Hello Friend and Enjoy Your Day Cards

Hello!

I have a couple of cards to share with you today. Two completely different cards. :)

The first one is my take on this one. I was really struck by the colors she used with the Hero Arts stencil. And just for fun, I added a liberal spritzing of Perfect Pearls mixed with water in my mini spritzer. I also used a die I received as some very happy mail a couple of months ago from my good friend, Alanna. She is so sweet! Thank you once again, Alanna! She makes some terrific CAS cards, too! I finally figured out a way to use the die...I think! LOL I actually made this card a week or two ago, but wasn't sure I really liked it. It's growing on me and hey, it just might inspire someone else, so I'm gonna go ahead and share. I really like how the blending and all that came out. I'm just thinking the card design needs work. (See why I am such a copycat-this stuff frustrates me).

 I had originally made the stenciled piece a full card front size. But I used the friend die on the bottom portion. I didn't like how it looked and thought to futz with the die cut, but messed it up. So, I was left with the size you see and couldn't figure out what to do to showcase it well. I then used the organdy ribbon and tied a bow. That looked silly, so off that went. I cut the friend in black and liked how that popped, but it needed more, so I tried the hello from Close To My Heart's Have a Happy Day Set. Eh, it works, I think. I added the black gems at the top to help balance it. All in all, I do like it. Sort of. 

And for the other card...I was inspired by different cards I saw on a google search of this Lawn Fawn Let's Play stamp set. One card I saw, the blogger watercolored using Inktense pencils. Oooooh, I have some of those! So I sat down to play. I don't have the dies for this set, so everything is fussy cut. (I didn't cut in between the lines attaching the swing to the frame and seat. I watercolored that part and glued the dog on top.)  I also inked the images in black pigment ink and clear heat embossed, so my colors would stay in the lines. This one produces a smile for sure! It's pretty vibrant. 

The clouds are from another Lawn Fawn set, Hello Sunshine. (Can you tell I realllllly like Lawn Fawn stamps these days? I'm acquiring quite the collection). I stamped in versamark ink  on vellum and clear heat embossed. They looked a little lost in the sky, so I tried watercoloring on them with white watercolor from a set I have (no white Inktense pencil in my set of 12). You can't see it very well in the photo, but the white looks kind of neat in person. 

That's it from me today. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day!

Hugs,

Hello You

Hi Friends!

I wanted to first say thank you all so much for your sweet comments on the cards I've posted recently. They do mean so much to me. Thank you as well for being so encouraging of my daughter's work, too. You are so very kind! :)

I've got another CASED card for you. I know. I've said it before and I will say it again(and again and again), I'm a total copycat. I'm not like my other crafty friends who can come up with fabulous card designs out of the top of my head. When I see a card that appeals to me, I want to try to mimic it and maybe add a tweak or two to make it my own(or because I don't own all the same supplies). That's what I did on the card I'm sharing today. I had seen and admired this card before, but it wasn't until this post that I understood how the gal created/masked it. She made a video tutorial. Love that!

I didn't have the sentiment stamp she used, but I did have a Lawn Fawn Scripty Sayings that I thought would be fun to try it out with. And awhile ago, my dear friend Kay, was kind enough to send me some requested Mama Elephant stamped images. Some of them were of the very same sweet little girl! Squeal! :) I didn't have the pigment inks that Laura used, but I did have one of the newer distress ink colors (thank you Hobby Lobby for getting in some new colors). A search through my stamps brought me to a Close To My Heart set called Have a Happy Day. 

And here is my version of the card:

Makes me smile to be perfectly honest. 

Wasn't sure I was going to get to the smile at first. I thought for sure I messed up the inking with Cracked Pistachio and Squeezed Lemonade Distress inks. I kept pressing down too hard with the blending tool and getting hard lines. But the ink seemed to blend into itself over some time. Whew. I colored that sweet girl with pencils and odorless mineral spirits and cut the white border away. I just really like this look! 

Thanks so very much for stopping by.

I hope you have a happy day!

Hugs, 

Birthday Fishes

Hi Friends!

Yesterday was my daughter Amy's birthday. I'm feeling old, I must admit. She's getting ready to enter high school this year. And she is already getting involved. She's had marching band practice once a week. Only this week, she has it three days. Yesterday was one of the three. Yep, welcome to real life sweetheart. Sometimes you gotta work on your birthday. She really didn't mind, as she has been thoroughly enjoying the experience so far. 

