SCS Card Kit Swap - High Hopes Bunny with Bouquet

I'm excited to be participating in yet another year round exchange with a few of the SCS ladies.  This swap involves putting together an entire kit of pre-stamped images along with coordinating patterned papers and embellishments to shower the recipient.

My month is April so I've begun receiving a few kits from the other ladies already.  This first one is from Pansy (C-mouse) and here's the lovely kit contents of what she sent me:

Lots of yummy stuff!!

Here's the first card that I was able to create at the all day crop I was at yesterday.

I had so much fun using my Pastel Chalk Pencils that I pulled out of my stash. I don't remember using this set much.  I don't even remember where I purchased them or why I even own them. They were definitely purchased in the 200-2005 era though.  Well, they saw the light of day yesterday.

I tried using grey and black first at the top of the ears, but didn't like the way they were blending when I laid down the white chalk so I quickly abandoned them for the blue.  Unorthodox coloring for a bunny using blue to highlight his depth, but it came out better than I hoped.  Interesting that chalk doesn't spread or dilute in color like other color mediums I've played with.

Out of the set of 12 pastel chalk pencils, the ones pictured above are the colors I used on this High Hopes Bunny with Bouquet.

I tried to do the cute little guy justice by making him as fuzzy cute as possible!!

I incorporated the lovely coffee stained MFT Decorative Doily diecut and the lovely olive green grosgrain ribbon Pansy included in the kit she sent me along with some scraps of Basic Grey Persimmon PP.  The rest of the embellishments came from the goodie bags I received from the hostess of the crop.

I used this SCS Card Sketch as inspiration for my card layout design.  Please excuse the fact that I forgot to retake a photo of my card AFTER I corner rounded the right top of the card. That's what lack of sleep from a whole week will do to you...don't see things clearly.

There's still plenty of materials from the kit Pansy sent so I'll be working from this stash for quite a while.

Thanks for visiting!





"Bunny with Bouquet" Card
Paper: BSU Kraft CS; Basic Grey Persimmon PP; Best Creations Gold Glitter CS
Stamps: High Hopes "Bunny with Bouquet" 
Ink: Cretacolor Chalk Pastel Pencils; Ink/EP Unknown 
Embellishments: Target $1 Bin Colored Twine & Paper Clip;  Prima flowers;  Kaiser Rhinestones; MFT Die-namics Decorative Doily Duo Dies
Size: 4.25" x 6.5" rectangular 

SCS March 2016 Virtual Stamp Night Event "Brighten The Grey" Challenge MAR16VSNH #StampinUp #Upsydaisy

Plugging away at those challenges over at SCS's current "Here Comes the Sun" Virtual Stamp Night Event. Hostess Sabrina (cook22) is calling for cards to "Brighten The Grey." The rule for all the challenges is to complete the card in 1 hour or less - eek! 

Here's my entry for Sabrina's MAR16VSNH Challenge:

I've just recently received Upsy Daisy.  It's one of those classic SU sets in my mind which I didn't purchase at the time it was out, but glad I have my hands on it now.

Double stamped it for a quick clean silhouette of flowers in Going Grey and Yo Yo Yellow using my trusty ole' Stamp-a-ma-jig from SU - yep, I'm probably one of the last Misti holdouts!  The card is much brighter and cleaner in real life, my photo dulls it for some reason.

But this card came together quickly with simple matting and a few quick gems/ribbon for accents.

Challenge #3 out of 14 Done!

Thanks for visiting!


 


"You're On My Mind" Card
Paper: Bo Bunny; Misc Handmade Paper; Yellow CS
Stamps: SU Upsy Daisy
Ink: SU Yo Yo Yellow; SU Going Gray
Embellishments: SU Stamp-a-ma-jig; MFT Die-namics Fishtail Flags STAX ; Kaiser Rhinestones; May Arts Ribbon 
Size: 4.25" x 6.5" rectangular 

SCS March 2016 Virtual Stamp Night Event "Round and Round" Challenge MAR16VSNH #StampinUp #FifthAvenueFlorals

It's that time again for another 2 day Virtual Stamp Night Event at SCS this past weekend. There are a whopping total of 14 challenges with the ongoing theme of "Here Comes The Sun." Hmm, the hostesses and event planners must not live in So Cal?  It's been sunny and actually hot this past week. This one is for Hostess Melody's (lacyquilter) "Round and Round" Challenge.

