Simple Sympathy

I ran out of sympathy cards for my bin at work, so I made this one up quickly to replenish. The butterfly is from Taylored Expressions Discover Your Wings stamp set, and was stamped and stamped-off in Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet Distress Ink. The sentiment is from The Angel Company's With Sympathy stamp set, and was cut out using Nestabilities Labels Nine.

Angelee Missing You Card

This is a card I made using a scrap and a tag from The Angel Company's Angelee Paper Collection. I had cut a butterfly from the tag to use on another card, and then used the tag with the butterfly cut-out as the focal point of this card. The cream paper from the Mimi cardstock pack, stamped with the Decorative Corners stamp set in Sahara Sand VersaMagic ink was used as a backer for the opening in the tag, and also as the base of the card. The tag is tied on with ribbon from the Amberly Grace coordinating ribbon pack and the simple sentiment comes from the Trendy Greetings stamp set.

Magnolia Wedding Card

This card is the wedding card I made for the bride and groom from one of my earlier posts. We were supposed to attend the wedding, but there was a perfect storm of things happening that night. It was a Friday, and there was a big storm that delayed all the trains home from work. Once that passed, and we got home, our car broke down on the way to the reception. Fortunately, the bride was able to move from place to place between storms and didn't get wet; we just didn't get to see her in her beautiful gown, and had to give her her card later.

This card wasn't nearly as fast as the one from my previous post, but it is one I'm really proud of. This is my first time coloring a black image, and for that matter, a white image, with Copic markers.



The tux was colored using C1, 3, 5, 7 & 9, and the Ivory on the wedding dress is E40 and 41.

The stamp is the wedding couple from Magnolia.

Had Fun Stamping

For quite a while now, I've mentioned that I was able to go to my friend, Chelsea's, house to stamp at the beginning of August. This is a card I made to say thanks for having me.

This card uses The Angel Company's Skinny Birds stamp set, stamped on some yellow velvet paper I had in my scrap bin paired with the Miss Moxie paper collection. The sentiment is from Ordinary Greetings. It was a fun and cheery card to make.

Welcome New Angel

Last month I had a new angel sign up under me, and I know she likes the look of Copic markers. So to welcome her, I made this card using The Angel Company's Wonder and Joy stamp set and our new Emma paper. The girl is colored with Copic markers: Hair and pants - E51, E53 & E55, Top - R22, R24 & R27. Skin - E0000, E000, E00 and E01 and the flower pot and seat under her are R89 with the blender. The background shape is cut with Nestabilities Labels Three and is the reverse side of the flowered paper. The sentiment on the tag from the Emma collection is from Tag Tidbits. There are a few accents with Cinnamon Stickles and ribbon from the Hemmingway collection.

Elegant Core'dinations Cards

In keeping with the theme of sanding at my recent Create A Bunch at Lunch group, we made this elegant cards using Core'dinations new Core Amour collection. It already has the embossing printed on it, so you can use it as texture, or you can sand it to show the pattern in the core color. This made for exceptionally fast and easy cards. We simply sanded the paper to show the core color, stamped the sentiment using The Angel Company's retired Elegant Greetings stamp set, added a ribbon and some gems colored brown with Copic markers.

Core'dinations Thinking of You Card

Core'dinations is one of my favorite paper companies for solid (sort of) papers. They are one color on the surface, and a different color at the core. Kind of like white core paper, but with color instead.

I love using dry embossing techniques on my Core'dinations papers to get texture and then sanding to see the core color, but this time I tried something different. I used my Nestabilities Labels 8 to cut a panel out of a piece of Core'dinations' Pie Safe paper from the White Wash collection. Then I lightly sanded around the edge to bring out the core color and stamped the flowers and leaves from The Angel Company's Watercolor Plants stamp set using Tea Leaves and Perfect Plumeria VersaMagic ink. The sentiment, from Great Greetings, was added with Jumbo Java VersaMagic ink and a small dragonfly was punched out for the corner. The whole panel was laid on top of a white texturized card.



My Create a Bunch group made this as one of two cards featuring Core'dinations paper this month.

