IHP - Under My Umbrella

I saw the Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoaststampers today and decided to check out the Wild Wings website for a little inspiration. I found this Spring Garden painting and it reminded me of the Under My Umbrella Stampavie stamp I just got from Kate at i {heart} papers.

I used my Hattie by Stella and Rose paper pad for the colour palette. It makes me think of spring rain showers and spring skies washed clean of winter since there is little nastier than dirty snow in spring and seeing the crud that has built up over winter. *blech* Spring is the snowiest time of year for my area, and I'm normally ready for it, but we had a lot of snow this past winter and the temperature was cold for most of the winter months so having more snow right now is firmly standing on my very last raw nerve! 

I used the new Parisian Accents border die which I really love! I love the whole set, and you'll see plenty more of it in the near future. My layout is from this week's mojo monday sketch challenge. 

These Petaloo flowers got a little spring shower sprtiz of sea glass glimmer mist. I'm new to glimmer mist (*gasp* - I know!! What cave have I been habitating?!!) before adhering them and I do like the subtle sparkle they have. I started colouring this sweet girlie while I was away from home and I just had my prisma color pencils with me. I like the grainy texture it gives the umbrella and the girl's pants. The rest of the image was coloured with copic markers.

hair; Y21, Y23, Y26, Y28

skin; E000, E00, E01, E11, R12

cat; W0, W2, W4

dog; E53, E55, E57, E59

bird & shoes; E53, E55, E57

shirt; B41, B45

flowers; B41, B45, R20, R21, R22

background; B0000, B000, B00, B01, B12

Links for the other product used in this project from i {heart} papers not already listed can be found here;

stamps; under my umbrella (stampavie)

paper; hattie by stella (MME), flintstone, lagoon, coconut swirl (bazzill), vellum (paper accents)

ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)

accessories; lg & sm circle nestabilities, parisian accents (spellbinders), pewter brads (making memories), fern punch (ek success), flora doodles (petaloo), pewter ribbon (offray), sea glass glimmer mist (tattered angels), bow easy, copic markers

mojo monday sketch #188

inspiration challenge #282

free4all62

card ideas - bird

kraftin' kimmie's #76 - flowers

baby bud - punches and dies

if the shoe fits - things with wings

just add ink #66 - just add a flower

paper cutz #89 - anything goes

prairie fairy #51 - april showers

phindy's place - glitter glam glitz

HC - Cardinal in the Cherries and a colouring tutorial

Happy Wednesday! For my project today I used Cheery Cardinal from Heartfelt Creations for the main image. I did a little research to see what cardinals really, really look like and I found this photograph;

I love the way this little guy glows. I didn't know that cardinal's backs and tails are darker than their bellies. I also didn't know that it's the male cardinals that are red and showy - the females are brown and yellow. I'll be colouring a male and female pair for my project next week, so stay tuned for that! I think it'll be lovely.

My project took a lot of time and I won't sugar coat it. This image really should be framed! It is quite heavy and is far too thick to be mailed normally because I'm not sure the layers would survive well. It might be okay with a padded envelope, but I'd be crazy nervous about it. For the first time ever, here's how I coloured it;

I started by stamping my image on ivory cardstock in black soot distress ink. While I was laying on the colour, the ink smeared but I knew it would be camouflaged in the ink so it wasn't a big deal for me. I would recommend heat setting the ink, using embossing powder or using Memento ink which the ink recommended by Copic International. I started with YR68;

I started shading with R08;

Followed by R27;

And finally, R29;

I shaded the back and tail of the cardinal using neutral greys;

I likely used too many reds for the cherries, but I like the rich colour gradation I achieved;

First, I used R35 over the entire cherry, using the drawn highlights for my lighting cues;

Next, R37;

Then, R46 followed by R39;

And finally, R89;

The last step to colouring with Copic markers is to reverse the colour order to blend each colour into the one lighter to achieve a smoothly shaded cherry;

Here's a close up of the finished image;

I stamped this image 4 times, coloured each as shown above and cut out the image elements. I used the Cardinal Family Die to cut out the cardinals and the blossom fits the Post Patch Die and if more blossoms are appealing, this coordinates with Posy Patch Flowers.

Once I re-assembled the image, it was very thick;

Since I had already put the work into the card front, I decided it would be DIVINE to doll up the inside of the card as well;

I used a sentiment from Lucious Cherry Swirl for the inside and this also gave me the opportunity to use some of the scraps that were lying next to my work space all handy and pre-cut.

