House Mouse Challenge 72 - New

Hello everyone - I am so happy because tomorrow is Canada Day here and we get a day off of work. I don't have too much planned and the weather is supposed to be rainy so I am hoping to spend some time in my craft room. Yesterday I made this card for the Monday House Mouse Challenge 72. The challenge is to make something "new or firsts" so I chose my adorable baby house mice in baby shoes and found some paper that had the words "My First Words". I used lots of "older" paper that I had laying around and the lay-out was inspired by this week's Just Magnolia challenge. I colored in the stamped image with watercolor paper and my Tombows (I find they work the best for this watercolor paper that I have). I used some distress ink for the background. I added some ribbon, prima flowers with tiny white pom-poms for the centres, and some gingham ribbon to finish off the card. I was happy with how it turned out - I like the color combination. Thank you for stopping by and having a look and if you are from Canada - have a great Canada Day tomorrow - enjoy!!!

Your stamping friend
Debbie

Penny Black Challenge - Paper Patch

Hello everyone - I cannot believe a whole week has gone by since my last post - summertime is much harder to find time to stamp - I am competing with so many other projects in the summer - but I will try and post at least once a week during the summer for sure. Today my card is for the Penny Black challenge - patchwork. I made the background to look like a quilt and I had it as the entire background and I found it way too overwhelming so I cut it down and decided to actually make it look like a quilt hanging in the backyard. I had these little clothespegs that I have never used yet and I knew that one day they would come in handy. I used my new Penny Black stamp from the slapstick collection. I colored the stamp with my copics using E00, E02,E42, E43, E33, E35, E37,YR00, YR20, YR21, YR23, YR24,G21, G28, G29,W1,W3,W5. I used my new dots cuttlebug embossing folder for the dark green background, some twine for the clothes line, a scalloped border that I had for the quilt bottom, punched flowers for quilt and base and I added some small brown buttons and brads as the last embellishment. I also did some faux stitching on the quilt and some paper piecing for the clothes. The sentiment I used was from SU and I used the 2 sizes of oval punches from SU to punch the sentiment background and the oval the boy is standing on. Thank you for stopping by and having a look - it is much appreciated. Hope you have had a wonderful weekend - we had some beautiful summer like weather yesterday - today was more rainy but still nice and warm.

Your stamping friend, Debbie

Penny Black Challenge 106 Travel and Holidays

Hello everyone - today I am entering this week's Penny Black challenge. The theme is travel or holidays. The only Penny Black stamp that I own that would work for this challenge is this cute backpack bear. I made him look as if he was going on a summer camping trip. If you have read my previous posts I have been experimenting with Tim Holtz distress inks and watercolor paper. I am feeling more confident as I keep practicing. I am happy how this bear turned out - he is completely colored with distress inks. The background is a combination of stormy sky distress ink, some stickers that I have had around for years (so glad to be able to finally use them) and I hand cut out some grass blades, punched out some tiny flowers with my quickutz, stamped some little ladybugs from one of my Penny Black sets and used a Penny Black sentiment which I punched out with my 2 SU oval punches. I cut-out some green grass paper to make a frame added a strip of dark green card stock and used my white gel pen to make some small dots. I just felt it needed a darker color to off-set the frame. I cut out two different sized clouds and outlined them with some sparkly stickles. I think that about does it for this card. It was fun to put together. I really didn't have a plan with this card - it just kept coming together with each piece I added to it. Thanks for stopping by to visit and hope you had a great weekend.

Your stamping friend Debbie

Just Magnolia Challenge 59

Hello - this will be a very quick post this morning - I have had an extremely busy week so far - working lots. I really liked the Just Magnolia lay-out and wanted to play along with the challenge - this morning I made this card - I must admit not one of my favorites but I do like it. It is for sure bright and sunny and believe me we could use a few of those days around here - the weather has been rain, clouds and more rain!! I used my watercolor paper and distress inks for her hair and face and paper pieced her clothing. I added some flowers, brads and cut-out a couple of small bees from the designer paper, added some gold beads to the scallops, lots of layering and that pretty much does it for this card. I hope you all have a wonderful day and thank you for taking the time to stop by and visit.