Slightly Offensive Hedgehogs

As I said in some prior posts, I didn't go to seminar this year, but I did get a chance to have some of that seminar fun when I visited my friend Chelsea in Rockford at the beginning of August. My husband's band, Slightly Offensive, was playing a private party in Rockford, and I contacted Chelsea and asked if she'd be free to stamp that day. She invited me over to her house and showed me all the projects and stamp sets that the attendees to seminar got this year, and shared some of the fun stories as well. One was about a discussion of the hedgehogs in TAC's Oh Happy Day stamp set from Page 54 of the catalogue. Someone pointed out that the leaf of the flower the male hedgehog is giving the female hedgehog was drawn in such a way that you would have to be sure to color it green, otherwise it might look like a hedgehog appendage. Barb Foster then dared Chelsea to create some cards using the hedgehogs and not coloring the leaf green (if you know what I mean). The result was a blog post from Chelsea that put me in a fit of giggles. I can't believe I missed it when it was posted originally. Chelsea and I had so much fun laughing over that post that I was inspired to create a few risque hedgehogs of my own. I colored them at Chelsea's and then brought them home to make cards with. Mine can't hold a candle to hers, but they were still lots of fun to make.

Growing Love



This card I titled while I was still at Chelsea's. The hedgehogs are colored with Copic markers. He is V-12, V-15 & V-17, and she is V-06 and V-09. The glowing background is Y00. The flower is also colored with V-09 to match. The image panel is cut with Nestabilities Small Labels and the shadow is from Large Labels. I embossed flowers into the purple panel at the bottom and highlighted with Crystal Stickles. The sentiment is printed on the computer.


I'm Not Bad, I'm Just Drawn That Way



This pair is colored with Copic colors E71 and 74 for him, and E43 and 44 for her. Her cheeks and bow are colored with RV32 and the flowers are colored with Y38. The background and tag are from the Woodrowe Keepsake Album Kit. I cut the hedgehogs with the Labels 2 Nestabilities, and typed up the saying on the computer. The question mark is from The Angel Company's Simple-Bet and is gone over in Cinnamon Stickles, which I also used to accent the rest of the card.

P.S. My husband informed me that he named the hedgehog "Woody".

Purple and Green Polkadot Halloween Card

This is the second card I've made using the cobweb legs from the Spiders are Seen stamp set by The Angel Company. My inspiration for this one was the ribbon that I got from Michael's during the after-Christmas clearance sale, but the purple and green make it ideal for Halloween cards, and it matches TAC's Angelee paper collection perfectly. The bottom panel is punched with an EK Success border punch so that the paper below shows through. Then I took the punched out circles and glued them to the side panel.

Happy Birthday Sweetie

Today is my husband's birthday and I made this card for him. I was even prepared, and made it well before we moved so I would be sure that it didn't get put off and become last minute. This card uses Taylored Expression's You're My Hero stamp set and my Stars Nestabilities. The paper is from The Angel Company's Cha Cha collection. I still can't believe that it's only $4.95 a pack.

The bottom panel was made using the Running Water Fiskar's border punch, and then I went in and punched small stars our in each scallop to match the theme. Even the Nestabilities stars are something special. They're popped up and three dimensional. I learned about making the stars pop from someone else's blog a while back ago when I was blog hopping, and hadn't had a chance to use it until this card, but I really like the effect.

Batty Good

This card is made using The Angel Company's Batty Good stamp set. I just think these guys are so cute, and this card came together rather quickly once I had the sketch idea.

The bats are colored with Copic markers C5, C7 and C9 and the moon is colored with YR21, YR 23 & YR24. I traced around them and cut them out by hand. I punched a hole out of the orange paper with the Super Jumbo Clever Lever punch and nestled the bats up to the cut-out. The ribbon came from Target's $1 section last fall and went perfectly with the self-stick black rhinestones a friend introduced me to. Everything was a little too clean, so I stippled some black ink around the edges of the orange.

Quick Thank You

While in the process of moving, my friend Sue's husband, Mike Vanderwalker, did us the favor of reading and explaining our survey to us. Mike has been a surveyor for years, and pointed out some things that we should address before the move so as not to cause problems later on. To show our appreciation, I made this card for him to go with a little gift card that we picked up.

