Cow-raccoon...? // Mama Elephant

I'm over on the MarkerPOP blog today, with a card featuring the adorabubble Mama Elephant Rowdy Raccoons stamp set.

Check out the blog for more details!

Unicorns and Rainbows // Mama Elephant

Hello everyone! I'm sharing my first card as a design team member for MarkerPOP over on the blog today! Here's a sneak peak....

Check out the blog for the entire post, and also a chance to win a $20 Gift Certificate to the MarkerPop Store.
Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

Retro Happy Birthday // Papertrey Ink

It's been awhile since I've had a free moment to play along in a contest or blog hop, so I'm so happy to share this card I made for this month's Papertrey Ink blog hop.

I've wanted to play with the Retro Style stamps for awhile now, so I finally caved a couple months ago and bought them. I have to admit, they're a little overwhelming at first because there's so many layers to the stamp set and SO many different ways to make a card with them, but they're gonna come in handy making masculine cards.

I have to say, the arrow and the sentiment are my favorite parts of this card. I really like the look of detailed sentiments like this, die cut and popped up on foam. The little gems I found on eBay, when I was looking for a cheap clear droplet substitute (I ended up caving on the droplets too, and buying them later haha)

Here's the inspiration photo for the April Papertrey Ink blog hop - I was a little worried at first, as I've never really used this color scheme before, but the challenge proved to be very fun!

Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Canson, stash
Patterned paper: Crate Paper Bloom, Bazzill Wayfarer
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Retro Style Birthday Sentiments
Ink: Versamark, Tim Holtz
Other: gems (eBay)

Tools: Cuttlebug, Papertrey Ink Retro Style dies, Mama Elephant star dies, circle dies

Crazy Pigs // Paper Source

I thought I'd break the monotony of this blog (and my studying for midterms) with some random cards for this weeks Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (anything goes);

My brother got me THIS Paper Source stamp a while back, and I decided to have it do some crazy things...

First, through space! I thought the sentiment would be cheeky and perfect to send to a friend.

This one I struggled with more - I haven't used this much patterned paper in forEVER!

Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Canson
Patterned paper: Crate Paper
Stamps: Paper Source Pig, Simon Says Stamp Sending and Wishing and Mama Elephant True Friend and Up and Away
Ink: Tim Holtz, Versamark, Versafine
Other: string, embossing powder (Hero Arts)

Tools: Fiskars cloud punches, sewing machine, Cuttlebug, Simon Says Stamp Wishing die

Small Stamp Focus // WPlus9

You probably don't remember THIS card.
It's okay - I didn't particularly want to remember it either.
However, to be fair to the pin that inspired it, I gave it another go, which is today's card.

Lots of second and third generation stamping to achieve a light and airy look. I didn't want to try masking again, so I went with a bold die cut sentiment backed with vellum, and kept it simple with just a few gems.

This is for WPlus9's Throwback Thursday #5 - I know I keep using Fresh Cut Florals, but it's my only "old stamp"! The other three stamps sets I have are newbies. ;) This is also for Virginia's View 100% Stamping challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson, Bazzill
Stamps: WPlus9 "Fresh Cut Florals"
Ink: Papertrey Ink
Other: gems (Darice), vellum

Tools: Cuttlebug, Mama Elephant "Inline Letters" die

Stamped Focal Background // WPlus9

Happy hump day!
Just popping in with a quick and bright card for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (create your own background) and for the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge (in the middle)

To make sure the area behind the sentiment was white, I did some simple masking of the flowers. You could skip the masking and just cut a piece of cardstock to go behind it, but I wanted to be more techniquey. ;)

Thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Blimey!

I'm headed to London this weekend!

This card is very subtle, and very fun to make.

I used the negative to make another card...

Two papers before the final stretch! 

Thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Ink: Studio Calico

Tools: Mama Elephant Alphabet dies, Cuttlebug

Fiercely

...missing home! I'm already prepping for Christmas, and trying to start work on the end of the term papers. I'm so ready to make Christmas cookies while dancing to the Nutcracker with my little brother!

I seriously love the Mama Elephant Alphabet dies - perfect font, perfect size! Also, this Lucky Charm paper may be one of my top paper collections of all time.

