrushed the sky and ground with my Copics. In the center of the ferris wheel is a common, office supply store brad. I cut the black mat freehand, since I used the largest Nestie for the image. Wrapped around the center of the card is a piece of black glimmer ribbon. And it's difficult to see, but I stamped a pale blue polka-dot star behind the greeting.

Stamps: Unity August Stampin' Store kit, PTI Star Prints
Ink: Memento black, PTI Spring Rain, Copic markers
Paper: PTI white, SU Basic Black, PTI Bitty Dot Basics
Other: Labels 2 Nestabilities

Now go get your FREE STAMPS!

Bittersweet

Tonight I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with a dozen wonderful family and friends. Unfortunately, the occasion was kind of bittersweet; it was the last time we would see my son and daughter-in-law before they move to Michigan next week.

My son has worked long and hard to earn his PhD in Mathematics, and his efforts have finally begun to pay off with a wonderful post-doctorate assignment at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. So over the next 3 years, I expect I’ll become familiar with the airport in Detroit! I’m so happy for him, and happy for them to begin a new life together. But still sad. Kinda weepy right now, as a matter of fact.

Anyhow, all occasions must be appropriately marked with a card and a cake. I made the card using the Clean & Simple Fall To Layout #54. I actually made it last weekend, but couldn’t show it until tonight, because my sweet DIL reads my blog! Again, sorry for the lousy scanned photo, but I waited until there was no natural light to take a picture.

This is a simple one-layer card that uses the stamp set New Home, available on sale right now at i {heart} papers. I rounded the corners of the card, and also rounded the corners of a piece of leftover acrylic packaging to trace around for the border, which I drew with a Copic Multiliner. The image was colored with Copic markers.

Oh, and the cake. I must say that this was my favorite cake I’ve made so far, at least taste-wise. I think this might be my signature cake from now on.

This little beauty is a dark chocolate fudge cake topped with chocolate ganache. It’s filled with seedless raspberry jam and whipped ganache. The swirls on top are more whipped ganache, topped with fresh, big, fat raspberries. And the whole thing is surrounded with more whipped ganache and chocolate-filled wafer cookies. OMG, it was to die for! 6 million calories per serving, but well worth it.

Anyhow, I have an ungodly chocolate mess to clean up in my kitchen right now. And a date with some Pepcid Complete — too much good food and good wine!

Today’s the day!!!

Today is the official launch of i {heart} papers’ new, exclusive line of stamps by Chicken Girl Design!!! Designed by Jannie Ho, a very talented children’s book illustrator (you’ve probably read some of the books she’s illustrated to your kids), these stamps are made of high quality photopolymer and are so much fun to use! Kate and the CGD design team have been posting sneak peeks of cards made with the first 2 sets being introduced today (there are more on the way!), and here’s your look at the complete sets:

Hugs from a Bug

 

Into the Forest

Adorable, yes?!!!

Chicken Girl Design stamps have their own IHP design team, and I hear there’s some blog candy (can you say “free sets”?) to be found on their sites over the next couple of weeks, as well as awesome samples using these new stamps. Go check them out:

Lori
Meredith
Natasha
Shelly
Shannon
Judy
Tammy
Kendra
Loretta

Kate is giving away a free set, so check out her blog, too!

Now, I’m not technically part of that design team, but I couldn’t wait to get my hands on these stamps and start playing.

Both of these use Into the Forest. Look at the face on the squirrel! And that tree just begs to be paper-pieced. The first card uses the Basic Grey Porcelain 6x6 pad, and the second one uses Wisteria. I used my Nestabilities to cut and mask the image squares. Copic markers were used to color and airbrush.

BTW, sorry for the poor quality photos of these cards. Of course I waited until today to photograph them, and there’s absolutely no suitable sunlight to be found in Brooklyn. I’d use my photo box and lights, but I can’t find a big enough empty surface to set it up on, so I had to resort to scanning. I really do need to clear off at least part of my table!

Off to play again!

Some birdy loves you

OMG, three (3) blog posts in one day! Surely it’s a sign of the apocalypse.

Anyhow, at the make-and-take that Taylor sponsored at the SCS booth at CHA, we used (and she gave us!) this adorable pair of stamps. So I thought it only fitting to use it for this week’s Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #76.

I took the sketch at face value and didn’t add any ribbon (horror!) or other embellishments, but I’m thrilled with how cute it came out! All patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Urban Prairie 6x6 pad. The pink layer is a frame I made using circle and square Nestabilities and is popped up on dimensional foam dots. For a little extra bling (gotta have the bling), I dotted some Diamond Stickles on the little green-ish circles and the flower dotting the “i”.

Thanks, Taylor — it was great meeting you!

Don't forget to enter the contest!

NOTE: This is my second post of the day {gasp!}. Scroll down if you haven't seen our BIG IHP News!

You still have a few days left to join our wide ribbon challenge and and win this yummy assortment of ribbons from i {heart} papers!

To be eligible to win, here's what you need to do!

• create a card (or other project) using wide ribbon
• issue the challenge on your blog and/or in your gallery post
• upload to SCS with keyword ihp0709
• receive extra *points* for using i {heart} papers products

The deadline to enter is Tuesday, August 4th. Our design team will judge the entries and then on Friday, August 7th, we'll announce the winner. The prize will be this gorgeous assortment of wide ribbons in various colors. Can't wait to see your creations!

Big IHP News!

I just got in this morning from CHA (didn't get home until about 2am). I had a great time and saw LOTS of great new stuff that Kate will be stocking at i {heart} papers soon! And I finally got to meet some of the IHP Design Team in person — what an amazingly great bunch of ladies!

Today is a BIG day here at IHP. We’re making some changes and welcoming some new faces and I am beyond excited.

First, please join me in welcoming Gretchen and Megan to the core IHP DT. They are both amazing stampers and I am so thrilled they will be part of the IHP team.

The next piece of exciting news is that IHP will be launching the first of their new, exclusive stamp lines this month, by Jannie Ho of Chickengirl Design. How exciting is that!?! There will be a whole design team to cover this line and we're happy to welcome Natasha and Shelly to this new IHP DT! Natasha and Shelly have the perfect style for these adorable stamps and we're so excited to have them on board.

Two of Jannie’s sets will be released this month and we’ve got some other illustrators working on different sets (each illustrator has a completely different style so you’re sure to find something you love!). There are even sets in production right now! These sets are made of the highest quality photopolymer, made in the USA by the same top manufacturer in the industry who makes a lot of your other favorite stamps.

With this news also comes a bit of a restructuring of the current DT. Merry and Lori will be transitioning to new Chickengirl stamp team. Releases will not be every month, so on "off" months all of these folks will be doing business as usual here at IHP.

And, to help us with this release we’ve got some very special Chickengirl Design guest stampers; please be sure to visit them so you don’t miss anything!

Judy
Shannon
Tammy
Kendra
Loretta

There will be some sneak peeks of the new stamp line starting tomorrow, and on the 9th will be the full reveal. Be sure to check the DT blogs so you don’t miss a single thing!

My other bit of big news is the launch of our new newsletter to make sure you’re up-to-date on what’s going on here with releases, new products, SALES, COUPONS, and other good stuff. I am proud to be taking on the role of Editor for this. I’ll still be stamping of course (just try to stop me!), but my primary focus for IHP will be on the newsletter.

If you’ve ordered in the past you will automatically get the first issue. If you don’t want it, you can easily unsubscribe. If you’ve never ordered but would like to subscribe, just leave a comment with your e-mail or head over to the IHP website and sign up!