Since we're in the middle of moving, I was limited to supplies and came up with this quick card using The Angel Company's Aged Ornaments stamp set to make all of the pattern in the card. Then I added some Christmas Red Stickles as accents with a little red ribbon, and a small sentiment panel using the Thinking of You set and a small scrap of red paper.

Halloween Witch

This is another card I made when I was playing with The Angel Company's Spiders are Seen stamp set last week. The image panel is colored with Copic markers YG03, YG06, YR08, Y17 and BV08. I went over the dress and made the buttons on the boots with the colored (not clear) Stardust Glittering Pens to give it some shine. The image panel was cut using Nestabilities Labels Three dies, with a Giga Scalloped square in between to give it a different look. The right corners were punched with Martha Stewart's Bat corner punch, and some patterned paper and buttons I had lying around were used to complete the left-hand side.

TE Blast From the Past Blog Hop - Watercolor Flowers

For the second time, I get a chance to participate in Taylored Expressions' Monthly Blast from the Past Blog Hop.

This is a card that my Create a Bunch group made during lunch in our July class (yes, I'm actually that far behind in posting). For this one, we used the Discover Your Wings stamp set. This is a very versatile set, filled with flowers, butterflies, dragonflies and sentiments. For our card, we used watercolor crayons as our only coloring medium (with the exception of black ink for the sentiment).

The background is made from scribbling on an acrylic block with yellow and orange watercolor crayons, spritzed with water and smeared on damp paper. Then we colored on the rubber stamp with the watercolor crayons and spritzed the stamp to activate the paint and stamped. For a finishing touch we added some Stardust Clear Gelly Pen (far and away the classes favorite embellishment tool) to the flowers and some punched butterflies.





To see what stamp sets other bloggers used, click on the links below:



Happy browsing.

Sweet Peas

Here is one of the cards I made when I was visiting Chelsea last month. I did all of the coloring at her house, and then had one big bout of stamper's block when I brought it home to make into the actual card. Fortunately for me, the retirement card from my last post seemed to have cured the stamper's block and also provided me with the perfect background paper for the image.

The stamp is from Papertrey Ink that I picked up when I went to the CHA consumer show, and has made me somewhat of a convert. When I was talking to someone about acrylic stamps and how I have so much trouble with them, and much prefer rubber stamps that use the cling-mount system, she said that she felt the same way, and that Papertrey was one of the very few companies she felt made acrylic stamps that gave quality images when stamped. Now that I've tried them, I have to say I agree. So, while I am sure that I won't prefer acrylic stamps over all to real rubber, I have at least found a company that makes some acrylic stamps that make a good impression.

Now back to the card credits. The stamp is Papertrey's Year of Flowers: Sweat Peas set, colored with Copic markers: RV10, RV13, Y0000, Y11, YG11 & YG13. The green pattern behind the image panel is from DCWV's The Blossoms & Butterflies Stack that my friend Yuki gave me when she visited in July, and the background is the Core'dinations Garden Gate paper from the Whitewash collection. I added a little pink ribbon and some gems to the top and bottom to balance it out a bit.

Pink and Green Retirement Card

One of the girls from work is retiring, so I was asked to make a large card for the group to sign. For this one, I pulled out my left-over paper from the Mother's Day card my stamp group did in April.

Both of the greens are Core'dinations' Garden Gate paper from the Whitewash collection, just a utilization of each side of the paper, and the pattern is Brooke Paisley from Making Memories' Simply Fabulous collection. The swirl is stamped in Chartreuse Palette Ink with The Angel Company's Fancy Curls stamp set and sparkled-up with the Clear Gelly Pen. Since I don't have any retirement sentiments, I typed one up on the computer and cut it out and added weight to it with some gems.

Spooky Sketch

I was blog hopping over the weekend, and got another chance to participate in a sketch challenge over at Taylored Expressions blog. This stamp is another one from The Angel Company's Spiders Are Seen stamp set. I've been having so much fun with it. It was a very easy card to make. I just used a bunch of 1 x 2 pieces of paper from TAC's retired Simply Spooky paper collection that I had in my scrap bin, and the Marth Stewart spiderwebs border punch. The whole thing was very quick and easy.

