Making Cupcakes

This card came together tonight because this stamp set happened to still be on my desk. Considering how often I have a list of "to-do's" or a sketch or colour combination to refer to, I end up making cards pretty randomly. Here's how this one came together...

1) Saw the stamp set: Big Bold Birthday, thought "I haven't used that in a while"

2) I like the cardstock colour lemon tart, there happens to be a piece right here, I'll use that for the base.

3) I want to add dots of colour to the top, so I need two colours that are appropriate for cupcakes and go well together- Sweet Blush and Berry Sorbet it is.

4) A circle card would be fun.

5) I have a friend who's turning 25 this Sunday, this could be her birthday card
6) Maybe I should cover the numbers with glitter and stick them on the cupcake, since it seems a bit plain right now.

Yeah, that's pretty much how it came together. It's kind of nice when the creative process just happens. I didn't set out to make a birthday card for a specific person, but it just seemed to fit

Supplies:

Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, Birthday Basics

Cardstock: Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Lemon Tart, White

Ink: Lemon Tart, Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet

Accessories, etc.: Quickutz Alphabet, stickles, glitter, pop dots, nestabilities

Blog Hop Time

I don't always get the chance to participate in these, but when I do, I certainly enjoy them! The theme this time was all things spring. And with the 5-15 cm (maybe more?) of snow we received yesterday, I am beyond ready for spring!

This card took WAY too long. I kept fiddling with the little details. I wanted the ribbon, buttons, scallops and the rabbit on there, and getting it all to fit was a bit more complicated than I had anticipated. I also realized that I don't have many Easter or Spring sentiments. Perhaps I never realized a lack in this area since this is probably only the second Spring/Easter card I have ever made? It's just not something I usually do. I don't send Easter cards to people. And spring, well, it's one of those funny things, more often than not, there's not much of a transition between winter and summer. All of a sudden it's hot and the snow is finally all melted.

Supplies: Stamps: Mixed Messages, Bitty Baby Blessings

Ink: Dark Chocolate

Cardstock: White, Sweet Blush, Lemon Tart, Dark Chocolate

Accessories, etc.: buttons (from Walmart years ago), dental floss, Sweet Blush Stitched Grosgrain, pop dots, scalloped nestabilities

CPS sketch

I saw that PTI was sponsoring CPS this week, so I thought I'd play along. I was completely inspired by the colours in Nichole Heady's card. I simplified it a bit- taking out the New Leaf (don't have that colour yet) and the Kraft. I grabbed a set I received fairly recently, Women of Life, but have yet to use to its full potential. I really enjoyed this layout because it wasn't overly complex. It was different from something I usually do, but it still allowed me to keep things pretty clean and simple.

Supplies: Stamps: Women of Life, Polka Dot Basics Ink: Ocean Tides, Aqua Mist, Summer Sunrise, Ripe Avocado Cardstock: White, Avocado, Ocean Tides Accessories, etc.: Corner Rounder

Colour Inspiration

I made this card on Thursday for Kristina's colour challenge, but I totally forgot to upload, so here it is now. The colours to use were Really Rust, More Mustard, Kiwi Kiss, and Whisper White.
I had quite a bit of fun making a scenic card. I just got these trees on Tuesday evening so I had to use them. Expect to see more of them over the next little while.

Supplies:
Stamps: Trendy Trees
Ink: Really Rust, Kiwi Kiss
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, More Mustard, Really Rust
Accessories, etc.: Scalloped nestabilities, pop dots

Flocked Birthday Wishes

The other day I saw this stunning card by Alli Miles. Loved the idea and thought I'd make my own version. Although the one layer looks marvelous, I wanted to change it up, make it a bit more mine. I had picked up some double-face satin earlier in the weekend. They match Spring Rain and Dark Chocolate almost perfectly, so I was wanting to use at least one of those.
So the ribbon dictated my colour scheme. I used brown for the branch and did the dots in blue. I thought it had a slight resemblance to pussywillows. I thought it'd be cute to make them fuzzy, so I got out the white flocking and added it over each dot. It really adds a fun texture to the card. On a side note, I've tried several sticking methods, my tried and true are white glue with a fine application tip or the quickie glue pen. I just haven't been thrilled with heat and stick powder or the glue pad. Other people are raved over them, so maybe I'm doing something wrong? Anyway, the regular white glue works, so that's what I use.

