My five for March...

 These are a Unity image I borrowed from a friends Kit of the Month (October 2018, I believe) and colored last month with my Copics.

 

I used paper from my Christmas stash, sequins and a star paperclip that was in some goodies Seongsook gave me when I met her at Christmas. The wonky die-cut piece behind is from Gina Marie Designs called "Loopy Rectangle". The sentiment is from the Lawn Fawn "Winter Fox" set. I thought the "warm" fit well with the scarf, boots and hat. I added a cardinal from the birds die-cuts by Impression Obsession and gave it dimension with Glossy Accents. It's an unconventional Christmas card but it gets the job done. And it's MARCH, I haven't missed a month yet!! YAY me!! LOL :)

 



Sideways Weekend at Deb's...

 I crafted at Deb's from Sunday afternoon, March 3rd to Tuesday afternoon, March 5th and thus, called it a sideways weekend. We worked with alcohol inks and foil, Distress Oxides and baby wipes and embossed backgrounds with Zigs. The first night, we colored with Copics (Newton's Nook and Unity images) shown in the bottom and right corner. They may take awhile to become cards... but they're colored!!!

 

 It was fun working with the alcohol inks and foil. The shine doesn't photo well but trust me, it's delightful! I made two panels but only this one became a card...

 

 This was Distress Oxides with baby wipes... this one, no sentiment needed. The stamp was Deb's and I forgot to write down who made it. I can't even remember if it was an unmounted wood or something else. How bad is that?
 

These two, I added Simon Says Stamp "you" die (stacked five times for dimension) and sentiment from Gina K Boho Flowers set...

 

 My FAVORITE of the embossed background with Zigs. This background stamp is Impression Obsession cover-a-card Layered Pansies. All white spaces left over, I used a gray Copic to fill in. Again, Deb's sentiment, not sure from where and the die-cut is from a set by Simon Says Stamp (stacked three times)...

This background, I used Copics instead of Zigs. The background stamp is by My Favorite Things called Roses All Over.

 

Another productive crafty time with Deb. Next craft time together won't be until Cozy Crop, which isn't that far off. Just watch this month FLY...

 

More cards from the Crafty Weekend - It's all About the Girls...

 More coloring from the crafty weekend that turned into cards... YAY ME!!

 

 I was SOOOO pleased with my Copic coloring on these ladies. Unity Angie Girls called "Shine Bright". My first purchase but NOT my first time coloring an Angie girl. The sentiment is one we received last year at Junkie Fest, made by Heffy Doodle. I added Glossy Accents to the rim and tassel of their hats and confetti sequins around the sentiment. I made color matching envelopes with acrylic paints on my Gelli-plate, which are almost visible in the lower right corner of the above picture...

 

Deb taught us again (first learned at a Cozy Crop in 2016, I think) how to make a background on a cereal box. We used ripped up paper, sewing patterns, stamps, acrylic paints and stencils with modeling paste. Wicked fun result!!  I've had these Dyan Reaveley images for quite awhile but another one makes it on a card. Four more backgrounds were made as seen in first photo but it'll take awhile before they become cards. I'm a putz that way. The sentiment is borrowed, I think it's a My Favorite Things die...

 

So, adding these five to the previous seven... I've got twelve completed cards. Am I cooking with gas, or what?!!

 

Let's Get this Party Started... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 I had some crafty peeps over for last weekend, January 4 - 7. There were four of us. I did a lot of coloring while they were here because I can't focus on anything else when others are doing something different than I am... can you say "Squirrel!"?? So, assemblage happened after they all went home. These cards will count towards my personal challenge to make five Christmas cards a month. There's seven... YAY!!

 

 A Laurel Burch image that I colored with Copics. I added Glossy Accents to the circles on the cat and dog AND their eyes. I also put Wink of Stella on the leaves of the holly. The whole piece is popped up on fun foam and Pretty Pink Posh sequins were added to the bottom right corner. I LOVE this!!!

 

 Of course, since they were here for four days we HAD to take a trip to Michaels. One of the gals purchased a few rolls of wrapping paper and then challenged us to make it into cards Here's mine...

 

A fox!!! I wonder who THAT should go to!!