I pulled out the already completed circle cut and matted Basic Grey Sultry pp card base from years ago when I was working on this DT project in 2008.  Yes, I'm a hoarder and save everything since I might need it or could use it one day, right?  I had tossed it to the side because my hand cut scallops along the outside circle border didn't neatly match up at the end with the beginning.  So I salvaged the base, because I still so love Basic Grey, by adhering various watercolored blooms from the SU Fifth Avenue Florals set to hide my oopsie.

I so enjoy SCS's VSN events because it really forces me to dig into my stash and crack up supplies that have never seen the light of day.  This Fifth Avenue Florals just screams so New York and Kate Spade to me, and it was one that I had coveted for so long, so I was so happy to finally own it even after it was long retired.  This is one of those sets I'm going to resolve to use at least 5 times because I've had it for like a year already!  So, four more projects to come.

2 Challenges out of 14 Done!



 


"You Only Live Once" Card
Paper: Canson 140lb Watercolor Paper; Basic Grey Sultry
Stamps: SU Fifth Avenue Florals
Ink: Canson Angora Water Colors; Stampendous White Opaque EP; Clearsnap Vivid Sienna 
Embellishments: Michaels $1 Bin Heart Shaped Color Dot; Niji Water Barrel Brush; Martha Stewart Circle Cutter; Scalloped Decorative Scissors
Size: 6" x 6" Round 

SCS Mystery Image Swap - March 2016 MFT Birdie Brown "You are Super"

Super Girl says You're a Super Friend! I've always loved this Super Girl image from My Favorite Things.  It's been on my wish list forever.

This month in March, Joanna (Queenbee Jo) over at SCS sent us all this darling stamped girl, accessories and sentiments from the "You are Super" set to play with.  She even sent along two different cityscape skyline dies for us to use.

So here's my Super Girl card with shiny don't hate her because she's beautiful hair, super girl shield and word bubble sentiment! Had to throw in some red glitter a la easy glitter tape.

I'm not really sure why I went with the patriotic theme in my background patterned paper selection. Maybe I was thinking of Captain America when I was coloring in that shield?

I've been watching new coloring tutorials and applied some of what I could remember.  I've never used a hint of Copics B00 before and I love the way her hair came out.  With this close up, you can see I messed up with color bleeding outside the lines on the bottom right dress area.  Now you see why she ended up with a shield? tee hee!

Here are the Copics I used for her hair and skin color.  I busted out Y17 for once for all the yellow you see. 

But I really don't have any primary blues or reds. So I ended up reaching for my SU Watercolor Pencils set to finish her Super Girl costume. I also added a pop of white sharpie marker pen work on her boots. 

Because the sentiment Joanna sent along was stamped with plenty of space in between each of the words, I decided to carefully die cut the phrase "Super Friend" as you can see below.  Usually, this type of precision aligning would require a lot of praying for it to work out because I'm too cheap to waste my non existent washi tape stash by using a few pieces to tape the metal die in place.

I remembered to pack my new magnetic platform I just received from Joann's during their most recent online 50% off sale. Oh my gosh, this was so worth the splurge!! It worked like a charm with success on the first try! Saving so much time since additional attempts with limited supplies were not necessary.

I forgot how much joy new crafting toys can bring.  Thank you Joanna for the opportunity to play with this adorable little Super Girl.  And I hope Kelly likes it as this is on it's way to her on Monday as part of our rotating mail out schedule for the Mystery Image Swap.

SCS is hosting their "Here Comes the Sun" themed Virtual Stamp Night this weekend, so I'm submitting this one for Hostess Carla's (Covington Crafter) "Give Me A Head With Hair" Challenge MAR16VSNK since I made it a point to try a different hair coloring approach this time.

Challenge #1 of 14 - done!


Thanks for visiting!

"Super Friend" You are Super Card
Paper: Cryogen White #89; ? PP
Stamps: MFT Birdie Brown "You are Super"
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black; Copics (Hair) B00, N1, C5. C7, C9; (Skin) E00, E51, YR21, R 20; Super Girl Outfit - SU Watercolor Pencisl & Wink of Stella Gold 
Tools: SU Word Bubbles Framelit Die; Memory Box Cityscape Silhouette Border Die; Creative Memories Star Punch
Embellishments: American Crafts Best Creations Red Glitter Tape
Size: 5.75" x 5" rectangular 

An Asian inspired SU Manhattan Flowers

I'm still tinkering away with my 2015 new year's crafting resolutions since my crafty goals of things to dry and accomplish are still the same.

