Altenew Educator Certification Program - Seasonal Scene Building

 Good morning! It's back to school teacher for me today after the holidays, we had a great family weekend!

My post today is showcasing the next class in me Altenew Educator's Program, Seasonal Scene Building taught by Nichol Magouirk. It is a great class with lots of content.

My first card uses the Modern Fox stamp set:

Nichol makes Spring cards, here in Michigan spring can be still very cold so my scene is a frosty one. I started with using Forest Glades ink to create my ground. I then used distress ink and a cloud stencil to lightly create sky.

I then stamped my tree in Evergreen and Dark Chocolate inks. I used the naked tree to add 2 further ones in the distance.

My fox was stamped with Paper Bag and Jet Black ink, I think he's spotted his dinner off the card! I then stamped the sentiment in Dark Chocolate to coordinate with the images.

I used foam tape to add my image to a grey card base. Finally I added some white gel pen to the tree to make it look frosty.

My next card uses a stamp set which builds a scene with all its components - Be a Lighthouse:

I started my card by die cutting an oval from a piece of dark grey card. I then placed this over a piece of white card the same size and with a pencil drew inside the oval onto the white card. This gave me a template, I used the penciled oval to center my images.

I used distress ink to give me sky and water before I stamped the scene.

I started with the waves stamp, I initially used Ocean Wave ink, but thought this was too bright so toned it down with Dusk ink. My lighthouse and land were stamped in Jet Black, Grapevine and Evergreen Ink. The stamps layer really well. I then masked off my light house and added the clouds in Nimbus and Cloudy Sky ink. I added these in a random areas stamping outside of the penciled oval too. Finally I added some birds in black ink.

I then glued the card with oval die cut onto my image making sure the center my scene. Foam Tape was added to this an adhered to a grey card base. I stamped one of the sentiments in Versafine ink and heat embossed this with clear powder. This was trimmed to size and added level with the horizon.

My style is usually clean and simple, I rarely do full scenes so this class took me out of my comfort zone and hopefully will encourage me to do more with my stamps 

Thanks for stopping by and if you love what you see please let me know in the comments

Making Holiday Memories

 Good morning, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and didn't over eat!

My post today is sharing one of the adorable bears from the Making Memories Digital collection. There are 3 sweet bears and some great sentiments:

Rather than add him onto a card I made him into a card. I resized him and printed him onto stamping card. He was colored with alcohol markers and glaze pen added to his eyes and nose. I then used my scan n cut to cut him out, I kept the cutting lines on my machine, added an offset and cut 2 more images in grey card. One of these was scored at the base of his antler headband and both grey sections were glued together by the antlers making a card base. I then added my bear - he can now stand up!

Here's a view of the card back so you can see how it works!

If you are shopping for crafting supplies during black Friday / Cyber Monday check out the sales in the Joy Clair store:

                                            

Thank you for stopping by. I will be back during the month with more inspiration from Joy Clair. Also my teamies will be sharing with you over on the Joy Clair Facebook Group.

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Santa's Little Helper

 Good Afternoon! We had a fab Thanksgiving day yesterday, a lot quieter than normal but I'm good with that!

It's the Kawaii new release day over at Stamper's Delights and I say this every time but the images are sooo cute! Meet Xmas Elf Gift:

What I Did:

I resized him and printed onto stamping card. In my graphics program I cropped the image so I only had the gift, I resized this 3 times and printed onto stamping card. my little guy was then cut out using my scan N Cut and I cut the extra gifts out by hand. All were colored with alcohol markers and I added glaze to the pompoms on his collar and the scissors.

There is a sentiment included with the elf, I added this multiple times to my graphics program, recolored them and printed onto white cardstock.

A white A7 card base was matted with red card and my sentiment layer was added. Finally I added the little elf with foam squares. The gifts were stacked at the side of him again using foam squares.

What I Used:

Digital Images: Stamper's Delights - Kawaii Xmas Elf Gift

Stamping Card: X-Press It

Alcohol Markers: Copic

Glaze: Gelly Roll Glaze Pens

White Cardstock: Neenah Solar White Cover 110lb

Red Card: Tonic Studios

Head on over to the Stamper's Delights Store to see all of this week’s New Releases.

Why not stop by the Stamper's Delight Facebook page for regular news and inspiration from my Teamies you can also enter the progressive challenge there, no blog needed and receive freebies! 

 All the design team projects are available on the Inspiration blog - hop on over there for more inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by and if you like what you see please leave a comment to let me know! 

Happy Xmas Tags

Good Morning! The sun has been shining here over the last couple of day and which always brightens my day!

As it's Tuesday that can only mean one thing, a new Polkadoodles challenge over at Digi Choosday and this week the design team were challenged to make a Christmas card with at least 3 tags. Well my card has more than 3:

What I Did:

I imported the tag into my graphics program and resized it. I then copied it so I had enough for my sentiment. I then added the letters to spell Happy Xmas, using a color from the original tag.