Thanks for stopping and have a lovely week! If you have a moment to spare, please say a prayer for my last midterm and paper to go well! :)

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Cardstock: Canson
Patterned paper: Dear Lizzy "Lucky Charm"
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Tim Holtz

Tools: Cuttlebug, Mama Elephant Alphabet dies

Hello

I haven't forgotten you, I've just been a wee bit busy lately, with preparing for Austria, work, and quickly fixing up my new photography site.

Pretty much follows what I did for my blog here, but I played a little more with Illustrator, and I dunno, but I just think it's cool that my handwriting in a 'logo'. ;)

Anyways, a card for this weeks Simon Says Stamp Make It Sparkle challenge and Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes challenge.

This card is just a bunch of my favorite things - lots of die cutting, glitter, colors, and heat embossing! Plus, "making up" sentiments by combining different stamps and die cuts is so much fun!

To make up my little absence (and because I need to pass this on before it becomes "old news"), I decided to give away a Maggie Holmes 12x12 Styleboard paper pad to someone who commented within the past two weeks. Some random scrolling, hand-covering-eyes later, and the mouse has chosen Cristine! Yay! Cristine, if you could e-mail me your address, I'll try to get out this paper pad ASAP to ya! Thanks to everyone who's been so kindly leaving comments - I hope to return them soon, and when I get back from Austria, have more random giveaways. ;)

Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Strathamore, Bazzill
Patterned paper: Dear Lizzy "Lucky Charm"
Stamps: Hero Arts "Three Silhouettes" and "Essential Messages"
Ink: Versamark
Other: glitter embossing powder (Hampton), glitter paper (American Crafts)

Tools: heat gun, Cuttlebug, Paper Smooches "Quote Tag" die, Papertrey Ink "Simply Jane" frame die, Mama Elephant "Tiny Bow" die

Back home

...from a short but fun trip to Nashville with some friends, to visit the Nashville Dominicans. :)

I'm really excited about the two cards I'm sharing today, and I was planning on going on and on about the amazing stamp set I used to make them, but honestly, I'm still kinda loopy from twelve hours of driving, so I may have to save it for another day.

These two cards are for the Simon Says Stamp Stencil challenge, the Word Art Wednesday Anything Goes, Paper Crafting Magic Stencil, NBUS Anything Goes, and the Fusion Card challenge.

The set I wanted to gush about is the Altenew Painted Flowers (which appears to be sold out on their website again - good for them!) 

This set is pretty much one of my stampy dreams. 

YUMYUMYUM.

I had a really hard time putting it down, so basically I made four variations of the above card in two days, and here is just one of those variations. 

For both cards, I masked off the sentiments (using them as a my stencils) using die cut washi tape, but for this second card, I also impressed the dies into the cardstock, in hopes that the ink wouldn't bleed so much when I stamped over the mask. I don't think it helped much, but I think it added just a teensy bit of legibility, which is the only straw I have with these cards.

Of course, I couldn't have made either card without the Mama Elephant Inline Letters dies or the Paper Smooches Quote Tag dies, both of which are pretty much my die-cutty dreams.

Mmmm, dreams...dreams sound good.

Thanks for stopping and God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson, Core-dinations
Stamps: Altenew "Painted Flowers"
Ink: Distress Ink, Hero Arts, Papertrey Ink
Other: washi tape

Tools: Cuttlebug, Mama Elephant Inline Letters dies, Paper Smooches Quote Tag dies

Thank You

...for being patient with this lazy blogger. ;)
A lot of fun things have been happening around here - right now my sister is actually in labor with her second baby, so prayers would be appreciated! :)

Anyways, just popping in with two cards for the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge...

I was inspired by THIS PIN - the card didn't turn out quite how I envisioned it, but it was still fun to make.

And this card was made using the cuts leftover from the card above. I used the Studio Calico inks for both, by just pressing them against a piece of plastic, adding water, and then just using them as plain 'ol watercolors. By the way, I LOVE the Studio Calico inks - I'm not a super inky/stampy person, but when they first came out with the bundle at a discount rate, I decided to go for it to spice up my pathetic color selection (mainly neutrals). I'm using them all the time now, and like Jennifer McGuire said, the second generation stamping works beautifully with these!

Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson
Ink: Studio Calico
Other: enamel dots (My Minds Eye), sequins (Avery Elle)

Tools: Cuttlebug, Mama Elephant Alphabet die

Weaning off

...of cardmaking.
So, I've decided to post my Gallery Idol entries on my blog - I usually don't, because I usually forget and not posting also helps me forget that, once again, I lucked out. ;)
But between school, and adventuring with siblings, I just don't "stress" at all with cardmaking much lately. I'm going to go a whole semester without making cards, so I'm trying to wean off this addiction now so I don't go crazy without paper and adhesive in my hands, in the coming months. ;)

You can't tell in this photo, but the "congrats" is actually an embossed silver, which adds a nice subtle shimmer.