(But we aren't into the heat of summer yet, that could change). 

Anyway, the fact that she was gone a good chunk of the day allowed me to get to work on her birthday card. Then my sweet sidekick asked to help! Double the fun. :) Amy just bought herself some new fish for her fish tank, which sparked the theme for the card.  I caved and got the new Lawn Fawn Fintastic Friends stamp set(gotta love Scrapbook Pal). That also helped set the theme. Here's what we came up with:

Pretty fun, eh? 

We also used a few images from Party Animal, too. Did you notice the little cake tucked in the tank? Jessica's idea! We were going to tuck it into the hermit crab's claws, but it was just a bit too big and Jessica didn't want to trim the size of the stamped image. So she tucked it by some of the grass/plant. (The little cake and the birthday are from Party Animal; the rest are Fintastic Friends). 

Initially, I was going to watercolor the images. but Jessica wanted to color and there is a learning curve to watercoloring. When you need to get a card made is not the time to start the learning process. She opted to use pencils and odorless mineral spirits. All the coloring is hers.

Did you notice the heart shape? I saw the idea here on the Lawn Fawn blog.  I decided to add a little heart to the image with the bubbles. I used a Spellbinders heart and cut it out of cardstock the same size as my cardfront. I held it down and stamped inside the opening. Then I decided to fill in the hearts and used a Sakura Gelly Roll glittery gel pen with the Stardust color. 

Amy was very happy with her card.

Success!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I hope you have a happy day. 

Jeanne

Make a Wish Card

Hi Friends!

I am such a copy cat! I watched a video by Nicole on the Lawn Fawn blog and really liked how she created a watercolor background. I tried my hand at it right away and was happy with how it turned out. Yay! I also splurged just a bit and ordered the party animal stamp set as well as the puffy cloud dies from Scrapbook Pal. To my total surprise, the order came within 2 days! Gotta love that. :)

I sat down to color the images from the set today and cased the card Nicole made. I did tweak it a bit by adding a party hat to the deer and changed out the present for a little cake. I also colored with pencils and did some blending with odorless mineral spirits. Those little party birds are adorable!

I didn't order the dies to go with this set, so the images were fussy cut. I decided not to leave a white border and I like the look for this card. I had to be careful in a few spots, but if I had some white showing, I used a black Micron pen to fill it in. Worked like a charm! This shot is to show the dimension I got by adding some foam squares. I also wanted the balloon to be a bit behind the deer, so I didn't pop that image up.

You couldn't tell in the other photos, but I added a liberal spritzing of Perfect Pearls and water in a mini spritzer. Love the shimmer it leaves. I sat the card in front of a sunny window and was able to capture a bit of the shimmer. Feel free to enlarge if you'd like. 

I had hoped when I did the watercolor background that I could pull up my tape and have a nice white border. Um, that didn't work out quite as planned as some color seeped under the tape. I trimmed it off, then adhered that piece to a cut using a stitched rectangle die. 

That's it from me today. Thanks so very much for stopping by. 

I hope you are having a happy day!

Doodle Flower Fun

Hi there!

I've got a card today that is completely inspired by a card I saw on Kelly Latevola's blog called You and Your Big Dreams. I have become a big fan of hers over the past few months. Her work is absolutely gorgeous and she is hilarious as well. She has a pretty cute little boy, too. She has no idea I'm singing her praises. If you haven't discovered her for yourself, you might want to take a looksee. :)

She has mad skills with Copics and she can doodle and enhance stamp images fabulously. Another thing she does that has impressed the heck out of me is mask. In the card I linked (and cased), she mentioned she used four masks to get the flowers and leaves to work. I wasn't exactly sure just what she did, but I sat down yesterday to try to figure it out. I think I sorta got it. I cut three masks of the flower and two of the leaf. By that, I mean I stamped the flower image three times on my all over sticky Post it note paper and two images of the leaf and I cut them out. Then I started stamping and masking. I absolutely did use her card as my guide. 

Then I started coloring. Only I colored with my pencils! I had fun trying to mimic the bold colors Kelly uses. I think I did okay. I didn't blend the colors with odorless mineral spirits on the flowers and leaves, I just used different pencil colors. 