This isn't a record for the most copics used in one of my projects, and considering the size of the image, I'm quite pleased with myself that I kept the number to what fit in one container!

beak; YR12, YR15, YR16
body; YR68, R08, R27, R29, N1, N3, N5
foliage; YG11, YG17, YG25, YG67, E33, E37, E39
flowers; R01, R21, colourless blender
cherries; R35, R37, R39, R46, R89
background; B0000, B00, B01, B12, B14

I have measurements and instructions on the Heartfelt Creations blog for my project and the rest of the design team has some amazing projects posted there as well. Enjoy!!

stamps; cheery cardinal, luscious cherry swirl (heartfelt creations)
paper; fashionista (graphic45), leapfrog, walnut creme (bazzill), jenny bowlin (coredinations)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; twill ribbon (unknown), ric rac scallop border, large & small square nestabilities (spellbinders), cardinal family die (heartfelt creations), glue pen (sakura), christmas red glitter (art institute glitter)

tip top tuesday #13 - square
totally gorjuss #77 - bling it on
incy wincy #91 - buttons & bows 
stamptacular sunday #108 - pile it on (I have 15 layers at the deepest point!)
shelly's images - show us what you got 
delicious doodles #22- anything goes
TCP tuesday #156 - inspiration challenge
Moxy Fab - polka dot hullabaloo
my time to craft - perfect pets
stamp something - flowers, buttons, sparkle


 

Holy shamolies!

Can you believe it?!!! I won the gold star award from Midnight Madness for my Ella's Umbrella card which I posted last week!! Cool!

By Lori Designs BLDC14 - Ella's Umbrella

I saw Lori's latest Lollipop release and my heart started beating faster and I'll be using a few of them in the near future. Check these out;

And Lori's also released some new Puddle Jumpers as well;



Today is challenge day at the By Lori Designs challenge blog (BLDC14) and today we have a lovely soft spring Easter colour combination.

I opted to use Ella's Umbrella again this week - it's so sweet!!! I just love the polka dotted umbrella and Ella's sweet little froggie friend.

I love this older paper Porcelain by Basic Grey - the colours are perfect for this colour challenge. For my card I used the simpler option Midnight Madness sketch #100 and I love how it turned out.

I covered Ella's boots and umbrella with glossy accents for a wet, rubber look and it looks fantastic! I applied stardust stickles to the background, giving the rain shower a little sparkle.

My embellishments are all handmade. I love 3D paper flowers and I don't think I take time often enough to make them!! I have punches for flowers and dies for flowers, and they don't get used often enough, but I've started keeping them a little closer to hand, so in theory, that will trigger my flower making more often.

I used copics to colour this image;

umbrella, dress, boots; Y0000, Y00, Y11, Y13, R000, R01, R20, R21, T4, T6
water, frog; B41, B45, G40, G82
hair; E55, E57, E59
skin; E000, E01, E11, R12
background; B0000, B00, B01

stamps; ella's umbrella (by lori designs)
paper porcelain (basic grey), canvas white, leapfrog (bazzill), x-press it (copic)
accessories; fair isle pendant, sm rectangle, square eyelet nestabilities (spellbinders), flora/fauna punches (ek success), scallop border punch (SU!), island blossom dew drops (the robin's nest), glossy accents, stardust stickles (ranger)

aud sentiments #26 - anything goes
midnight madness #100 - sketch
scrap creations - digital stamps
sparkle creations #39 - handmade embellishments
cute card thursday #161 - no text 
freshly brewed challenges #43 - sparkle and shine

HC - A Wonderful Person

In the April Springtime Cardinal release from Heartfelt Creations, there is a beautiful Mother's Day inspired sentiment set appropriately called, Sentiments for Mom.

I used this sentiment from Sentiments for Mom as the focal point for my card. Initially, I stamped my cardinal image from Spring Birdies and Roses using pumice stone distress ink and coloured it using both copic markers and prismacolour pencils. I needed to use pencils for the cardinal because copic colours are so saturated that the sentiment wouldn't have been visible over the cardinal. I have instructions on the Heartfelt Creations blog if you want to pop over there and take a peek.