Spiders are Seen

This is the first card I've made using The Angel Company's Spiders are Seen stamp set. The purple spiderweb paper is left over from last year's stash of paper, and the green is from TAC's Angelee paper collection. The webs in the stamped image are highlighted with clear glitter pen to mimic the paper, and the legs are colored with Copic Markers G21 and V17. I punched the spiderweb borders with the Martha Stewart spiderweb border punch, and added a splash with some polka-dot ribbon and a few gems that I colored with the V17 Copic marker.

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL???? - Card for a Cowboys (Tony Romo) Fan

Today kicks off the beginning of football season. Tom has been having withdrawals and is VERY excited about football starting up again. My friend Connie and I are looking forward to football too. We don't root for the same team, but that's what makes it even more fun. Connie is a BIG Tony Romo fan, so to kick off the season, I decided to make her a little pin.

I used the Star Nestabilities dies to cut stars in various sizes for the pin. I drew around one set with a White Gelly Pen just like in the logo. Then I laminated the pin by cutting a large star our of a heat-set laminating sheet and running it through my laminator. I put a pinback on it, and it's ready to go.

The card is made pretty much the same way. I started with a large piece of paper and scored it into three equal parts. For the front, I folded one piece over the other and cut a star out of both pieces, so you could see into the center of the inside of the card. Then I ran a piece of brown paper through the Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles embossing folder and cut two pieces into the shape of a football. I placed these two pieces back to back and adhered with a piece of fishing line in between them. Then I added some white paper to the ends and drew on the laces. The whole football is suspended in the middle of the star on the front cover with the fishing line (and if you twist the fishing line before closing the card, it will spin when the card opens, so it looks like a football thrown in a spiral (although in slow motion). Petty cool. The pin is stuck into the inside of the card (with a hole cut out so the pinback goes through the back and doesn't push the pin up into the space where the football is. The sentiment is done on the computer.









Check out the saying I put on the pin :) I'm sure that given the opportunity, Connie (and lots of other ladies out there) would gladly jump on Tony.

August Create A Bunch at Lunch Baby Card

Even though I haven't posted as much as usual about it, my lunchtime classes are still going strong. Last month, we created web books, just like the ones I posted last year that we made at the Tinley Park Expo, and these super simple baby cards.

I got the idea for the card from an ATC I got from Angi Healy at Rita's spring gathering. I used the Scor-Pal to create lines around the panel of striped paper from the The Angel Company's Lilly Anna paper collection. Then we punched the bib from the Giga Scalloped Circle Clever Lever Punch and punched a smaller 1" punch out of the scalloped circle. We pierced each scallop and tied a ribbon to the top. The sentiment is from The Angel Company's retired Savvy Sayings set, that was one of last year's hostess sets.



Amazingly, everyone finished the cards and web book in record time. This class was about 20 minutes shorter than usual, so everyone had time to chat as well.

Blossoms and Blessings

My first "must have" stamp set from the recently published Angel Company catalogue. As soon as I saw samples posted online from girls at seminar, I knew this was one that I had to get. Of course, with plans in place for the new house, I didn't get a chance to purchase it immediately, but lucky for me my friend Chelsea - Catalogue Designer Extraordinaire (see Chelsea's Creative Corner blog on my sidebar) had me over to play a few weeks ago, and she let me use her Blossoms and Blessings set to make this card.



It's an acetate card, with the daisies stamped in White Opaque Staz On and the inside sporting a black panel to set off the white blossoms. The flower on the peach panel was colored with Copic markers





I haven't played with acetate in a while, but it was a lot of fun, so you may see more coming.

What Could Be Simpler Wedding Card

Recently, well in June actually, one of the girls at work got married. I made this 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 wedding card for the whole department to sign, and it couldn't have been simpler. The base is an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper folded in half, with a 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 piece of black and white patterned paper adhered to the top. I used a large sheer black ribbon to knot on the front, with a smaller white bow tied into it and two small heart charms stuck together with glue dots. It's a great, elegant card that literally took longer to pull out the supplies for than it did to make. And it was a big hit.