These were then all fussy cut and a tiny hole punched in the top of each one. I threaded them onto twine and spaced them equally.

My A7 card base was matted with red cardstock and I cut a sheet of digital design paper from Polkadoodles as my 2nd mat. I arranged the twine holding the tags across this and fixed them in place with tape.

I then adhered this to my card base. My tags were placed evenly and fixed in place with foam tape. Finally I added tiny red pearls to the tags.

What I Used: 

Digital Tags: Polkadoodles - Winnie White Christmas Tags and Frames

Digital Paper: Polkadoodles - Winnie Wite Christmas Paper collection 3

White Card for Base: Neenah Solar white Cover 110lb

Red Cardstock: Tonic Studios

Baker's Twine - From my Stash

Glue: ZipDry

Foam Tape: Dollar Store

Pearls: From my stash

The Digi Choosday Challenge runs for 2 weeks, it is always anything goes so there is no reason not to enter and you never know you may just win!

 Looking for more inspiration? Then check out my teamies designs over on the Facebook page, you can also post your own Polkadoodles' designs on the Craft Stamp and Colour with Polkadoodles Facebook group

Thanks for stopping by, now go join the challenge!

 

Altenew Educators Certification Program - Celebration Stencil Techniques

 Good afternoon, It's chilly but fair here today, since the virus struck weekends have mainly been family time at home and today is no different. 

I have completed another class on my AECP and today I'm sharing some of the work I have done for it. The class this time was about stenciling with Laurel Beard - if you have watched any of Laurel's you tube videos you will know she does amazing work with stencils.

My first card used a die as a stencil. I used pail colors to I could keep with the CAS looking cards I love to make:

I die cut the Shutter Cover Die with cover weight cardstock, I taped this in place over my white cardstock and stenciled through it with Soft Lilac Dye ink. I matted an A2 card base

 with black card and added my stenciled panel. I then stamped 2 lavender buds with Lavender Fields and Forest Glade ink. I die cut these with the coordinating die placed them on my card leaving room to add the sentiment with accompanies the flower which was stamped in Jet Black Ink.

My second card was a new technique for me using texture paste. This is a medium that I hadn't used before. I bought the mat opaque white kind so I can color it to coordinated with my needs!

I started by smooshing some Ocean Wave ink onto my glass mat, I then added a small amount of the paste and mixed them together which gave me a gorgeous muted turquoise color.

I fixed the Halftone Stencil to my white cardstock. Using a pallet knife I spread the paste across the stencil in a thin layer - I was just like icing a cake! I carefully removed the stencil and left to dry.

Meanwhile I stamped the Faithful Feather stamp using Jet Black, Misty Morning, cloudy sky and Nimbus inks (which are available as the Tranquility Ink set) for all the feather layers. I die cut this with the coordinating die. 

I then chose a sentiment from Label Love stamp set and stamped this with jet black ink onto white card then cut around the edges.

Once dry I trimmed my stenciled cardstock down and added it to a grey A2 card base. I arranged my image and sentiment and adhered these with foam dots.

I am really enjoying the techniques I am learning doing this course and also loving sharing them wth others!

Merry and Bright

 Good evening, a quick post from me tonight.

I've been playing with the cheeky little house mice again today. I pulled out one of my Joanna Sheen CDS that has these delightful creatures as digital images so I printed a sheet off and colored them:

Just look how cute they are all curled up among the fairy lights!

I colored them with Copic markers, matted them onto green cardstock and put to one side while I did my card base. For this I used a Tonic Merry & Bright die to cut the sentiment into one of my mats. I then cut the bottom part of the die 4 more times with green, yellow, blue and silver cardstock so I could fill in the lights and ornaments.

I then added a second mat of digital design paper covered in ornaments. Finally I added my little mice!

Thanks for stopping by, I ma entering this card into the House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge which this time is anything goes with using a die or punch as an optional theme

I'm Santa's Favorite

 Good Morning! We had our first proper snow fall on Monday night which means Christmas isn't far away and I am far from ready how about you? So I'm sharing some holiday inspiration using the Santa's Favorite digital set. I love the cute penguins in this kit especially the one wearing eye glasses:

Isn't he the cutest! I colored both him and the tree with Copic markers, leaving white areas on the tree to indicate snow. Once colored, I fussy cut them both and moved onto making my scene for them. I laid a snowy stencil on white stamping card and inked through with pale blue ink for snow fall. I then chose a sentiment from the same collection and printed this onto my stenciled card.

I matted this onto an A2 grey card base, giving dimension with a foam layer in between. I added my tree with wet glue and my little shortsighted penguin with foam squares. Finally I added crystal glaze to his glasses for the lenses.

