Father’s Day Card Release Day

Posted on May 17th, 2012

You know how stamp companies have their big release days when they release their new stamp sets?  They release their new stamps all at once and then dedicate the rest of the time before their next release showcasing their new stamps on their blogs and other social media forums.  Well I’ve decided to try the same with my seasonal cards.  Instead of loading one card at a time to my Etsy shop, I’ll do a release of all the cards for that occasion at once and then showcase individual cards here on the blog and on my Facebook Fan page.  Non-seasonal cards like birthdays, thank yous, and other all occasion cards, will still be loaded individually onto the Etsy store as they are made.  So drum roll, please!

Introducing, the 2012 FATHER’S DAY CARD Release!!! HOORAY!  Below are just a sample of some of the cards you’ll find starting today at the Doodleshop Etsy store.

We have cards for Dads who love sailing or ocean themes.

We have cards with traditional images for Father’s Day such as ties.

 

And we have cards that are perfect for little kids to personalize with their loving message to their  Dad.

The entire Father’s Day collection is now available in the Father’s Day section of the Doodleshop.  Check out all of the cards and then stay tuned to this blog where over the next few weeks I’ll showcase more of the cards and share details on how they were made.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Simple Mother’s Day card

Posted on May 9th, 2012

Can you believe Mother’s Day is this Sunday?  Where did the time go?  If you too are feeling a bit caught off guard by the proximity of Mother’s Day and need some cards quick here’s an idea for one quick and simple Mother’s Day Card.

I love this type of layout for a quick card because it allows for the beautiful pattern paper to take center stage.  In this card the focal is the black and red floral piece of patterned paper.  I love this paper.  It’s feminine and elegant, perfect for a Mother’s Day card.  I simply added the sentiment on a beige lightly faux textured patterned paper and added a bit of shine with some silver stickles to the centers of some of the flowers.  The background paper adds a bit of texture as well.  It appears as a black solid when you look closely you see some red tones mixed in.  With the right papers, a bit of shine, and a handy sentiment stamp, you can create a beautiful card in minutes.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies used:

Patterned paper: HOTP Ultimate Floral Pack

Stamp: Happy Mother’s Day (My Sentiments Exactly wood stamp)

Embellishments: Silver Stickles

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Happy Mom’s Day with TSG Freebie Stamp

Posted on April 28th, 2012

Remember this stamp I showed a few postings ago from There She Goes Stamps?  I’d won it during one of their blog hops.

Well here’s one of the Mom’s Day cards I created with it.

Isn’t she adorable!?  I had so much fun dressing her up.  I paper pieced her dress from a really pretty floral green patterned paper.  Still working on my Ultimate Floral Pack of papers from my stash.  The background paper is also from the same pack.  I colored in her hair, skin and shoes with copics.  You can’t really tell on the photo, but I added some glitter to her hair clips, her pearl necklace and the bows on her shoes.

The sentiment is from Hero Arts Happy Greetings stamp set.  The great thing about gorgeous images like this one is that you don’t really have to do much else to your card.  Your focal image is enough to make your card stand out.

I’ve continued my shopping with my bonus funds, as I talked about in the last post.  I’ve turned to tools like spellbinders dies, a cool magnetic storage item for the spellbinders, and new adhesives I’d wanted to try like the Xyron Mega Runner and Quickie Glue Pen.  I’ve also stocked up on some additional stamp sets.

I think my final bonus funds shopping will take place on May 12th, when my local papercrafting store will have their bi-annual tag sale.  I get there bright and early so I have a shot at getting some of the goodies I want at great discount values.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

Supplies used:

Patterned Paper: Floral Ultimate Paper Pack

Stamps: When I Grow Up (TSG), Happy Greetings (Hero Arts)

Additional supplies: Sakura Clear Star Pen, memento tuxedo black, copic markers

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Lawnscaping Challenge #32: Hopping by

Posted on April 24th, 2012

I’m so excited to have been able to make a card for this Lawnscaping challenge.