This is where I used the copic markers;

foliage; G000, G20, G40, E21
roses; R000, R00, R01
background; B0000

stamps; spring birdies and roses, sentiments for mom (heartfelt creations)
paper; once upon a springtime (graphic45), celeste designer pad (K&Co), sprout, walnut creme (bazzill)
ink; pumice stone, black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; ribbon (offray), double arch border punch (martha stewart), artisan elements ornaments (pink paislee), patch timeless button (bazzill), fanciful holidays dies (spellbinders)


paper, scissors, rocks #110 - our earth
let's ink it up #13 - rubber stamps
paper sundaes #65 - texture
pile it on #16 - rubber stamps
card makin' mamas - spring
daring cardmakers - spring
fun at fairy knoll - love
paper cutz #87 - buttons and bows
pattie's creations #19 - spring
sew many challenges - recipe; button, 2 designer papers, flowers

Exclusively Yours - Oh, Honey!!!

This month the i {heart} papers design team is pulling out some oldies, but they are great! We were asked to use the lines of stamps that are exclusive to i {heart} papers; Chicken Girl Designs, The Petal Press and Mint Motif.

I chose to use Hugs from a Bug by Chicken Girl Designs. I have a few full breath mint containers that I thought would be super sweet to doll up using this bumble bee image. I cut circles to cover the top of the container using both the large and small circle nestabilities sets. That fab pattern paper I used is from Gertie by Stella and Rose from MME. Next, I cut the brown flourish from Fancy Tags 2 and the blue polka dot paper strip from the Gertie pad was cut using the small long rectangles, both from spellbinders.

I stamped the image and cut it and the mat layer using both the small and large oval nestabilities dies. The glimmer ribbons Kate has in stock are a perfect match for the Gertie paper. I used stardust stickles on the bee's wings for a little more glitz and glam. So sweet!

Here's the copics;

body; Y02, Y06, Y15
face; Y21, Y23, R12
wings; B00

 Another project I thought of for this set was a brown paper bag decorated with red check fabric and ants randomly stamped over the bag using the sentiment, 'Let's go for a picnic' from Hugs from a Bug for a sweet lunch hug for a child.

If you play along with us, use code ihp0411 so we can find you and leave a little comment for you! Check out the rest of the design team's projects;

• **Kate Baldwin** owner
• Carolyn
• Deb
• Gretchen
• Kendra
• Lori
• Lynn
• Megan
• Tracy

stamps; hugs from a bug (chicken girl designs by IHP)
paper; gertie by stella and rose (MME), maltball, walnut creme (bazzill)
ink; black soot distress ink (rnager)
accessories; sm & lg circle, sm & lg oval, sm long rectangles nestabilities, fancy tags 2 (spellbinders), glimmer ribbon (creative impressions), stardust stickles (ranger), copic markers


other challenges for today's post;
one stop craft challenge - altered
aud sentiments #26- anything goes
ladybug craft ink #24 - anything goes
art impressions #12 - anything goes
my mum's craft shop - anything goes
tip top tuesday #30 - open challenge
whoopsi daisy - free and easy
a spoon full of sugar #148 - celebrate
moxie fab tuesday trigger - crepe paper bouquet
totally papercrafts #62 - spring
crafts & me #30 - ribbon
crafty ann's - raise a smile
papertake weekly - spots & stripes
tuesday throwdown #45 - polka dots
pile it on #16 - rubber or acrylic stamps
the crazy challenge #63 - friendship

By Lori Designs Colour Challenge Cutie Patootie

It's challenge day today with By Lori Designs - BLDC13.  We have a super sweet colour challenge today - 

 I decided to use the challenge colours this week and I used Lori's adorable Rylee image again - it's a fave!

The Mojo Monday sketch this week was perfect for this card! The papers from Mabel from Stella and Rose (MME) have the bestest orange papers and I pulled a couple of them AND the darker orange pattern paper have little green crosses in their centers.