Thank you for stopping by. I will be back during the month with more inspiration from Joy Clair. Also my teamies will be sharing with you over on the Joy Clair Facebook Group.

You can check out the new release and all of Joy Clair's products over in their store.

Grateful, Blessed and Thankful for You

 Good Morning! Now Halloween has passed its time to concentrate of designs for Thanksgiving. Today's inspiration card is using 3 different stamp collections from Joy Clair: Blessed and Grateful, Seasonal Leaves Background and Thankful For You.

I love everything a bout fall including the colors so that's what I used. I started with the image from Blessed and Grateful I wanted this to look more like seed pods than leaves colored them to look rounded. As I wanted this image to stand out from my background I colored the background leaves in grey. Finally I added my sentiment from the Thankful For You collection in a coordinating color.

Thank you for stopping by. I will be back during the month with more inspiration from Joy Clair. Also my teamies will be sharing with you over on the Joy Clair Facebook Group.

You can check out the new release and all of Joy Clair's products over in their store.

Cute Kisses

 Good afternoon and Happy Veteran's Day. I have my own veteran - Kev served in the Royal Navy way before we met.

I have decided that I am going to take part in The 30 Day Coloring challenge except this time it's only 11 days! This involves doing some coloring every day for 11 days and as i love coloring what a better way to spend some time each day!

My day 1 coloring is using a stamp that I've had a while but not used: House Mouse Birdie Kiss:

How cute are these two!

What I Did:

 I colored the image with Copic markers, we have a little flock of sparrows that come for the sunflower seeds in the bird feeder so I decided the bird needed to be a sparrow. Once I'd colored the image I inked the edges with distress ink - which I suppose is another form of coloring.

The card base was matted with coordinating blue card and digital design paper which is also from a house mouse collection.

The frame is from a Gina Marie Die, I cut the image with the same die to get the scalloped edges and then did a second cut with blue card. I adhered the image flat on my card and used foam tape for the frame giving it dimension.

Finally I added some decoupaged flowers, these fit well with the flowers on the backing paper as well as the little ones I colored.

What I Used:

Stamp: Stampendous - House Mouse Birdie Kiss

Stamping Card: X-Press It

Alcohol Markers: Copic

Digital Design Paper: Joanna Sheen House Mouse

White Card for Base: Neenah Solar White 110lb

Blue card: Tonic Studio

Frame Die: Gina Marie - Scalloped rectangle Frame

Flower die and images: Carnation Crafts - Night Scented Stock

Glue: ZipDry

Foam Pads: From my stash

I don't spend enough time crafting just because but I'm hoping this challenge will encourage me to.

 I am also entering this card into The House Mouse & Friends Monday challenge - The theme is anything goes with the option of a punch or die - I used 2 dies so I think I'm good!

 

Candy Bags!

Good morning, today is the last day of warm weather for the foreseeable future so going to try and enjoy it as much as possible.

As it's Tuesday which means Digi Choosday I'm sharing some Polkadoodles Christmas goodies with you today:

What I Did:

Using my graphics I added Winnie Rudolph and Holly to the backing paper and printed it onto stamping card. I colored the image with alcohol markers, trimmed the card down and folded it landscape so it would make a topper for my bag of candy.

I added the candy to a clear baggy, folded and sealed the top and adhered my card topper over the top edge of the bag.

Finally I added lots of sparkly chameleon glitter to all the fluffy parts of the image.

What I Used:

Digital Stamp: Polkadoodles - Winnie White Christmas Winnie, Rudolph and Holly the Unicorn

Digital Design Paper: Polkadoodles - Winnie White Christmas Papers 2

Clear Bag: From my stash

Candy (yum!): Dove

Double Sided tape: Scor Tape 

The Digi Choosday Challenge runs for 2 weeks, it is always anything goes so there is no reason not to enter and you never know you may just win!

Looking for more inspiration? Then check out my teamies designs over on the Facebook page, you can also post your own Polkadoodles' designs on the Craft Stamp and Colour with Polkadoodles Facebook group

Thanks for stopping by, now go join the challenge!

Nose it's Snowing

 Good afternoon! Michigan is known for it's snowy winters and yes we've already had the first snow of the season last weekend. Thankfully it didn't hang around and it's 70 degrees here today!

Since snow is on my mind, let me share some cute images from Stamper's Delights. They are doing mystery boxes and this month is winter if you've been following on the Facebook group you will have already had sneak peeks of some of the cut 12 images.

let me introduce Winter Snowman:

What I Did:

I started by choosing a wintery digital design paper, I imported my images onto this and resized them for my card. I then typed up the sentiment (this is not part of the pack) which I felt was so fitting since the little guy is holding the snowman's carrot nose!

I printed and then colored the images with alcohol markers. My A7 card base was matted with red card and my image was added to this. Finally I added lots of snow with a paint marker.