 

I know I’ve been trying to stick to just using my stash and not buy more stuff, but I recently got a little bonus at work, and instead of putting the money into our regular household budget, my husband was sweet enough to relieve me of guilt and insisted I use it for something fun.  So I used some of it to purchase a number of Lawn Fawn stamps.  Lawn Fawn has been a relatively recent discovery for me and I’ve quickly become a huge fan. There is just so much you can do with these adorable images.  I especially love them because they are perfect for paper piecing and for creating scenes.  So when I  saw this challenge I knew I just had to play with my new stamps.  Here’s what I created.

I think this might be my very first scene ever!  I knew I had to use stamps from Critters in the Burbs.  I live in the “burbs” and I can attest you definitely find all of these critters here, including little bunny rabbits like this one.  I used the tree, tire swing and the grass from this same set.  For the sentiment however, I had to combine a few sets.  I wanted to say “hopping by to say hi”.  I’d also recently won the Flying By set over at the Lawn Fawn blog which has the adorable paper airplanes.  The sentiment in that set says “flying by to say hi” so I just inked up everything but the “flying” part and then used Jessie’s ABC’s to stamp out “hopping.” I paper pieced the tree and the bunny and used copics to color in the tire.  I also sponged the background with blue dye ink.  So much fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies used:

Patterned paper: Retro 8×8 papers

Stamps: Critters in the Burbs, Flying By, Jessie’s ABCs (Lawn Fawn)

Additional supplies: copic markers, patterned paper scraps, brown card stock

 

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TESC156 You’re Dino-mite

Posted on April 23rd, 2012

The next sketch challenge at Taylored Expressions was quite the challenge for me, for some reason.  I think it was the whole circular element being on the top right hand corner that was just unfamiliar for me.  But I enjoyed forcing myself to try new layouts and after much trail and error and happy with the results.

Here’s the sketch:

Here’s my version:

I’m still working through my Ultimate Floral Pack paper stash from Paper Wishes and I must say I’ve dwindled that supply quite a bit over the last few weeks.  For the image I used Taylored Expressions’ Kid at Heart stamp set.  It’s such an adorable set for kids cards.  I was having trouble with the blue strip on the left-hand side.  It just looked too plain to me, so I added some ribbon from my stash and then it all came together.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:

Patterned Paper: Ultimate Floral Paper Pack

Stamps: Taylored Expressions Kid at Heart

Additional supplies: card stock scraps, circle and scalloped circle Spellbinders Nestabilities, ribbon.

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Dazzle cards

Posted on April 19th, 2012

You’d think that using up a sheet of dazzle stickers would be relatively easy.  After all it’s just one sheet of stickers.  And not even a whole new sheet of stickers, but one where I’d already used some of the stickers in projects done months ago.  I figured this would be an easy way to use  up my stash and get the satisfaction of throwing away the remains of a thoroughly used stash item.  Boy was I wrong.  Here are the 8, count them, 8 cards I made over the course of the last few weeks using the remains of a used dazzle sheet of roses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made birthday and mother’s day cards with this one sheet of Silver Stacked Rose Dazzles.  Now of course I could’ve stacked a number of the pieces together to make one multidimensional flower and used up my stickers faster.  But the thrifty crafter in me just couldn’t help but think about how many more cards I could make if I kept my stacking to a minimum.  The first card shows the last remains from the sheet, which were the leaf behind the stamped flower and the little vine of roses along the left-side border.

This is just a perfect example of how you can make your stash go a long way.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Happy Mom’s Day Card

Posted on April 17th, 2012

Oh my gosh folks, last week was super busy so I didn’t post very much.  Sorry about that :( .  I’m trying to get back into the swing of things so I should lots more to share this week.  First a card for Mother’s Day.  Now that Easter is behind us it’s time to move on to cards for mom.

I absolutely love the image on this card!  I colored her fabulous hair with copics and coloring pencils.  The background paper is from a Gina K. Designs Stamp TV kit.  I purchased two kits last year and I still have so much patterned paper and card stock from those.  I’m really trying to use up my stash.  The sentiment comes from one of those smaller sparkle clear Hero Arts stamp sets.  I got this set because it has all the sentiments you need for spring and summer including, “happy father’s day’, “easter”, and “july 4th.”    I simply stamped the sentiment with brown ink onto white cardstock and then eyeballed the side so that it looks kind of like a banner or is it a flag?  I get the two confused.   I added little flower dazzles both on her hair and to the side of the sentiment to add a bit of bling.