This card uses some pretty fab washi tape from Pinkfresh Studio - Aztec Love.
You may ask, do I love it like an Aztec? No.
But, you may also ask, do I love it like a fabulous roll of washi tape? Oh yes.

Wink of Stella. There's really no occasion not to use this fantastic stuff.

Actually, this card was an occasion to not use Wink of Stella - a little voice told me it wouldn't sit quite well with the slick washi tape.

So, none of my cards use washi tape in a remarkable or cool way, but it was fun to pull them out and put the darn things to use! I tell ya, before I had any washi tape, I was constantly coming up with cool ways to use it, and then as soon as I had a few rolls, poof! All the ideas - gone! The really crazy thing, is that when I see more pretty washi rolls online, I try convincing myself that THIS PARTICULAR roll really will get me going! It's nuts, I tell ya.

Anyways, I'm going bonkers from a whole bunch of traveling (from Madison and back again!) and work, plus, I have a project to work on (the joy of summer classes), so, thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Card #1
Cardstock: Canson, DCWV
Stamps: Mama Elephant "Inline Letters", My Favorite Things "Best Friends"
Ink: Brilliance, Hero Arts
Other: washi tape (SEI, Stampin' Up!)

Tools: Cuttlebug, Mama Elephant Alphabet dies

Card #2
Cardstock: Canson, Bazzill
Other: washi tape (Pinkfresh Studio), thread, Wink of Stella, sequins (Michaels)

Tools: Cuttlebug, Paper Smooches Quote Tag die

Card #3
Cardstock: Canson
Stamps: Paper Smooches "Scripty Sayings", Hero Arts "Miss You So Much", Papertrey Ink "Tweet Talk"
Ink: Stazon
Other: washi tape (Stampin' Up)

Shining Simply

Wassup, fellow paper peeps? ;)
I'm over at the Pinkfresh Studio blog today, with two simple cards that really let the Pinkfresh products shine!
Here's a peek at the first card, where I had some fun using the Colorblock Geotags in a unique way...

...a cute little flower! I used some bright colors, as I intend this to be a graduation card (a theme you can't have too much of this graduation season!), so I used the Neon Instaframes, and topped the Geotag flower off with Neon Brad stickers. Fun fact: the neon brad stickers are super handy, in that they look like brads, but you're spared the struggle with the backs of the brad, as it's a sticker! 

To see my second card, head on over to the Pinkfresh Studio blog! 

Thanks so much for stopping in today and God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson, Bazzill
Stamp: Mama Elephant
Ink: Stazon
Embellishments: Pinkfresh Studio "Neon Instraframes", "Neon Brad Stickers", and "Colorblock Geotags"

Make Misteaks

...and yes, I know I spelled that incorrectly. ;)

I'm just popping in between studying for finals and Mass this evening with a card for the Simon Says Stamp (anything goes) challenge and the Mama Elephant challenge...

I used the Inline Letters, which I super duper love a lot, to cover up my terrible watercolor mess die cuts. Seriously though, I'll try to update this post later with a picture of the watercolor mess I cut the letters from it is baaaaaaddddd. I know they say it's hard to make watercoloring look bad, but believe you me, I've done it.

Anyways, I think perhaps I make a little too many "misteaks" and that I should treat myself to a quick nap to help me prepare for a late night. ;)
Thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson
Stamps: Mama Elephant "Inline Letters"

Tools: Cuttlebug, Paper Smooches dies, Mama Elephant Alphabet die

Smile

...only one week left of school (excluding finals and the fact I'm probably taking a summer class) and I'm FREE!

This little card, for the Simon Says Stamp "Keep It Simple" and the Mama Elephant challenge....

...is a little symbol of my excitement to be done. ;)

Question: I can't tell if my eyes are just super tired, it's my computer screen or what, but the photo seems a bit fuzzy to me - anyone else experiencing the same issue?

Anyways, thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson
Stamps: Mama Elephant "Up, Up and Away"
Ink: Studio Calico
Patterned paper: Crate Paper "Styleboard"
Other: sequins, vellum