One of those goals is to create at least 5 different projects with the same stamp set.  In this case, it's the embossing folder.

I love these flowers on the SU Manhattan EF and I really do need to pull out the coordinating stamp set to do something with it.  I saw this black and white card on Pinterest and thought to scraplift it.  In my head, I envisioned deeply impressed embossed lines on rustic kraft cardstock which would make the subtle pastel Japanese origami papers pop through the strategic and random flower petal cut outs.

But the embossing details just isn't as crisp and as sharply impressed into the cheap Recollections ready cut cardstock.  So to me, this design kinda falls flat.

I tried to oomph it up by double matting it on gold metallic and textured teal bazzil cardstock but to no avail.  Also feel like if I put a sentiment on it, it'd overwhelm the already blah colors and/or crowd the limited space of the card.

Oh well, I'm calling it done.  Not everything is a master piece.  Maybe, I'll just outright copy Mel's card design to the tee one day.

So I've used my new to me EF, that I bought on SCS a few years ago, twice now. lol.  3 more attempts to go per the plan.


 

Japanese Manhattan Flower Card
Paper: Recollections Kraft Cardstock; Kurasawa Origami Paper; Misc Metallic CS; Bazzil CS
Embellishments:  SU Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder
Size: 4.25" x 5.5" rectangular

"Butterfly Silk" A Special Wish Card

I'm losing steam due to having limited supplies on me.  Unfortunately, my scrap items in storage aren't convenient for me to access often, yet buying more just doesn't seem prudent. I just can't do it because I know how much I have in storage. Sigh!

I don't do well planning ahead, but in order to avoid unnecessary expenses, I'm going to have to schedule a good chunk of time to access my storage soon to exchange/grab new scrap supplies in order to keep feeding my creative mojo.

Upon seeing this new week's Featured Stamper was Rokale and her Asian Lady card in her gallery, it motivated me tonight to make do with one of the extra images that Imke sent me for the January Mystery Image Swap. This was my first attempt at coloring, but didn't like the lack of blending of her kimono or the way I colored the sleeves.  So I used my 2nd coloring attempt for that final card.

I had to find a work around not having enough white clean space on the cardstock Madame Butterfly was stamped on, so I ended up attaching the left over greeting that also came from Imke on the top left corner to hide my practice marker strokes.

The gold cording...sigh, I have reels of it in my storage.  Today, while at a family baby shower, I salvaged this small piece of gold cording from a gift wrapping discard, lol, and repurposed it for this card.

Yep, slim pickings are what I'm resorting to.  But I got one done for SCS FS473 Challenge.

 


"Butterfly Silk" A Special Wish Card
Paper: Kurasawa Origami Paper; Bazzil Brown CS
Stamps: Crafter's Companion "Butterfly Silk"
Ink: Copics (Hair)C5. C7, C9; (Skin) E51, YR21, RV 23; (Kimono) YR09, R46; Wink of Stella Gold 
Embellishments: Gold Cording; Fancy Pants Resin Flowers "Holiday Hues"
Size: 5.75" x 5" rectangular 

Julie Nutting "Love, Jaclyn" Glittery Valentine

Thank goodness I took a moment to open up my email to see this adorable card designed by my lss' owner Nothy and her employee Janet.  Gosh! An lss that's still open and it's just located about 2 freeway exits from my parent's house.  Scraparazzi in Whittier, CA feature these doll stamps in their Julie Nutting Doll of the Month kit classes.

I wish I lived / worked closer to be able to join in monthly, but glad I was able to snag this kit during a recent crop I attended.

Coloring her hair with Winka Stella, her shoes with Souffle Black Pen, tucking piece of lace on the edge of her dress, and paper piecing / pop dotting her clothing are all the designs of Nothy & Janet of Scraparrazi.  I just fussy cut and glued this together. 

When I got to the part of coloring Jaclyn's hair, I finally got to try and discover Winka Stella brush pens. Yes, I've been living under a rock. I used the glitter brown for her hair. Loved it!




