Popped Flower

See how I popped that flower up a bit on this one. It is a nice way to add a bit of depth to an image. This flower from the Forgive Me by FCD is one of my favorites! It is just the right size for a card front without needing too much and it is so pretty no matter what color palette you choose to go with. Notice the center of it also is a green Rain Dot from Fiskars.

I used some glittery purple and gold paper from DCWV Once Upon a Time mat stack. The flower is stamped on Gina K paper and colored with Copic Markers BV08, V09, G94, G99 and Y17. I just simply matted and then pop dotted the very top layer up.

hugs,

Elephant Birthday

I finally got confirmation that this card arrived to it's destination - I have been waiting to post it so as to not spoil the surprise :)

This was a fun bright and cheery card to make and I love the striped paper (Making Memories Just Chillin' Paper) paired with my own pattern paper made from stamps from the
Elephants on Parade by FireCracker Designs.

Isn't that Elephant fabulous! Well I sure think so :)

Hope you all have a great Monday we are trying not to blow away here the wind is horrendous right now! They are saying something like 60+ mph. Joy joy for the ride home - glad it is short and my car isn't too high off the ground. Hope it has died down before dh has to make the trek in the truck he has mostly farm land to travel through so there isn't much to stop the gusts.

hugs,

FCD Challenge #3

Carol's Sketch Fun #14 was a fun sketch - only I didn't get mine uploaded in time to play in her contest.

This is also a card for the Stamp Something blog challenge to use your Favorite Colors or Papers - only I didn't get it up in time for that either! (ETA - I did post it in the gallery at SCS though so I linked through Mr. Linky to there)

BUT I am uploading in time for my FCD weekly challenge LOL!

The Challenge was a recipe:
1 Patterned Paper, 2 Solid Colors of Paper and only Brads, Eyelets or Ribbon for embellishments.

So what do you think?

Stamps: FireCracker Designs by Pamela Bridge of Thought and Sweet Child of Mine
Paper: Paper Studio Pink Armadillo & Hollo's
Pure Color Ribbon
Copics: E00-E21-E33-E37-Y21-Y28-Y17-G21-C1-0
Memento Rich Cocoa

hugs,

Hambo September Sketch

Isn't this a fun card! I used this little chick I have from Hambo Stamps and followed their September Sketch.

The paper is made from using the TJ Bingo Blast technique and I added a little ric rac to it.

hugs,

Before Fish & After Fishes

I hosted a swap on SwapBot for a Step it Up card and this was the card I sent to my partner Monica. I colored the fish with some colored pencils (I think LOL - it was awhile ago!) and then went over him with Angel Wings Shimmerz. The stamps are from FCD set called Something Fishy and Dots Hollow - Bubbles single. I (We) also used the Something Fishy Die Cuts for the grasses. No way I could cut those out so well by hand! LOL

So I used my slice and cut out a large circle and basically made it a port hole window so you could see the fish in it. Backed it with a piece of background paper I made with Copic Markers and over stamped with the bubbles stamp. Tucked some grasses in the edges and added the sparkly fish on top.

Here is what Monica did to step it up!

She defined the edges with some faux stitching around it, added the second fish to the top - cool now they are buddies! pop dotted some grasses on the ones I had put on and added a cute little snail to the side. Wonderful additions!

This is a super fun swap and I plan to give it a go again on SwapBot so I hope some more of you will join us! Just watch my sidebar for the ones I am hostessing.

if you'd like to see the card Monica sent me and that I stepped up for her you can go here to her blog and see where she posted it.

hugs,

Happy Holidays

Another one of the cards I made for swapping on SwapBot - we are trying to get some holiday card ideas going - yep I still haven't come to a decision on what I am going to do!
I just did a little coloring, rounded corners and then layered this onto the card.

Supplies Used:
TAC Hello Snow T3022
RRR
Hero Arts Happy Holidays
MM Boho Chic Lauren paper
Snowflake Brads from Spare Parts
Copic Markers C1-B97-B93-B95-0
Sakura Gelly Roll Metallic, Fiskars Rain Dots
Marvy Corner Rounder
Palette Inks in Ballet Blue, Seascape and Prussian Blue
memento Tuxedo Black ink
Joanne's Paper Stack and Misc Paper from Hollo's

There is a sequel to this Christmas Card swap going on right now
- you have to sign up by Friday though! Link in the sidebar!

hugs,

Blog Candy Alert

Hey everyone!

My friend Tracy over at Cotton Pickin Cute is giving away a "tiny party in a box"

Go check it out!

hugs,

Birthday Princess

Happy Birthday Princess!

Ok so I am not really sending this to a little girl princess but I liked how it sounded LOL!