Supplies:
Stamps: Polka Dot Basics, Out on a Limb
Ink: Dark Chocolate, Spring Rain
Paper: White, Chocolate, Spring Rain
Accessories, etc.: Double hole punch, ribbon, white flock

Colour Challenge

It's funny, when I was checking out the sneak peaks for Damask Designs, several of the colour combinations popped out at me. I was planning on making a card with this particular combination (Aqua, Chocolate and Lemon) before I even saw the challenge. The challenge just ensured that I actually followed through, instead of filing it onto my to-do list.

So here's my card, I went way back...to the first PTI set ever released. I did bring in Polka Dot Basics. I thought about leaving the Lemon background as is, but the dots seemed like a nice unifying theme (to go with the dotted flower centers). A tip, that isn't exactly earth shattering, but it's something I hadn't thought of before. Instead of constantly switching between the different stem length stamps, use the longest one, but place a post-it note at the base. You can then stamp the exact length you want, and you'll always have a crisp edge. For the card, I stamped the sentiment first, then placed the stems around it.

Supplies:

Stamps: Paper Tray, Polka Dot Basics

Ink: Lemon Tart, Dark Chocolate, Aqua Mist

Paper: White, Dark Chocolate, Lemon Tart, Aqua Mist

Accessories, etc.: 3/8'' Brown Grosgrain, Rectangle Scalloped Nestabilities, pop dots

Grey & Yellow

This colour combination is one of the few that I find a bit repulsive. There's so much of it everywhere, and I'm really not a fan. However, there was a challenge on the Moxie Fab blog, so I thought, why not give it a shot. Now, even though I am pretty pleased with my card, I have still not been won over by this colour combo! I suppose with the right grey and the right yellow it's alright... There are several different hues and tones though that just aren't right. At least I tried something I wasn't sure of, it's always good to stretch outside of your comfort zone sometimes.

Supplies:
Stamps: Linograph, Garden of Life, Father Knows Best
Ink: Lemon Tart, Basic Grey, Fresh Snow
Paper: White, Lemon Tart, Basic Grey
Accessories, etc.: white grosgrain, lemon satin, corner rounder

CPS Card

Starving Artistamps is one of the sponsors on CPS this week. Here's my take on the sketch. I was going with a "Fern Gully, the Last Rainforest" vibe. Anybody remember that movie??

Card features Boaz the Bat and Jungle Backdrop. Thanks for stopping by.

Uh Oh!

Somebody stop me... I finally sat down and actually figured out just how easy my vector drawing program is (Macromedia Freehand)! I started out the same way I was taught in cartography. Find something and digitize it (I did that to make my own maps, basically you take something and trace over it digitally. This can be applied to items that are already digital or something you scan in). First I took a stab at the gorgeous roses from Stampin' Up!'s Fifth Avenue Floral. Next, I've been a bit too obsessed with the flower from a yet to be released PTI set, so that became my next target/practice. Finally, after feeling confident enough about my digi-drawing skills, I went about making my own designs, which I then had to feature in a new blog header and watermark.

So here's a card I made a few weeks back. I was having WAY too much fun with glitter. First I stamped the butterfly on acetate, then I coated the backside with crystal effects and dumped the glitter on. I let that dry then attached it to some cardstock with brads. For the side glitter panel, I took a piece of Stamper's Magic tape, lined the interior of the card and dumped glitter on it. Finally, I added some gelly gems ('cause there just wasn't enough sparkle yet) and called it a day.