Isn't Rylee the sweetest little thing? She makes me think of my oldest and youngest girls when they were preschoolers. I couldn't find my punch to make the notebook paper holes so I used my Cinch and cut the 'tears' by hand. Desperate times call for creative measures! I just couldn't get a decent picture of her shoes or the polka dots on her pants which I covered in Star Dust stickles and they are so super sparkly. You'll just have to take my word for it *grin*

These are the copic markers I used to colour this image;

hair; Y21, Y23, Y26, Y28
skin; E000, E00, E01, E11, BV01
shirt; Y00, Y02, Y08, B12
pants & shoes; B00, B12, B14, Y02

stamps; Rylee (by lori Designs), mama=love by ali edwards (technique tuesday) 
paper; mabel by stella and rose (MME), yam, white canvas (bazzill), 
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; border punch (martha stewart), cinch (we R memory keepers), old olive satin ribbon (SU!), flora doodles (petaloo), stardust stickles (ranger), white embroidery floss

some other challenges I've entered today; 
mojo monday #186 - sketch
paper sundaes #64 - childhood memories
paper, scissors, rocks #109 - 4 of anything - 4 colours
there's magic in the air - fabric & stitching
sentimental sundays - treasured memories
stamptacular sunday #106 - girls & swirls
catch the bug - 4 or more layers
creative prompts - the little things
stamp n doodle - girly
fresh brewed #42 - sweet & cute
inky impressions #13 - flowers
paper pretties #149 - 2 pretty papers

Heartfelt Creations - Springtime Cardinal Collection Release

Happy Wednesday, friends!! Today is release day by Heartfelt Creations for the beautiful Springtime Cardinal Collection which features 8 new PreCut Sets. These new sets coordinate with existing exclusive Heartfelt Creations dies manufactured by Spellbinders. The images in this collection are classic and elegant, perfect for your copic markers, and you will love that they coordinate with existing Heartfelt Creation dies, so this is an added value for some dies you might already own. Leave a comment on my blog, or the Heartfelt Creations blog and one lucky person will win the entire release valued at $119.92!

For my project today, I have used an image from Spring Cardinals and the sentiment from Magnificent Cardinal Rose.

I know this is a cardinal set, but to my knowledge, there are no cardinals in the Foothills area of the Canadian Rockies. I do get excited every spring when the fist robin, and then the first blue jay shows up at my bird feeder. We have wax wings all winter and my dad tells me that bird species gave my grandma no end of grief on the farm.

I added a tiny, little line  at the base of the bird's head to change this bird from a cardinal to a blue jay. Sneaky, eh?! I left out the tail markings because the tail is so narrow and they would have just been a muddle.

In my Heartfelt Creations blog post on February 2nd using the Angel Trumpet Flowers set, I showed how I stamp the image several times and use the image components. This is the same technique I have used for this card. I stamped this cardinal image a total of 4 times and when I adhered the parts, I don't adhere them exactly over the original image creating an interesting fullness to the resulting image. It's a bit of a twist on traditional tole paper crafting. I have full instructions for this card including measurements on the Heartfelt Creations blog.

Hold on to your shorts - I coloured this image using... wait for it... Copic markers. I know, I know. But they are my FAVOURITE! I'm going to use copics with prisma colour pencils on some of my new Stampavie images next week. It's a twist on my favourite - kind of like honey OR jam with that peanut butter! Here's the run down;

bird; B04, B41, B91, B93, B97, B99, N0, N1, N3, N5, N7, colourless blender
flowers & foliage; R21, R30, YG0000, YG03, YG07, YG93, Y11, Y21, E35
background; B0000, B000, B00, B41

stamps; magnificent cardinal rose, spring cardinals (heartfelt creations)
paper; blind date, unknown corded card stock, white canvas (bazzill)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; large & small petite oval dies, labels 16, fancy tags #2 (spellbinders), posy patch dies, cardinal family dies (spellbinders for heartfelt creations), dotted scroll punch (ek success), light blue silk ribbon (creative impressions), white sheer twinkle ribbon (may arts), rhinestones (heidi swapp)


some challenges I've entered today;
 kaboodle doodles - cute animals 
come & get it! - friendship
the crafty pad - spring is in the air 
gingerloft - blue 
I did it #50 - sing a song - somewhere over the rainbow 
pile it on #15 - say it in style 
quirky crafts #8 - sparkly, punchy, spring 
sentimental sundays - treasured memories 
catch the bug - 4 or more layers
one stop craft challenge #126 - monochromatic
secret crafter #125 - our feathered friends 
inky impressions #13 - flowers
stamping royalty #67 - spring has sprung

IHP PCP Sketch Challenge - sk040911

Good Morning! Today it's my turn for sketch challenge (sk040911) on Paper Craft Planet.