Your stamping friend, Debbie

Penny Black Challenge Week 105

Hello - I was happy when I saw the lay-out for the Penny Black challenge this week. One of my son's good friend and his wife just had a baby girl last Monday - so when I saw this lay-out I knew I was going to use my new Penny Black stamp. Once again I used watercolor paper and Tim Holtz distress inks to color. I am really enjoying this technique and the colors of the inks are perfect! It is a nice change from my copics which I use most of the time. I layered turquoise cardstock, some cute butterfly designer paper (sorry don't know which company - it was a scrap piece), some pink cardstock which I ran through my cuttlebug and used a strip of lacey fence like paper for the horizontal strip. I then finished off the card with 3 blue fuzzy brads, some fuzzy blue wavy ribbon, cut out a butterfly from the designer paper and added a small baby diaper pin to the centre (I like how that turned out), and then I used another Penny Black set to stamp the tiny bow and the "it's a girl" sentiment - I attached them together with the same fuzzy blue wavy ribbon. I also stamped the main image twice, cut out the top flowers which I layered for a bit of dimension. Thanks to the Penny Black team for supplying such a great lay-out - really enjoyed this one. Thank you for stopping by to have a look - your past comments have been so wonderful and appreciated!!

Your stamping friend Debbie!

My first attempt at distress ink coloring and black hair

Hello and oh my gosh!! - coloring black hair - I can't believe how hard it is to color - it took me 5 Tilda's to get the hair kind of ok and that is also why the late post today - I really challenged myself - first attempt at coloring an image with distress inks (went to my local scrapbooking store and bought a bunch of new colors) and my first attempt at black hair. I absolutely love this snow white Tilda and I held off buying her for quite some time only because I knew she would have to have black hair. I was pleasantly surprised at how the coloring turned out (except for the hair). I love the colors of Tim Holtz inks and I really enjoyed water painting with them. I used a water color paper and a water pen. It was very relaxing (other than the hair of course!). I used the fairy tale line of Magnolia paper and layered it - I love how all the Magnolia papers go together. I used a Magnolia sentiment and Magnolia frog. I added some flowers and pearls and punched out a small heart to hang from the sentiment. I added some sparkle to the little heart as well. I am happy with how this card turned out and I am excited to experiment some more with the distress inks. Thank you so much for stopping by and I just want to thank all the people who have taken the time to leave comments on my previous posts - it is very much appreciated!

Your stamping friend
Debbie

House Mouse "Sweet" Challenge

Hi and Happy Thursday to you - two more days to go till the weekend - yeah!! Today I am entering the House Mouse "Sweet" Challenge. I do not have very many house mouse stamps and the only one that would work for this "sweet" challenge was this Christmas stamp. I tried something new on this card - I stamped the image with black Staz-on and colored it in with my "old" Tombow markers and water. I wanted to try using my distress inks - I have seen others do such a beautiful job but I don't have enough variety of colors yet. I will try that option once I get a few more Tim Holtz inks. I like to change things up a bit and not always use my copics. I was pretty happy with the results although I know there is lots of room for improvement. I will be practicing more with this technique. I cut out a piece of red paper and put it through my cuttlebug to make a frame for this image and then layered it on a piece of brown and white polka-dot paper and then dark green cardstock. I added a green and red flower, a gold brad, a piece of paper that had the word "Merry" on it and some red gingham ribbon on the bottom. Thanks for stopping by for a look. Hope you have a fantastic day!!

Your stamping friend, Debbie

My new Stamp Barn rubber

Hello - I am so excited this morning because I like how my card photo turned out - I have been very frustrated with my compact digital camera so far - my recent images on this blog have been disappointing to me. I have two cameras - a small digital one (the one I have been using) and a Canon Rebel. We have had the Rebel for a number of years and I did get pretty good at taking photos with it but unfortunately I put it away a long time ago and allowed it to collect dust - I purchased a new compact camera which I thought would be easier and handier but I never learned how to use it properly. Yesterday I pulled out my Canon Rebel and cleaned off the dust and brought out my manuals. I used it for this card and I was surprised at how much better the picture came out. I have now been inspired to take some time to read my manuals and get some better shots hopefully. Any how onto my card - it is from the Stamp Barn - I have a few stamps from this company and I like them - especially this sweet girl. I wanted to make her soft and I thought pink was a good place to start - I did some paper piecing on her (her apron, hair ribbon and basket) and the rest is colored in with copics (didn't keep out the colors this time - sorry) and used my fine black pen to add some doodling around the edges as well as some Tim Holtz distress ink. I added some buttons, turquoise pearls, a SU sentiment stamp and my nesties to finish off the card. Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my blog - this really is a work in progress for me and I am enjoying this so much.