Here is a close up of the coloring on the princess - I was really working on fading out the color o "almost" white LOL! I did it on both the hair and her dress. What do you think?

The ribbon from RRR had wands on it too so I had to use it for the bow on here! I also found a couple of the Rhinestone hearts in my stash and added them to the bow, her wand and her crown. I like how she turned out.

Here is the completed card...
See the word happy too and how it is shadowed - one of the new features on the MS+ cards for the Slice. I am liking that feature and wish it was offered on the old ones as I think shadowed tags and such would be nice also!

This Birthday Princess is on her way to wish someone a happy day!

Supplies used:
Copic Markers: V000, BV00, E51, E00, BV02, Rv13 & RV23
Sakura Gelly Roll Metallic Gold
Greeting Farm stamp
Slice
DCWV Pocket Full of Posies
Paper from Hollo's
Really Reasonable Ribbon
Threading Water punch from Fiskars
Misc. Rhinestone Hearts

hugs,

Kazan's Sketch 34

I was hopping around and saw Kazan's Sketch 34 awhile ago and I made this cute note card following it. Too bad I didn't get it uploaded in a reasonable amount of time.

Anyway the stamp set I used is called Silhouette Flowers from FireCracker Designs. I added small rhinestones in all the full flowers that were visible for a little bling factor. The white paper is creamy velvet feeling and aptly called Cream Velvet from Paper Temptress. The purple is from the Pop Tones line and is called Grape Jelly. Now well I wouldn't want any grape jelly on real velvet I think they work nicely together here as paper :)

hugs,

Autumn

This week the FCD DT challenge was Fall Fun!
You could either use Fall Colors or a Fall Stamp set from FCD.

I choose a bit of both :)

I used the Little Things set which has this wonderful tree trunk and leaves as well as the cute squirrel with his nut! We recently had to go pack our camper up as we are moving it for some repairs and as I was waiting for dh to finish his stuff I watched some of the area squirrels moving around and rolling nuts for their winter stash. Quite entertaining when they have their jaws stuffed full and are trying to roll them along the ground and carry as many as they can all at the same time! {grin}

Anyway I used my Kaliedacolor Autumn Leaves pad and stamped the leaves from the set all around the tree and then around the bottom too. I stamped and colored the squirrel with my E57 & E93 Copic Markers. I cut him out and mounted him to the side of the tree and also stamped and colored a nut that I then cut and mounted near him.

The word Autumn is cut from my Slice and the other embellies are just ones found in my stash. Yep I am trying to use what I have!

I did a little out of the box technique also and matted it the same way cutting the layers around the out of the box part.

I also have a fun fall poem to share with you all today


Fall’s Chores

Summer’s getting drowsy now;
Soon she will be dozing;
Flowers are folding up their heads,
Another season’s closing.

Fall is waiting in the wings,
Impatient to get going,
He has a lot of work to do,
Before it’s time for snowing.

"I have to paint the leaves," he says,
"In shades of red and gold,
And send the geese along their way
Before it gets too cold.

"I’ll ripen pumpkins on the vine,
For sweet Thanksgiving pies,
And plump the apples on the trees
To make cider that satisfies.

"Sunshiny days will be shorter now;
I’ll add a cool, crisp breeze;
For this relief from summer heat,
I make no apologies.

"I have just one more thing to do;
My work is almost done;
I’ll turn the leaves to crunchy piles,
So kids can have fall fun!"
By Joanna Fuchs

hugs,

Greetings & Salutations!

Welcome to the first Blog Hop of the new DT for FireCracker Designs.....what did you say?
I am old Dt?
yes duh I know BUT I am now part of the Creative Counsel for FCD
and we are all playing in this hop too PLUS our Guest Designer Lydia is playing also!!

Have you had a chance to check the new DT team out? If not you can see their bios {here}

ok so...

Are you ready?!?!?! Here we go!

Welcome to the first Firecracker Designs By Pamela Blog Hop for DT 04!

This month's theme is "Greetings & Salutations."

We were asked to create any piece of that focused on this theme.

*********************************

The official start time of this Hop is Friday, September 18, at 8:00 AM (EST).

If you arrived early, please be patient as all the links may not be live yet.

DT teams at times can be a "Wild Bunch" so I am saying welcome to the NEW Wild Bunch of FireCracker Designers! Glad to be working with you all.

My card uses the Fruit Cup stamp set that Pamela put out last year and I just love because it is so versatile! I used several of the fruits here and masked off as I made a scene from them. I colored with Prisma Watercolor pencils and blended with my Blender Pen.

How do you like my Pink Lady Apple? They are my favorites! Mmmmm add a little PB to the slice...Ohhhhh.....delish.....Oops back to stamp talk LOL!