So I splurged on a few pens. Felt good to support a lss; Store owner, Nothy, is a hoot and sweetheart!

Thanks Nothy and Janet for a super cute card kit! You just reminded me that I fell in love with these Julie Notting doll stamps when they first came out a few years ago.  I have a couple in my stash that haven't seen the light of day yet.

NOTE: When I was gluing the lace under the skirt, I got excess glue on the front. Sigh! So, that's why I put the huge red heart on top of the lower skirt to hide my messed up skirt patterned paper that peeled off when I removed it from my work surface. I really do need to clean up after myself better between each step.   I'm not a fan of my lower red heart placement otherwise.

Thanks for visiting!



  


"Love Jaclyn"  
Paper: Unknown
Stamps: Prima Julie Nutting "Jaclyn" Doll Stamp
Ink: Unknown Black Pigment Ink; Color Box Chalk Chestnut Brown; Winka Stella Glitter Gold Brush Pen; Sakura Souffle Black Pen
Embellishments: Heart Rhinestone; Unknown Heart & Sentiment Die Cuts (Possibly Cricut or Silhouette Cameo)
Designed & Kitted By: Nothy & Janet of Scraparrazi Scrapbook Store in Whittier, CA 

SCS Mystery Image Swap - February 2016 Two Paper Divas & Reverse Confetti "Hello Good Friends"

With the other half away, I took advantage and spread out all my supplies to get some play time in.  How wonderful this is going to be that I don't have to clean up my table surface or piles for another month!

Here's my February submission for my group of a dozen other ladies from SCS.  This month, Tracie (taclary) sent us this cheerful watering can image full of flowers from Two Paper Divas.

Tracie states "this image is in honor of the friendships that I have made through SCS.  I am lucky to have each and every one of you as a friend. So February's challenge is in honor of the friendships that we have made through SCS."

I can't wait for her to see what I came up with and I hope that Dea, who's the next in our rotating recipient list, will like my card in person!

I really wanted to play with my copics since I never was an expert coloring gal.  There are lots of mistakes here and I managed to salvage it by using the pebbled dot texturizing technique on my watering can.  I have no idea if that's what the technique is called, but from looking at my coloring, I think you get the idea.

Since I decided to use the image without the perfectly stamped coordinating sentiment Tracie provided, I added some die cuts from Reverse Confetti to add to the Spring Friendship theme.

One last thing, I'm dying because my card suffered an accident at the very last minute when I was stamping an alternative friendship themed sentiment on the inside of my card.  The front of the cover made contact with my just reinker refreshed ink pad that was sitting right next to it!   Grr...I'm working on a desk that's about 3 feet wide and about 1.5 feet deep. I'm practically working on top of myself.  I need to clean up after myself much better to avoid this.  Unfortunately, adding color dots or sequins to mask my oopsie just crowds this card design so I've decided to just leave it as is.

I still think this card came out pretty cute!  Just for fun, I entered this card in the CASology challenge for their Week 185:Egg.

Thanks for visiting!







"Hello Friendship" Card
Paper: My Mind's Eye Now and Then Milo PP
Stamps: Two Paper Divas Bloom Wildly; Reverse Cnofetti Hippity Hoppity; SU Feel Goods
Ink: Copics Various;  SU Brocade Blue;  Wink of Stella Glitter  Yellow
Tools: Reverse Confetti Hippity Hoppity & Hello Dies; MFT Grass Border Die
Size: 4.25" x 5.5" rectangular 

SCS Mystery Image Swap - January 2016 Crafter's Companion Butterfly Silk

I'm back from another crafting hiatus as life's recent changes are finally settling in and allowing me to dabble in crafting again.

With the start of the new year, I'm so excited to be a part of a couple of monthly exchanges with several groups of ladies over at SCS.

First up, is my January card submission for the Monthly Mystery Image swap.  Imke, our very organized ring leader, was the first to send the rest of us a mystery image to work with.  She sent us this Butterfly Silk image of a Japanese lady in kimono with a call for us to use Asian lanterns that she also provided.

I dusted off my Copics and struggled with blending.  Her hair turned out satisfactory and I did the best that I could with the one Chinese Orange and Strong Red colors I had for her kimono.  Had I had my tracing paper on hand, and not in storage, I'd have paper pieced her kimono using the other lovely sheets of origami papers I had.