 

A brand New Year. A brand new set of goals to accomplish. Just one request... SLOW DOWN TIME PLEASE!!! There will be more blog posts with all the coloring I did, as I turn them into cards. Stay tuned for more inspiration and... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 



It's a SNOWMAN... can it count as Christmas?

 This card was kicking my butt yesterday. Not because it was complicated but because I'm HORRIBLE at math and had to cut several frames on my Silhouette until I got it right... grrr. Where the heck is the Ernman when you need him? I also had trouble with embossing the sentiment. When I did it directly on the cardstock like the bottom middle, the word "warmest" seemed smished. So, I redid it on the white strip and that was better...

 

The image was sent to me by my friend Sherry. I colored it at Susan's with Copics last week.  It must not have been Copic friendly paper as I had some bleeding at the ruffles of his scarf.  HOWEVER, it looks like I planned that, right?!! Ok, I'm going with it... don't you just LOVE how I feathered the edges of his scarf? Radical Chuck!! I added some bling and I'm calling it my FIVE for February Christmas cards...



Ut oh! Only three...

 I borrowed this image from a friend.  It's a Penny Black called "Deck the Halls".  Wicked cute!  I have no clue why I only stamped three.  I ALWAYS stamp five when it comes to Christmas images.  THAT MEANS, I need to make two MORE Christmas cards before the month is out.  Wish me luck, as my schedule goes into double time for the rest of the month... ;)

 

I colored these at Susan's yesterday and created the cards today.  The sentiment is from a Close to My Heart set that I own called, Pear & Partridge Cardmaking Workshop.  I added vellum behind the image to tone down the red stripes (a trick I saw in one of my groups) and added twine and brad from my stash for a little interest...



My Five for August...

Can you get any closer to the end of the month than this?  I've been working on these images, off and on, for most of the month and finally finished them at Jeanne's house this morning.  The moose is an image she loaned me to color, made by Stampendous.  I stamped seven images and spent SOOOO much time getting them perfect...



I could not have been more pleased with the outcome!  I LOVED the coloring.  The paper is from My Favorite Things, bling from Pretty Pink Posh, ribbon from Michaels, sentiment from Lawn Fawn, stitched die-cuts from Simon Says Stamp.  ALL of the above belonging to Jeanne and at my disposal when I stayed the night.  LOVE having crafty friends!!  Thanks Jeanne... :)

My Jeanne inspired blog post...

 All these cards were done either with Jeanne OR with Jeanne's stuff... :)

 

Jeanne came to my house for a play date in mid-July.  She brought lots of her "stuff" for us to play with.  I cut several of her Simon Says Stamp Daisy dies for future cards.  We played with her BRUSHO Color Burst and made backgrounds.  The card on the left was put together AFTER Jeanne went home.  I cut down the backgrounds we made and did some faux stitching around the edges.  She accidently left a box of Christmas stamps behind so I found a sentiment in there that would work... then I sent the card to her. 

 

The card on the right was part of yesterday's endeavor...

 

While visiting at her house this week, we did some Copic coloring together.  I colored three of the APPLE HARVEST stamp by Deep Red then we cut the images on her Scan 'n Cut.  OMG!!!  I'm SOOOO sold on the Scan 'n Cut!  Although it seems it took me HOURS yesterday to find all the right papers for this from my stash, I was quite happy with the result.  The sentiment is again, from that box of Christmas stamps she left behind when visiting me...

Finally, we followed an Art Impressions video to color this.  Using the AI Clay Pot and my Marvy markers, I colored two of these images at her house.  Once home, I realized that I HAVE this set from a class I took last year with Sandy Allnock up in Massachusetts.  I don't know why I haven't used it since that class because this was so fun and relaxing to do.

 

So, there you have it... my Jeanne inspired cards!  :)



October's Christmas card...

I haven't made a Christmas card for the five a month challenge since JULY... ouch!  Now, if you've seen the previous post, you know August got eaten up with another project so I think I'm off the hook for August... but September?!!  No excuses for September!! 

 

I decided to be ahead of the game for October.  I made five of these.  I wasn't overly happy with my Copic coloring of the cardinal but it takes SOOO much time to get "great" at Copic coloring and I just haven't given it the appropriate time...