I cut the tag with my Slice and then stamped the greeting on it. Put the brads through and mounted it on top of the scene piece. I added the line of brads all across the bottom to finish this one off.

Hope you enjoy and again - WELCOME to all the new DT members!

This is a “circular blog hop” where the beginning is wherever you start!! You will know you are at the end of your blog hop when you’ve come back to the blog you’ve started from!

(It’s not a huge circle…so it should be easy to remember where you started.)

The winner will be chosen from a mystery blog hostess that will be announced when the hop is over…that’s why you want to leave a comment on

EVERY

blog, so you don’t miss out!

**To find out if you’ve won… you will be contacted by Pamela via e-mail (so be sure to leave it with your comment.) and you can also find out on Pamela’s blog after the blog hop ends on Mon, September 21, at 8:00 PM (EST).**

Now, to continue the circle, you will need to hop on over to Libby

and keep going until you’ve come back to where you’ve started!

Thanks so much for playing along with us and we hope you have a great time!

hugs,

TriFold Herb Pot Thank You

Check out that cool striped paper from Making Memories, Floral Strip from Boho Chic 6x6 pad isn't it pretty with all it's fun colors! Well I thought so and figured that it would go well with the pot with the herbs (from TAC) in it. This is a fun TriFold card that I found on one of the TJ newsletters (or the bonus online maybe) . I didn't take pictures of the different views you get when it is folded on this one but I have another I will share in a few days that shows the whole card as each step is opened. I colored and shadowed on the pot with my Copic Markers. I think I like the shadow on this one - I usually have a hard time with that so I don't often do it. I added the Jenni Bowlan Self Adhesive Pearl Flower to the upper corner to finish and balance it out.

This was one of the cards I made for the SwapBot swap I had hosted for a unique fold card. Too bad you didn't join you might have received it in the mail LOL!

Don't forget to watch the upper right on my sidebar for updates as to what swaps I have going on so you can get in next time.

hugs,

LPSC32

I colored the Prima flower to match the card and then added StarDust Stickles to the outer rim of each petal - I like the effect it gave and added a little sparkle to the card also.

Stamps I used are Chocoholic from Elemental Doodles and the sketch is LPSC32 Sketch.

I love that I had the perfect paper from Basic Grey Lemonade Paper 6x6 to match the theme of the card which was Cherries.

Inside it completes the sentiment with
...the chocolate dipped cherries of life!!

How "sweet" is that!

Other supplies I used are:
Copic Markers E29 and R59
Prima Flower
Queen & Co. Pearls in Crimson
Memento Rich Cocoa and Rhubarb Stalk
White Gel Pen from Sakura
and
Aleene's Paper Glaze - which is no good anymore and just made the areas I used it on thick and milky looking but that worked ok cause it is CHOCOLATE after all! LOL

hugs,

Fairy Sparkle Wishes

I had stamped this image from TAC Birthday Wishes T2941 some time ago and then didn't know what to do with it so it sat and sat and sat until I was sifting through my paper pads and saw this lovely sparkly fairy paper in the DCWV Once Upon A Time Mat Stack. Ta Da simple to put together but fun and sparkly birthday card! I added more StarDust stickles to the stamped image to match the paper and then simply mounted it to the side so you could see the sparkles and fairy dust floating around :)

hugs,

Butterfly Thank You

I recently purchased Stamp Plate #2 from SweetPea Rubber Stamps and finally had time to get some ink on this one! I love the collage look of the butterfly but wanted him to stand out a bit more so I stamped him twice and pop dotted him on top of the first one. I added some Primas to the side that I secured together with a fuzzy brad from Creative Imaginations. The paper is from Hollo's except for the brown which is Hot Fudge Pop tones from Paper Temptress. The background orange paper is stamped with Rich Cocoa Memento using the Crackle Background from TAC (T-378) which I believe is now retired :(

hugs,

Cave Girl

Isn't she adorable? I believe she is made by Whipper Snapper. I got her from a friend and I think that was the maker but I am not 100% sure only 99% LOL! I colored her with Copic Markers including the yellowish background which I then used my colorless blander to remove some to give it a more mottled look like a rock wall as I figure that is what she would of been posing in front of :) The top layer of brown there you see that glimmer? It is called Scent a Mist and is a great product from Elemental Doodles. this one in particular is Sunshiny Day and smells really good - a little flower a little fresh - very nice! I wanted that glittery effect to show through so I finished this one off simply with a bit of thin ribbon, some prima's and a few golden colored pearls from Queen & Co. I finished it off as a birthday card inside for a friend.