Ended up fussy cutting her out after I finished off her kimono with my newly acquired Wink of Stella brush marker so I could show off the gorgeous Origami papers and the elegant Mizuhiki cording I found in Little Tokyo in Downtown LA on Chinese New Year.  How's that for embracing the Asian theme for Imke?

As a new twist for this ongoing monthly mystery swap in which I'll be participating in for the rest of the year, Imke is having us mail our card to another participant in the swap, so we will each be receiving a new card made by someone else in addition to receiving a mystery stamped image to work with.

Here's the lovely card I received from Jeanette (Forest Ranger)! Love her soft green and faded cherry red colors.

Thanks for visiting!





"Butterfly Silk" Card
Paper: Kurasawa Origami Paper; SU Old Olive; Unknown Textured Cardstock
Stamps: Crafter's Companion Butterfly Silk
Ink: Copics (Hair)C5. C7, C9; (Skin) E51, YR21, RV 23; (Kimono) YR09, R46; Wink of Stella Gold 
Embellishments: Mizuhiki Silver and Gold Cording
Tools: Memory Box Paper Lanterns Die
Size: 5.75" x 5" rectangular 

#TBT #ThrowbackThursday #StampinUp - Sharing my older SU Demo Cards - SU Lace Snowflakes & SU Love Always

Today is my birthday! And I'm still trying to find my mojo, so I'm throwing it back with a look through some older cards I made back in the day when I was a SU Demo.


1) This one was made by brayering the background with some snowflakes stamped in versamark for a resist, and then I added more snowflakes as I embossed each in different colors.

"Peace Joy Love Snowflakes" Card
Paper: SU Ballet Blue; SU Glossy Paper
Stamps: SU Lace Snowflakes; SU Peace Joy Love
Ink: SU Night of Navy; 
Embellishments: MM Metal Rimmed Tag; Fibres; SU White EP; SU Silver EP
Tools: Sizzix Tag Die
Size: 5.5" x 4.25" rectangular 

"Love, Be My Valentine" Card
Paper: SU Rose Red, SU Rose Romance; SU Pretty In Pink
Stamps: SU Love Always; SU Soft Swirl 
Ink: SU Rose Red; Versamark; SU Poppin' Pastels Chalk 
Embellishments: SU White EP; White Organza Ribbon 
Tools: Hole Punch; Decorative Edge Scissors 
Size: 4.25" x 5.25" rectangular 

#TBT #ThrowbackThursday #StampinUp - Sharing my older SU Demo Cards - SU Marvelous Morning Glory & SU DD Daisy

Back again trying to find my mojo thru my series of #tbt #throwbackthursday posts of newly found older SU Demo Cards I made back in the day.

1) I don't think I ever owned SU Definitely Decorative Morning Glory and borrowed this set from my friend Maylene at the time who is the one at fault for turning me onto SU in the first place.  

Here again, I had very few supplies so made do with what I had.  

I remember being so happy with myself because I successfully two stepped stamped using only Only Orange and pop dotted one of the flowers. I was on my way!  Even through in incorporating a wheel! In retrospect, I don't think I would have ever used or bought any of the wheels if one along with the handle wasn't already included in my Demo Start Up Kit.  

2) This next one I remembered just learning about the Shaving Cream method and I remember bringing an aluminum pan with me to hostess parties in people's homes to demo this technique.  This isn't the best looking card, but oh well. Sold a lot of bottles of reinkers at the time with this card and my previous Under the Water Sea Horse card. 

3) This next one was for a swap probably on 2 Peas in a Bucket. I loved these vintage papers (I cant' think of the manufacturer right now) and this first stamp from Anna Griffin that started appearing at Michaels.  What a hey day it was with using those coupons every week to amass my collection of Anna Griffin stamps.  The cards I sent out had a much lower scalloped edge border to show off more of the tulip flower.  This one I had held back because I had deemed it a reject for various reasons. Brings back good memories. 

Thanks for reminiscing with me!