Enough jabber for now...take a look at what I ended up with!

I love it!

:)

Squeal....

I really wanted to add some white dots, but, these pencils have a wax base and experience tells me the white gel pen doesn't play well with that, so I reluctantly left off the white. In the future, I might play with using some paint, but I didn't want to ruin this work. If anyone has suggestions on how I could add white dots, please share!

The side stripe strip is something I learned from a Jennifer McGuire video. She has a stripe stamp, stamps the image and she cuts a strip off to add to the side of the card. I usually forget about doing that, but not today! I wanted to add a sentiment, but wasn't sure which one, or where to put it. Not to mention I don't have fun single word dies. I could have found one to cut with my die cut machine, but again, not sure which one I'd want to use. 

Looking at this card makes me happy!

The stamp set I used is from a company called Dare 2B Artzy and the set is Doodle Flowers. My local scrapbook store carries some of this line and I really like the Zentangle aspect of the stamps. 

Thank you for stopping by and if Kelly stops by to see this, thank you so much for sharing what you love. It is very inspiring!

I hope you have a fantastic day.

Tank You, Dad and a Watercolored Flower

Hi Friends!

Long post alert. 

Did you see Kristina Werner's Tank you, Dad shaker card here? I thought she did a great job with it and I was inspired to make a version. I don't own the letters or the Lawn Fawn stamp set she used, but I didn't let that stop me! I found a similar style of lettering on the Artiste cartridge for my Cricut (cut at 3/4 inch) and I own the Paper Smooches version of fish stamps called Surf and Turf. 

And here is my version of the card. Mine is 4 1/4 by 5 1/2.  I think that is called standard size?

Close up so you can see some of the sequins I used. I also used Wink of Stella on the white space of the letters, but the camera didn't pick it up. I almost wanted to add something to the white frame, but was too afraid I would mess it up and didn't want to have to start that over again.

It was a fun card to make. I took my time and let it dry before adding to the background('m learning patience with watercolor techniques). I used the freezer paper method of masking that Kristina showed and it worked very well, I think. I will have to remember that!

The images are colored with Prismacolor Pencils. I didn't used odorless mineral spirits to blend this time.  Even though I used two layers of foam tape, the loose fish pieces still stick. Might be smart to add a third layer. Oh well. I think Steve will like this card that will be from the girls next weekend.

And here is my second card. I keep seeing these card where the image is heat embossed and then watercolored inside the lines. My friend, Barb's work really inspires me. So I sat down to play a bit yesterday. I heat embossed the stamps from an old June, 2013 Stamp of the Month Close To My Heart flower set called A Flowering Bunch with Versamark Dazzle Champagne ink and clear embossing powder. I might try this again with white embossing powder. Then I used Pear ink for the leaves and Vineyard Berry for the flower. I squeezed the ink onto the inside of the lid and picked up the color with a wet brush. I like the variations in color I was able to get. I originally was going to try to use different colors of pink, but in the end liked the variations of the single color best. 

I tried to get a close up to show the Wink of Stella I added to the images, but my darn camera didn't pick up the sparkle. 

The background stencil is one I picked up at Joann. I used Blush ink . The thank you is from Lawn Fawn and the die is Spellbinders. 

The sparkling sequins are a super happy mail surprise from my friend Alanna. 

Thank you SO much, sweet friend! Made my day!

:)

That's it from me today. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are having a happy day.

Hugs,

Jeanne

Wryn the Mermaid

Hi Friends!

Way back in April, I saw this card on Handmade by Christine and was smitten with the way Christine colored the mermaid. I adored the purple hair! And I wanted to see if I could color the hair with pencils to look somewhat similar. So I picked up the digi image here at Tiddly Inks and started coloring. My crafting time has been so limited recently that I had to put the image aside. Well, yesterday I finished with the hair and added some sparkle. Today I fussy cut her and played around with some distress inks (Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and a bit of Seedless Preserves). I added some misting of water mixed with Perfect Pearls and at the last minute decided it needed a few sequins. Oh and I embossed the Cuttlebug swirls onto the background piece. Thought they would mimic water, sorta, kinda. 

Here's how the card turned out. 

Feel free to enlarge if you want. I brushed on some Diamond Dust Stickles here, there and everywhere. 