Simon Says "Male" Challenge

Hello - today I am entering the Simon Says Challenge. We are to make a "male" type card. I don't have many stamps that would work for that challenge but I do have this Bella fella who I think looks pretty nifty. I found the ribbon that is on the card a couple of days ago and I just knew it had to be on my manly card. The paper choices were simple - I just used the ribbon colors. I paper pieced his clothing and golf bag, used a piece of fence-like lace border, used my SU corner punch and my circle nesties to make the big golf ball with the SU sentiment "for you". If you look closely (don't think the camera picked it up) but the paper has a golf ball like texture to it. I also added a bit of Tim Holtz distress ink around the main image. Copics used were YG17, N1, BV23, E37, B34 and E02. Thanks for stopping by for a visit. Have a great Tuesday!! We are having a beautiful summery day today - just loving it!!

Debbie

C.C. Designs - My Splitcoast Gallery Favorite

Hello and Happy Monday to you. Today I know that I haven't the time to create a card and I was browsing through my Splitcoast Stampers Gallery. I guess this is kind of cheating but I just love this card that I made not too long ago for a special lady's birthday. Her birthday was in April. I made the card the same day as her birthday and didn't have it around for too long. This card cheers me up when I see it so I decided it belongs on my blog and not just on my SCS gallery. I don't have too much information on it especially the copics used but I did use a variety of punches and my cuttlebug folder for the background as well as some newly (at that time) acquired flowers. The stamped image is from C.C. Designs. Thank you for stopping by and have a great Monday!

Your stamping friend
Debbie

Penny Black "Swirls" Challenge

Hello

Finally got around to finishing a card. I have had a very busy weekend - my son and his girlfriend have moved in for the summer and boy what an adjustment - normally it is just my hubby and myself (empty nesters). My son is an athlete and is in training so he has to eat so much - so needless to say I have spent the last few days so busy preparing meals and snacks. I am also not used to the extra house cleaning either so I find by the time the day ends I am totally exhausted. I also work outside of the home part-time. My mind is constanting thinking of new card ideas but getting the time is really an issue. I did manage to get this Penny Black challenge card done today though - the theme is "swirls" I had some paper that was covered in swirls - I didn't really like the colors of the paper but when I looked through the Penny Black stamps I own - I figured I could make this one work. I used my circle and scallop nesties, some green ribbon, prima flowers, buttons and twine for button centres. I used a small circle punch to punch out all the little white circles that I attached to the scalloped nestie and then I punched out four swirls and added them to each of the 4 corners. I used a sticker and added the sentiment. The copics I used were E30, E31, E34, E29, W00, W1 and R20. I added crystal effects to the ladybug and popped it up. It is a more simpler card but I was satisfied with the results. Thank you for stopping by and having a look. I am hoping to join a few more challenges this week.

Bye for now
Debbie

Happy Wednesday and Friday Sketcher Challenge

Hello - I am so glad we are half way through the week already. I always look forward to my weekends as I do not work out of the house on the weekends. We are having a very dreary rainy day today but I do get to go out for lunch with a fun groug of gals so that will brighten things up. My card for today was made with a bunch of "pieces" laying around. I had the ballerina Tilda already made for a couple of weeks, the flowers were sitting on my desk (left-overs from another card), and 2 of the background pieces were left-overs from another card as well - all I had to do was cut them a bit to make them fit. All and all this was a fairly easy card for me to put together. I was browsing the different challenges last night and when I came upon the Friday Sketcher one - I invisioned how I would make this card work. It was nice to have the layout to follow. I won't be able to share the copic marker colors with you this time as I colored Tilda a couple of weeks ago and have put those markers away. I have used some of the Magnolia fairy tale collection paper, oval nesties, fancy lace ribbon, glass beads, punch-outs for the flowers, Penny Black stamp to stamp the music background (small oval), music note cuttlebug embossing folder on the brown bottom piece, paper pieced Tilda's dress and shoes and I used some Tim Holtz distress inks to smudge up some of the paper. I added a few small purple pearls to her dress and shoes and finished her off with a splash of glitter on her headband. Thank you for stopping by and having a peek. Have a great day where ever you may be!!

Your stamping friend, Debbie