"Marvelous Morning Glories Bouquet" Card
Paper: SU Mellow Moss; SU Only Orange; SU Craft CS 
Stamps: SU DD Morning Glory; SU Stampin' Around Checkered Wheel
Ink: SU Only Orange; SU Mellow Moss; SU Old Olive
Embellishments: Colored Raffia; 
Tools: Hold Punch; SU Stampin' Around Handle
Size: 5.5" x 4.25" rectangular 

"Hello, Hello, Hello" Card
Paper: SU Basic Black, SU Yo Yo Yellow; SU Smooth White CS
Stamps: SU DD Daisy; SU Vivid Greetings
Ink: SU Basic Black; SU Going Gray Reinker
Embellishments: SU Scalloped Corner Punch
Tools: Shaving Cream 
Size: 4.25" x 5.25" rectangular 

"Thank You ... with Gratitude" Card
Paper: Misc PP; Vellum
Stamps: Anna Griffin Tulip & Sentiment 
Ink: SU Basic Black; SU Poppin Pastels Chalk 
Embellishments: Grosgrain Ribbon
Tools: Decorative Scissor
Size: 4.25" x 5.25" rectangular 

#TBT #ThrowbackThursday #StampinUp - Sharing my older SU Demo Cards - SU Fantastic Foliage & SU Penguin Pals

I haven't been feeling crafty lately so therefore haven't been productive in creating anything new. But having just sorted through what I truly hope is the last bag of old SU Demo Only Swap card fronts recently, I did find a few of my older cards that I had made for either stamping hostess parties (gosh I remember doing 1-2 every weekend in my heyday) or swaps.

So that means I'm going to revisit my series of #tbt #throwbackthursday posts again to hopefully get myself into the mood again and find my mojo.

1) First up is a very early card I made for a swap using Fantastic Foliage.  Unbelievably, I still have this set.  

I had very little supplies at the time, so I brayered a piece of Ultra SmoothWhite Cardstock with my SU Really Rust ink pad to create something matching to mat this card with.  From looking at this card, I believe I did the same with More Mustard for the focal piece before I scatted my leaf stamps all over. 

I was hanging out with my friend Maylene who ran an informal monthly stamp club at the time with some heavyweights: Ming who at the time was a major instructor for Denami Designs and Alma who would later own The Cat's Pajamas.  The gold cording was probably an influence of whatever the group was doing at the time.  

Haha, here's a shot of the Card Recipe I had gotten used to adhering to the back of all my cards I sent for swaps.  Yes, I used Avery Mailing Address Labels.  Those were so easy to just print en masse and slap on. 

2)  These Penguin Pals...ah I miss this set.  I distinctly remember demoing this ALOT and everyone ohhed and ahhed over a) paper tearing for the snow banks and b) learning how to make their tummy's fuzzy with Flocking Powder.  I sold a lot of these Penguin Pals sets along with 2 Way Glue Pen and the flocking powder.   And sadly, I distinctly remember selling this set off because I was so sick of it at the time.  I remember hesitating on that sale because I really do love these guys.  I definitely regret selling this set. 

Here's a close up of their fuzzy bellies. 

Here's a shot of the card recipe from the back before I adhered to a full card base.

I had to cut down the Bliss Blue Card Stock around all the edges, else it was definitely MUCH MORE BLUE, in order to adhere the card front onto a fully folding card to include in my recent Ronald McDonald House donation drop off.  

I loved this set. Maybe I'll look for it on ebay to rebuy, lol. 

Thanks for reminiscing with me.






"Blank Fantastic Foliage" Card
Paper: SU Ultra White CS
Stamps: SU Fantastic Foliage
Ink: SU More Mustard, SU Chocolate Chip, SU Really Rust; Encore Gold; Kaleidacolor Cappuccino Delight
Embellishments: Metallic Gold Embroidery Thread
Tools: Rubber Brayer, Pop Dots; Family Treasures Leaf Punch 
Size: 5.5" x 4.25" rectangular 

"Happy Holidays" Card
Paper: SU Ultra White CS; SU Bliss Blue CS
Stamps: SU Penguin Pals
Ink: SU Bliss Blue, SU Brocade Blue; Versamark; SU Marvelous Markers: Real Red & Only Orange
Embellishments: SU Black EP; SU Stampin' Pastels; SU Whisper White Stampin' Flock Powder
Tools: Heat Gun, SU Blending Pens; 2 Way Glue Pen
Size: 4.25" x 5.5" rectangular