And a close up, just because.

I have to admit I'm pretty happy with the final result. 

:)

Yay for summer break!

I can sneak away a bit more.

Eeek! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Have a happy day.

Hugs,

Jeanne

Sidekicks and Shakers

 Hello Friends!

I'm back to share a couple of cards. Yippee!

Both of them are shakers. So fun!

The first one is a case of one I saw here on the Lawn Fawn blog. I had a sidekick who wanted to help. She hadn't done a shaker before so it was fun showing that technique. She tried and tried to get the sentiment stamped just so, but in the end I stamped it. We had to do two lines as the sentiment was too long to fit across the stitched rectangle. I came thisclose to snipping the stamp apart, but my sidekick didn't want me to do that. She did all the coloring of the image (with my pencils and blending with odorless mineral spirits). Then she added some Stickles for some extra sparkle. I had her use a paintbrush to paint on the Stickles, so it wouldn't look too globby. 

I love the look of using sequins, but I haven't jumped on  ordering them from Pretty Pink Posh yet.  I don't know which colors would be best to get. These we picked up at the craft store. Oh and I showed Jess some beads I had and she decided we needed to use some. :) 

Training her up right, aren't I? LOL

We did this card in shifts and just put the finishing touches on it today. I think she did a great job!

She decided she was done for today, so I pulled out this Paper Smooches set I picked up in early May when my local scrapbook store had a sale. Had to take advantage, right? Anyway, I was inspired by this card by Mellymoo and wondered what it would look like as a shaker. 

Not too shabby, huh? I added some iridescent sequins and some tiny microbeads I've had in my stash for practically forever. Those microbeads were a last minute thought and had I planned it better, they wouldn't cover up the crab so much. I figured maybe it is okay, because crabs don't want to get caught and he could be hiding a bit. Shrugs. Works for me anyway.

These are colored with pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. 

And with that, I've sort of participated in the second Coloring Challenge that is going on this month. Thanks, for inspiring me to do it, Barb. Barb is an enthusiastic participant and shares what she colors on her blog. It encouraged me to get something colored, anyway. Yay! You don't have to complete a card, but I managed to this time. 

That's it from me today. 

Thanks ever so much for stopping by. 

I hope you are having a great day.

Hugs,

Jeanne

Cross Stitch Gift and a Little Zen Doodling

Hi There!

Guess what? The sun is shining. For the moment, anyway! Oh my goodness, we have had a ton of rain here in my neck of the woods. The past three days alone, we've had pretty loud thunderstorms, hail and even some tornadoes touch down about 15 minutes north of where I live. It's a wild and wacky springtime in the Rockies. I haven't been able to plant anything and may not at the rate we are going. 

Hey, guess what else? 

I've got a few things to share! 

Yay!

A very good friend of mine is going to be celebrating a birthday very soon. After I finished the dragon, I started on a counted cross stitch project. Got it done fairly quickly and have been searching the past several days for a frame. Um, and haven't been successful at all. I decided this morning to look for creative ideas to finish cross stitch projects. I came across this idea and thought it would be a neat way to showcase the project. 

Here's how it turned out. 

I tried to take a picture with a little of the side showing so you can see the ribbon and if you look at the very bottom of the block on the right side you can see part of the pin I used for legs. I really liked this fun way to finish the project.

I pinned a few other ideas for creatively finishing cross stitch project for future use. Framing can be hard, especially for odd sized pieces. 

In shopping for frames at the craft stores, I came across a brand new publication called Zen Doodle Workshop. I found it at Joann and also at Barnes and Noble. It's a pretty neat magazine. I liked all the ways you can use your doodling. One of the projects I saw is creating a box with Kraft cardstock. I have a need for a small, 3x3 box, so I decided to give it a go. I really liked the idea of white on Kraft.   

Here's what I came up with. Not great, but not too terrible for a first effort, I don't think. 

I was having some issues with my Signo Gel pen skipping and such. I added a little detail with a black pen. But if I were to do this again, I'd go with a pencil for detail like they said to use in the tutorial. 

Here's a glimpse at the side. 

I really liked the idea of decorating the paper and folding it into a box. Makes it a bit more personal for gift giving. 

That's it from me for now. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have a great day.

Jeanne