 

I am hoping that I'll complete a few more Christmas cards this month, as I don't want to get caught with my pants down come late November... :)

Calla lilies...

These are some of the images I colored on one of my trips to Ohio in January.  See original post here.  I fussy cut the image (which is a Northwoods Stamp, btw) and mounted on different embossed papers.  The image itself has dimensionals on the back.  The middle one I will be sending to my mom (hence the glitter) as part of the "Pay-it-forward" initiative I'm participating in on Facebook.  That should definitely make her smile.  It does me... :)

Little Red Wagon...

Here's more of the images I colored last week in Columbus.  This is a Stampin' UP stamp called "Life Shared" which I've had a long, long time and never inked up (a recurring theme here... did you notice?).  Anyway, this was fun.  I'm still a long, long way from great coloring but it is fun to "practice".  I still get alot of bleeding between colors, especially when the image has small areas like this one...

 

I'm not sure which layout or color combo I like best... any thoughts? 

 

I will color these again and next time I'll try cutting it in an oval instead of a rectangle

and see what I think of that...

 

Give a dog a bone...

And then maybe he'd stop eating my flowers... :)

These are some of the images I colored out in Columbus last week (see link here).  I got this set (and the paper) in the early part of last year while visiting an LSS in CT but it took until now to ink it up.  Insert: head hanging in shame...



Coloring in Columbus...

After finding himself unceremoniously let go from his job in New York City last October, my husband took a temporary contracting assignment in Columbus, OH.  We got a lovely small apartment overlooking the city and I travel out there every twelve days or so, for four or five days at a time.  The rest of the time I spend in New Jersey.  I was lugging all kinds of product out there when I wanted to make cards or do my Project Life.  The problem was, I'd always forget something... always!

 

Then it dawned on me!  Just take out Copics and images!  It's alot less to transport and it gives me an opportunity I usually don't take to practice my coloring.  Today has been a very productive day.  Once I get back to Jersey, I'll figure out how to incorporate these into cards...



Congratulations...

 

I purchased this stamp almost two years ago with the intention of making a card for Jenn and Scott's announcement that they were having twins.  I never got to it... my bad. :(  But last week, we received a call from Andy and Kate that they are expecting... and guess what?!!  TWINS!!  Un-freakin' believable!! I wasn't going to miss this window of opportunity a second time...

 

Supplies used...

• Stampin' Up "Two by Two" stamp
• Assorted Copic markers
• Nestabilities Labels Twenty
• Spellbinders Ribbon Banners
• Stampin' Up border punch
• Recollections Speckled Red paper
• Scrap striped paper
• Bakers Twine

 

Another Midweek Throwdown...

 

A no sentiment card for the current Midweek Throwdown.  I used scrap paper from my endless supply.  Each banner is 3.5" long and cut in varying widths.  I covered the ends with a 5.25" x 1" strip and a 5.25"  x .25" strip.  The f'lower is from a copics class I took at my LSS several months ago.  I didn't know what to do with it but it works well here... don't you think?

 

Glitter and Copics class...

Yesterday, I took a class at my LSS, Absolutely Everything, called Glitter, Copics and Die Cuts.  It was amazing!  I used products I had never used before like; shimmer sheets, release paper, adhesive sheets, micro fine glitter and glitter strips.  I learned techniques I had never tried before like; adding glitter to adhesvie sheets, burnishing, coloring ON glitter, and using stickers as accent lines.  The final result was just beautiful. 

It looks like stained glass...



Midweek Throwdown...

Here's my entry for the Midweek Throwdown Color Challenge over on the Stars and Stamps blog.  It's been a LONG time since I've done a challenge.  This challenge was to make a red and green card.  This also fullfills my personal challenge to make at least five Christmas cards a month (see side bar).  At least this month I have LOTS of days to spare... none of that last minute stuff!  ...lol 

 

My first ever Midweek Throwdown...

I took a Northwoods Card Class at my LSS yesterday and it fits in nicely with the Midweek Throwdown on the Stars and Stamps Blog of Operation Write Home.  These were colored in with copics that were supplied by the class.  Some of these colors were a little dry from overuse so I struggled with blending.  I would however, like to add a couple of these to my collection.  I loved the Honey (Y38) and Green Apple (G14), they were lovely.