And here’s a close up of the image.  Isn’t she gorgeous?!

As far as purchases last week,  I had to restock on essentials like glue and blank cards at Michaels.  Part of the reason I was so busy last week, was making lots of cards for a craft fair on Saturday where I was hoping to sell some of my creations.  Unfortunately, I didn’t sell a thing :( .  It was a gorgeous day and the fair was indoors, so I guess everyone decided to work on their yards instead of going into a middle school to shop. Better luck next time I guess.  And the good thing is that I have lots of things done that I can add as listings onto my Etsy shop.  So it all evens out at the end.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

 

Supplies used:

Patterned paper: Gina K. Designs Wishing You Joy Stamp TV Kit

Stamps: Vintage Ladies (HOTP), Happy Greetings Sparkle Clear stamps (Hero Arts).

Embellishments:  Pink Flower Jewel Dazzles

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, copic markers

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Lawnscaping Challenge #31

Posted on April 10th, 2012

Today I’m playing along with the Lawnscaping Challenge which this time is coloring.  My Lawn Fawn collection includes stamps that are great for paper piecing, but don’t have a lot of details, which are typically the kind of stamps that really let you get creative with coloring.  Still I took the opportunity to practice my Copic coloring and shading.  Here’s what I came up with.

I stamped the adorable whale onto white with Memto Black ink.  I then played around with three different shades of blue, the only three shades of blue copics I own :) . Clearly I’m no copic expert, but I enjoyed playing nonetheless.

 

I used Fiskars border punch to create the two scalloped edges.  I then inked them with blue ink.  I then stamped the sentiment and rounded the bottom two corners with a corner rounding punch.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies used:

Paper: Patterned paper scraps, Stampin Up cardstock

Stamps: Critters in the Sea, Lawn Fawn

Inks: Memento Bahama Blue ink, Copics BG02,BG05,BG72.

Punches: Fiskars Scallop Sentiment Punch, corner rounder punch

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Get Well Stamp TV Challenge

Posted on April 8th, 2012

This weeks Mix It Up Monday Stamp TV Challenge is due in one hour!  I just got it done.  Luckily the challenge is fairly easy, create a Get Well card.  So here’s the card I created in a hurry.

I stamped the background using a Hero Arts Decorative Loops background stamp.  I’ve had the stamp in my stash for quite a while and this is the first time I ink it up.  I used Certainly Celery Stampin Up ink for a bit of a tone on tone look.  For the focal image I used Gina K. Design’s Various Verses stamp set.  However, the sentiment is from HOTP’s Expressions set.  There wasn’t a “get well” sentiment in the Various Verses set.  I backed the whole piece on burgundy cardstock.  To color in the floral image I used the thumping method with a Marvy marker.  For a quick card I’m really pleased  how it came out.

I added the brad for some dimension.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  And have a wonderful Easter.

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There She Goes Stamps

Posted on April 6th, 2012

Quick post today since I’m feeling a bit under the weather.  Look at what I got in the mail today, and totally for free!

 

I won this set which is from the There She Goes Stamp company’s April release.  I won by participating on their release blog hop and commenting on all the different designers wonderful posts all of which featured gorgeous and I mean gorgeous examples of cards made with this set, which is called When I Grow Up. There She Goes is a new stamp company for me so I’m excited to play with this set.  But I have to tell you, just from browsing in their shop, you’ll see what absolutely gorgeous stamps they have in their collection.

And just because I want to make sure that credit is given to this generous company here’s a close-up of their logo on the set,  isn’t it cute.  And you can see one of my favorite images on the set close up, the image of that adorable little boy with the oversize shirt and tie.  Making Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards will be a breeze and so much fun with this set.

Purchasing tally for this week: $0 (but I still got a new stamp set Yay!).

Thanks for stopping by!

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