Blast From The Past Blog Hop

I'm kind of excited. This is my very first official Blog Hop - The Taylored Expressions' Blast From The Past Blog Hop. Our challenge was to pull out any Taylored Expressions stamp set that was released prior to March, 2010. I LOOOOOVED this Berries and Cherries set from the minute I saw it and figured it would be the perfect stamp for a summer hop.

This is the card I made using this set when I was helping to man a booth at a crop. We were demonstrating Copic markers and I spent a good part of the afternoon working on the shading of the strawberries to show some of the girls what could be done with Copics. Unfortunately I got all the way to the end and the C1 I was using bled out a big grey spot at the corner of the strawberry basket when I went to add the shadow, so I had to do some quick thinking to save it. I ended up cutting the image out with my Labels 1 Nestabilities die and masking off the strawberries so I could spray some Tattered Angels mist around the edge. Since I was working while I was "working" I wasn't thinking to write down things like the paper collection or the Copic colors I used, so I can't give any credits for anything but the stamps.



Here is a close-up of the strawberries:



To see the ideas other hop participants came up with, click on the link below.

Father's Day Camping Card

This is a card I made using my Camping stamp set from The Angel Company (paired with Taylored Expressions' Boys Will Be Boys stamp set for the #1 Dad sentiment). I've had the Camping set for a while, but I could never figure out what I wanted to do with it. Finally, I decided to use it for my Ohio Gathering swap (before I found out that it was supposed to be an ATC). So this is my first attempt with this set. Nothing fancy, just solid papers, Burnt Umber and Jardin Moss Palette Ink and Walnut Distress Stickles, but I thought it turned out nice. And I know a guy that it would be perfect for.

Mr. Happy Camper doesn't read my blog, I'm sure, but some blog followers should know who I'm talking about.

Rockin Birthday Card

On Sunday I made cards for Tom's band mates' daughters birthdays. The purple princess in my last post was for the 5 year old. This one was for the 13 year old, and is definitely geared to the teen lifestyle.



The stamp set it Taylored Expressions' My Hero set, with the background stamped in Claret and Seascape Palette ink and the singer and sentiment are stamped in Black Momento ink. The paper is from the Die Cuts With a View Rock Queen Mat Stack. Who would have thought that skulls and lightning bolts would be put together with paisleys? Stars were cut with a punch and the Stars Nestabilities.

Lets Go Blackhawks!

The Blackhawks have returned to Chicago in their quest for the Stanley Cup and the puck will be dropping soon! Hopefully they'll win the next two games to end it, because I don't think my nerves can take a 7th game.

A friend of mine got some Blackhawk nail decals on e-Bay and shared them with me. Here are my nails, ready to support the home team (I've got them on my toes too). Lets Go Blackhawks!!!!!!

Purple Princess

My husband and I got invited to a birthday party for his new band mates' daughters this afternoon. Tom asked if I would make cards for the girls (there are 2 of them celebrating this weekend). One of the birthday girls is going to be 5, so I decided to use my new princess Magnolia to make her a card.



The patterned paper is from Provo Craft's Slab XI. I bought the princess in Ohio when we visited a couple of weeks ago. She's colored with Copic markers RV91, RV93, RV95, E0000, E000 E00, E11, E21, E27 and E29. Her crown is done with the Gelly Roll Clear Glitter Pen. The sentiment is done with The Angel Company's Trendy Greetings stamp set.

Chocolate Covered Congrats

I have a very good friend, who is a wonderful and creative artist in so many ways. For years her talent has been overlooked, but she was recently asked to be a designer for a stamp company. She'll be doing cards that will be sent to stores as samples, and used in ads both in print and online. I am so excited for her, because she really deserves the recognition, so I made this card for her and gave it to her with a box of chocolate covered cherries.

The card is textured on the right-hand side using the Scor Pal, and the diamonds I created were then accented with chalk painted on with chalk enhancer, and the bling is provided by Waterfall Stickles. The sentiment is from The Angel Company's Label Lingo, and the chocolate covered cherry image and surrounding red circle are from Taylored Expression's Berries and Cherries stamp set.

The cherry was colored using Copic markers E00, E09, E18 and E37, with the stem done in G24 and G28.