What I Used:

Digital Stamps: Stamper Delights - Winter Mystery Box

Digital Design Paper: Unknown

Alcohol Markers: Copic

Red Cardstock: Tonic

White Card for base: Neenah solar white coverstock

Paint Pen; Molotow

Glue: ZipDry

The winter mystery box is available all month for £12 - a saving of £8!!!! there are lots of super winter images great for Christmas or winter birthdays!

Head on over to the Stamper's Delights Store to see all of this month’s New Releases so far!

Why not stop by the Stamper's Delight Facebook page for regular news and inspiration from my Teamies you can also enter the progressive challenge there, no blog needed and receive freebies! 

 

All the design team projects are available on the Inspiration blog - hop on over there for more inspiration.
Thanks for stopping by and if you like what you see please leave a comment to let me know! 

Smile!

 Good afternoon, the weather is gorgeous and is planned to be so for the weekend so hopefully we will be able to get out and enjoy it.

It's Chibi new release day over at Stamper's Delights and we have some more cuties to share with you, meet Adrianna:

What I Did:

I resized the image and sentiment to fit on my A2 card base. I changed the color of the sentiment and printed both out on Stamping card. I colored the image with my alcohol markers, yes her legs look green that is because as it's fall she is wearing pantyhose!

I then matted my card base with some color coordinating design paper and added a strip of paper with cameras printed on it.

I adhered my sentiment on to the side of my image and glued her in place on my card. Finally I added some pearls that coordinate with her hair!

What I Used:

Digital image and Sentiment: Stamper's Delights - Chibi Adrianna Photo

Stamping Card: X-Press It

Alcohol Markers: Copics

Design Paper: Amy Tangerine- Plus One

Glue: ZipDry

Pearls: From my stash

Head on over to the Stamper's Delights Store to see all of this week’s New Releases.

Why not stop by the Stamper's Delight Facebook page for regular news and inspiration from my Teamies you can also enter the progressive challenge there, no blog needed and receive freebies! 

 All the design team projects are available on the Inspiration blog - hop on over there for more inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by and if you like what you see please leave a comment to let me know! 

Joy Clair and Imagine Crafts Better Together Blog Hop

Good Morning! and welcome to my stop for the Joy Clair and Imagine Crafts Better Together blog hop. You should have arrived here from LeeAnn McKinney's You Tube channel. 

Both companies are offering great prizes Joy Clair are offering a $25 gift card to spend on stamps and if you win the Imagine Crafts prize you get a goody bag of inks! You do have to comment on every hop to be in win a chance of winning a prize!

My inspiration is using the super cute Candy Hearts stamp set from Joy Clair:

I used 3 different inks from Imagine Crafts - First I inked the edges of a 4x5.25in piece of cardstock 

using Versacolor ink in Heliotrope. I then stamped the open hearts and their sentiments with Versacolor Violet . The solid hearts with added using StayzOn Cherry Blossom. Finally I added more words and mini hearts with the Heliotrope color again. I matted this onto a piece of purple cardstock and a A2 white card base.

Ok back to the hop, If you want the chance to win a prize your next leap will be to Annie Collins You Tube Channel.

If you got lost along the way here is a list of all the hops you need to make:

Martha Lucia Gomez

Nicole Watt

Pricilla Joseph

Lisa Mensing

Danielle Brown

Lori Warren

Joy Wilson

LeeAnn McKinney

Sharon Smith - You are here!

Annie Collins

Renee Villalobos

Jowilna Nolte

Jennifer Holder Schoolcraft

Joy Clair Designs Blog

Thank you for stopping by now go hop!!!

October Walk

 Good afternoon! the sun is back out and it's warmed up slightly from the freezing temps of the weekend. 

During October I decided to do a walk for breast cancer, 35 miles in 31 days. which I managed to complete on schedule. A friend of mine wanted to do a 2nd walk at the same time so we combined miles and walked together for part of mine.

Today's post is showing a card I made her as a thank you for the encouragement. I did originally intend to put this image Ink Me In Pink from TLC Designs on a t-shirt to wear while walking but I couldn't get the sizing right as she is such a skinny gal!:

I resized and printed the image then colored her with Copic markers. I added the pink ribbon to her dress and boots to represent Breast Cancer. The gorgeous paper also called Ink me In Pink is also from TLC Designs and is sold to raise money for breast cancer. I matted a white A2 card base with pink card and this paper. I added my image and like me adhered it at a wonky angle. I die cut 3 thank you sentiments, glued these together and placed them in her hands. Finally as it needed to be pink I added a few pink gems.

Breast cancer is very dear to me, I had a life long friend who was taken from her 2 small children with this disease so I will always support any company that gives to this charity.

Thanks for stopping by and if you love what you see please let me know in the comments.