Supplies:

Stamps:Butterflies Are Free by gel-a-tins

Ink: Black Stazon

Paper: White, Black, Turquoise

Accessories, etc.: Acetate, blue glitter, gelly gems, black ribbon, Stamper's Magic tape

Hop!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Check out Heidi's blog for the next stop in our blog hop. You're going to want to visit all the other blogs because one of us has some great blog candy to give away! Here is the complete list in case you just started hopping from here: Juliana Swanson http://stampinwinkyfingers.blogspot.com/ Lisa Somerville http://www.lisasomerville.com/ Donna Baker http://stampamaniac.blogspot.com/ Donna Duquette http://www.deesstudio.blogspot.com/ Kathy Daume' http://www.kathy-prettyinink.blogspot.com/ Lori Tecler http://www.inkingaloud.blogspot.com/ Lydia Fiedler http://www.understandblue.blogspot.com/ Andrea Cloutier http://andreasscraps.com/ Natasha http://palmtreesandpogosticks.blogspot.com/ Heidi Kingery http://www.sweetheidijo.blogspot.com/ Leigh O'Brien http://sunflowerstudio.typepad.com/sunflower_studio/ Irene Silva http://doodlefactory.blogspot.com/ To the new releases: http://www.starvingartistamps.com/

Here's my first card. It uses the amazing Urban background. I LOVE this background and I had way too much fun with this card. It's got 4 layers of dimension. I started with a cityscape colour appropriate card base and built up from there. It was all coloured with Copics.

For my second card I wanted to do something a bit softer, especially since it was the countryside landscape. I went with pencil crayons and mineral spirits. I thought the little version of Basel the sheep was so perfect, especially with that sentiment. The nice thing about the miniature versions of the DoodleFactory Animals and Creatures is that they fit so nicely in this landscape! I love it!

Next up is a bit of a jungle scene. I knew that if I coloured this with markers or pencil crayons it would look similar (i.e. a LOT of green) to a brayered effect, so I took the less time consuming route on this one. Note that getting brayered backgrounds just right isn't necessarily easier than colouring!I added a bit of shading and other highlighting to the background then added in the monkeys. I thought it'd be cute it have the greeting on a little flag!

Finally is a card featuring the tropics background. I knew I had to do a sunset sky theme here. So I got out the glossy cardstock and started sponging. I cut out the background and adhered it over top. I really wanted a sparkly ocean, so I got out the stickles. I was having issues with it (I thought that stuff was non-settling!), so I squeezed onto a scrap piece of paper until enough finally came out. Then I took a paint brush and painted over the blue. I am quite happy with the effect- no globs and an even coverage! To the left is an up close and personal look at the glittering, glistening ocean. Paradise found seemed like the perfect greeting.

Here's the completed card. Other than the background, which was made using various dye inks, the entire card was coloured with Copics.

Be sure to check out everyone else on the blog hop. I cannot wait to see what everyone else did with the background images. I had even more fun than I expected with them!

Hippity Hop...

Save the date!
We would like to invite you to visit with us on February 7th for our first ever DoodleFactory new release blog hop!

What's this all about?
Irene thought it would be fun to put the design team to work creating some super cool brand new projects with our brand new release! And since this release is a whole lot different than what we have done in the past we thought we should do something special to mark its arrival into the stamp world! We are so excited to see what you think of it and we really CAN'T WAIT to show it to you.
So what you need to do is stop back here on February 7th (after 11am EST) and you will find a list of our designers blogs. Start at the first name on the list and visit her blog to see her fun new release project(s) she will give you the link to the next designer's blog and you can pop in over there to see the next great project and so on and so forth down the list it will go!
You are going to want to visit all the blogs because one of them will be giving you some information on some delicious blog candy.
What is it? Well... you will just have to wait and see! So mark your calendar, save the date, stick up a post it, or write it on your hand but do whatever you have to do to be here on February 7th for our first new release BLOG HOP!!