The Scent-A-Mist is the only product of it's kind that adds shimmer, color and a pleasing scent to your art. More information can be found {here} along with a small spray sample of the colors currently available. I hope you will check it out.

hugs,

FCD09

Part of my "job" on the Creative Council at FCD is to do weekly challenges for the team. Participation is optional but of course we all like when everyone participates. So to get off on the right foot I am playing along this week also - albeit last minute LOL!

The challenge this week was to pick one of Pamela's sketches and make a card to share. I choose FCD09 and this is what I made:

I used the larger owl from Yoo Hooo!
Colored with Copic Markers and some highlighting with a white gel pen from Sakura. The patterned paper is from Making Memories Just Chillin' collection. I added the small oval with the sentiment also so it wasn't plain looking, although I kinda think it still is a bit plain lol! Some of the other girls have played along this week also so if you have some time their links are all in my right hand side bar for you to click away!

hugs,

RSC September Sketch

I saw the sketch this month was sponsored this month by Starving Artistamps over at Rubber Stamp Chat and I thought this Doodle Factory monster and some of my funky webbed ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon would make for a cute oopps I mean ScArY Halloween card!

Paper is from Hollo's and then letters are Crystal Sticker Bubble Alphabet from Mark Richards.

Hope you enjoy!

I have finally got some photographs taken and resized so I can get back to posting now. I'm sorry I missed so many days but it was also nice to take a breather for a bit!

hugs,

heading home today

hello everyone! I am sorry I haven't had any art to share with you all but I found out my travel plans so last minute that I did not have any time to schedule posts and we have been just enjoying each others company here that I have been mostly skimming mails and just trying to keep things in check so you'll just have to wait till I am home to get back on track!

Meanwhile I did want to share some blog candy with you from one of my favorites :)
Starving Artistamps! They have a new release coming and are giving away some candy you can check it out {here}

See you later!

hugs,

Busy Busy, NEW DT and NEW Stamps

I kinda feel like I have been in a blender and I need someone to pullleeeeasssee turn it off!

I have been busy with helping my husband, busy trying to help my daughter with a couple things, busy trying to get some personal card making done and busy trying to get myself prepared for the new FCD DT to come on while still trying to work and maintain the house. I am all confused and twisted around. I really wish there were margarita's in the blender instead of me! LOL

Let's start with the NEW DT, everyone is on board now and getting settled (after I bombarded them with a zillion emails tonight - ok not really but a good half dozen or so!) I am getting the calender reminders set up, databases formed and getting a feel for what I can do to help Pamela out here so I am seriously lacking on art work to share. Not that I don't have any but it still needs downloaded off the camera and edited and sized for the blog so you all will have to wait until I find some time, perhaps Friday!

Meanwhile here are 2 YES 2 new stamps sets that were released by FireCracker Designs.

First off Theater Lights!

What a great set to use for your Thespian or for scrapping theater events you have gone to!

Next is another gorgeous set called Leading Ladies!

I just love the image of the girl covering her face!

You can find all the info about these and more sets at FireCracker Designs by Pamela.

I have updated the links on the right to show the new DT team also and hope you will take some time to check out their blogs and see what art they have to share with you!

hugs,

Winner Winner!!! FINALLY!

So it is time to pick the monthly reader blog candy so
I go to my saved clip for which day to use from Random.org and this is what it says:

ummm not a single comment on this post...(cry cry weeping, rubbing eyes, sniff!)
I'll try again then so back to random.org and get a new # and clip it and another day is drawn but I didn't post anything that day LOL.

I will give this one more go and if there isn't a comment or post then no one is winning this month!

Off to random.org again and this is the new # drawn:

(click if you want to see winning post)

so on the 21st I have one lone comment and it is from Stef! So congrats to Stef I will be posting your prize out this week sometime I have your addy already so no need to send it to me :)

So if you want to win all you have to do is comment on the posts this month and you have a chance. I did the random.org one more time so I have this month's date from which I will draw from all tucked away...you never know it could be today or not until the very last day of the month or one of them in between :) he he

Good luck for September readers - I truly enjoy hearing your feedback on the posts!

hugs,

Birthday Wiper Card

I wanted to give Beate's tutorial for a Wiper Card a try. I was in need of several birthday cards...YESTERDAY! LOL so I am giving my belated stamps (FireCracker Designs set Birthday Balloons) a workout too. So Sorry to the birthday people!

Anyway I used some pretty floral paper and paired it with some purple cause I wanted to play with that cool dangling fiber that is shown there. I was going to put a balloon on the wiper portion but I couldn't get it to cooperate so I added the butterfly cut from my Slice instead which I think I like since I wrapped it with some floss to make antenni on it also! Highlighted a bit with one of my Metallic Sakura Gel pens too. Fun card!

hugs,