I really like this sketch! I'm not always happy with the sketches I come up with and this one is derived from a little layout sketch my youngest daughter did on some scrap on my stamping desk, so really, this is her sketch which is maybe why I like it so much! *giggle*

I did a masculine card for 'Take #1' of this sketch. When Kate started carrying Technique Tuesday stamps at i {heart} papers, I saw this little Love Makes the World Go Round set with the cool gears in the heart and it made it onto my must have list. It was perfect for my Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears that I just love to hoard and rarely use (my bad!!) I used the mustard colourway papers from my Hattie paper pad by Stella and Rose (MME) and some natural burlap twine to finish the masculine look of my card.

 I have many more ideas for this sweet little thang which I hope to get to this week! Buttons on the embellished band for a darling baby card. Little images or larger sentiments OR a die cut butterfly or heart on the image space. There are really not enough carfting hours in the day!!!

stamps; love makes the world go round (technique tuesday)
paper; hattie by stella and rose (MME), nougat, canvas white (bazzill)
ink; blue/brown cats eye set (colorbox)
accessories; natural burlap twine (may arts), sprocket gears (ranger)

By Lori Designs - Wagon of Gifts

Happy Thursday! The weekend is almost here and I, for one, am so thankful. Today, the By Lori Designs Challenge Team invites you to play along with Challenge 12 (BLDC12) and this colour combinations;

Isn't it a classic combination?!

My image is Wagon of Gifts by Mercy (Mercy is brilliant with the digital image editing and has merged images that Lori illustrated. Mercy is my hero!) and used this week's sketch challenge from Paper Craft Planet (sk040211) for my 5" square layout. You could win a subscription to CardMaker Magazine for playing along with the Paper Craft Planet sketch challenge this week! There are TWO ways to win –

• Way ONE: link up your take on this week’s sketch.
• Way TWO: leave a comment on our Planet Blog and let us know what technique you’d like to see demonstrated in an upcoming issue.

I coloured this darling image using copic markers which are listed below. Check out that little bit of shine on the hair bow, shoes and gift bow! Stardust Stickles are DIVINE! I never put them away because I keep them upside down ready to go on my stamping desk. {insert contented sigh}. Look more at the sparkle than the yellow background glow. I'm not so happy with they way the glow became more like a neon beacon flashing continuously all night long like a cheap hotel sign. Gee, ya think I'm not thrilled with it?!!! Oy! And I just couldn't figure out what to do to make it better short of cutting out the main image and mounting it on a new piece of paper which I really didn't have time for. However, this glow has worked on other cards I have done using this exact same yellow combination, and I really think it is the yellow pink combination which isn't working here. Shoulda gone with blue!

Here are the Copic Markers I used and where;

wagon & gift; R11, R12, R32, R35, R37, N2, N4, N6
bear; N0, N2, N4, N6, N7
shirt, shoes, hair bows; R81, R83, R85
overalls; W1, W3, W5, W7
hair; E11, E25, E27, E29
skin; E00, E01, E11
nasty glow; Y0000, Y11, Y21, Y23, Colourless blender

Now about that sentiment;

It's not a By Lori Designs sentiment and maybe I shouldn't have used it here, but it was too perfect for this image to be passed over! It's actually 2 stamps that I stamped one over the other. The lower sentence is the itty bittiest little font I think I've ever seen in an acrylic stamp (less than 1/8" high) and I gasped when I saw it. Remember I have a thing for miniature 'things' and this teeny sentiment totally fit that bill. It was a bit of a bugaboo getting it straight on the acrylic stamp block, but it was totally worth the fussing! Links for the supplies I used for this card are in the recipe listed below.

Check out the By Lori Designs challenge blog for the creations by the rest of the design team! And enjoy your weekend!

stamps; wagon of gifts by Mercy (by lori designs), simply you sentiments (technique tuesday)
paper; hazel by stella and rose (MME), elephant, canvas white (bazzill), x-press it (copic)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; sm square nestabilities (spellbinders), screw brads (karen foster), white brads (paper studio), button (basic grey), pink ribbon (SU!), mini scallop border punch (ek success), stardust stickles (ranger)


paper craft planet sk040211 - sketch
by lori designs BLDC12 - colour combination
HSS #62 - in the pink
papertake weekly - anything goes
scrap-creations - ribbon, glitter, button
craft your passion - anything goes
daisy doodle #30 - digi challenge spring
bring back beauty - spring
really reasonable ribbon - die cuts/punches & ribbon