Another Quick Neutral Birthday Card

A few months ago, I posted a birthday card that my create a bunch at lunch club did. After those classes I usually have some leftovers. I'm finally getting around to putting some of those leftovers to good use. This is a card I made with most of the same materials as that previous post, but I picked a different pattern from the Kaleidoscope Boyz paper collection, and I turned the sketch 90 degrees.

It's Time to Relax!

This is a card I made last weekend at Rita's Ohio gathering. She was the one that designed the card and gave us directions, but the coloring is all mine. I thought this was the perfect card to kick off Memorial Day weekend.

I'm actually going to give this card to my aunt, who just retired from her job. I figure it's the perfect card for that too.

The card uses The Angel Company's Anchor to the Soul stamp set. The pattern on the left side uses the Diamonds Impressabilities plate as a stencil, and the coloring is done with Copic markers. Since I did it at the gathering last week, I wasn't thinking about writing down the numbers. Wish I had, but oh well.

Hit The Beach ATC

Last weekend, I spent some time in Ohio at a stamp gathering. I had a wonderful time, and I can honestly say it was one of the best I've been to. All of the projects were amazing without being too complicated and yet utilizing various techniques. I have many plans to use those techniques in future designs.

One of the things we were requested to bring were ATCs to trade with the other stampers attending. It was supposed to be an ATC and not a card front. The reason it was supposed to be an ATC was because we had a project called create-a-card. We made a divided holder where we placed plain white A4 cards with various textures in one of the divided sections, all the ATCs we traded in another and then panels of sentiments in a third. The idea is that you keep this little kit around and when you need a card in a crunch, you can put one of the ATCs on the textured white card and add the appropriate saying in a flash. It's a great idea that I will probably get a lot of use out of, since I spend much of my time making the card I need at the last minute because the cards that have been completed are either at work to sell to co-workers who find themselves in the same sort of situation, or at the shop that sells my cards. It's amazing that I spend so much time making last minute cards when I make so many all year long.

Here is the ATC I created to trade. It's made with The Angel Company's Hit the Beach stamp set. The side squares are textured with the Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug embossing folder and Sea Scape Impressabilities plate. The image is colored with Copic Markers Y08, Y11, Y21,YR04, BG49, B21 and C1.

Watercolor Ship Collage

This card is also one that we created in the watercolor class a while back ago. For this one, we colored the background paper with shades of blue watercolor crayons and blended with the water brush. Then we stamped the image using The Angel Company's soon-to-be retired Ship Collage stamp (one of my favorites for masculine cards) and colored the image with watercolor pencils blended with the water brush. The sentiment comes from the Trendy Greetings stamp set.

Of all the cards we did in the class, this is the one that took the longest because of all the detail in the stamped image, but it is so much more spectacular when you color it.

Watercolor Thinking of You

This is another card from the watercolor class. On this card, we colored the rubber stamp itself with watercolor crayons, spritzed and then stamped along the bottom of the card, with green leaves painted on by hand. The girl in the hat on the image panel is from The Angel Company's Hats Off stamp set that will be retiring in June. She was colored with watercolor pencils blended with a water brush.

Watercolor Fun

This card is one that I did a watercolor class on a few years back. The background is done with acrylic blocks and watercolor crayons. We took the watercolor crayons and scribbled some complimentary colors on an acrylic block, then spritzed the block and wiped it across our paper to make the background.

The image panel uses The Angel Company's retired Blissfully Ever After Stamp set colored with watercolor crayons applied with a water brush.

May Create A Bunch At Lunch Club - Graduation Card

This month, my CBL group made a Father's Day card that I posted last year. They loved using the "blasting box" so much in the January class, that they were asking to do it again, so we made the Ship Collage Father's Day card where we made a spray from Perfect Pearls and used the Tim Holtz compass mask. You can find it by choosing the Father's Day label on the right side-bar if you missed it before.

The other card for today was a graduation card made with The Angel Company's retired Keep Smilin' stamp set and the current Hostess Level C Thinking of You set that will be retiring in June. The solid green and yellow paper is Die Cuts With a View and the patterned paper came from JoAnn's open paper stock.



Since not everyone might need a graduation card, I made a variation that could be used for a birthday using the same stamp sets and supplies. Some of the girls in the club even used the same stamp set and supplies to make a baby card instead.