The birds and the bees...

and the flowers and the trees and the moon up above....and a thing called love. Do you remember that golden oldie song. I can still hear it on my parents' stereo. Funny things that stick in my head. Today's "ways to use it" challenge was to be inspired by music. I picked up this darling little amuse stamp and just added a few music notes with my copic (0.3) black liner pen. The bird is now singing to the bee.
The music staff with sentiment is from the Crafty Secrets "bird lovers" set.
Another fun little detail was the music notes that I created by coloring a few dew drops with my black copic marker and drawing the stems for them to sit on.
The curve is created with a flex ruler. You know the kind that bend and stay in that shape? My hubbby has one that he uses for drafting....it wandered over to my craft table...I guess it grew legs. heeheehee.

A close up of the adorable little image. A breeze to color. I added a little "ground" for him to stand on and drew the grass with my markers.
Nothing is sweeter than a little blue bird!

Happy Stamping!

Brown paper packages.....

tied up with string.....these are a few of my favorite things. Did I put a tune in your head, it was ringing in mine while I created the wrapping for these packages. They are going to my nephews but my sisters check my blog so.....I can't divulge the contents.
It was tough to get a good photo as these packages didn't fit in my white photo shoot box. Oh well.

This is my last post before Christmas, as my kids and hubby are now officially on holidays and I have been looking forward to spending some time with them. We have been playing a lot of "tag team" during this season, running from one event to another.

A little about these tags. I stamped the letters in alpine mist brilliance ink and the snowflakes in white chalk ink. Then I embossed them in detail ep. I then took my versamark pen and added some "snow" outline to my letters and embossed again. I then took my beige brilliance pad (for Jude) and my coffee bean pad (for Josh) and rubbed it over the entire surface. I then took a cloth and rubbed off the extra ink on the resist areas. Looks really pretty IRL.
My nephews are 4 and 1 so I don't think they will appreciate these but I think their mom's will.
I used Papertrey's "snowflake serenade" and A Muse "letter alphabet" to stamp these tags.
I want to say a HUGE MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my readers, some of you e-mail me and I have been blessed with many "blogger" friends this past year.
My wish for you is that you can join me in slowing down a little and enjoy Jesus, the reason for this season.
God's Blessings to you all!

Little quickies!

These cards were created for today's limited supply challenge on SCS. They are small quickie cards. It is nice to work with a smaller card sometimes, for variety. This first one uses My Favorite Things Boho Blossoms set. I haven't inked this beautiful set in a while and it was calling for some love. I used Brilliance ink in beige for the background on deep brown cardstock, then used coffee bean on my white cs for my images. Love the richness of this ink! Colored a little with copics, stitched the edge and added some martha stewart ribbon. Pretty quick and dramatic.
I was going for a much softer look with this quickie. I love this little charlie brown tree by A Muse and it needed some love too! I wanted to draw attention to the contrast with the healthy full trees (SU stamp- lovely as a tree) and the little meek charlie brown tree. I also wanted light to shine as a focus on my tree. I created the lighting look just with sponging and chalk inks. My embellishment for this card was using liquid applique for my snow. The darling sentiment is from.....you guessed it......My Favorite Things! The essential sentiments set is just that, essential. I reach for it all the time!

Enjoy your weekend, we have some fabulous weather here now! Just in time for the parade my daughter marches in tonight in Mission. She plays the clarinet in her middle school marching band. So glad it is not raining buckets!

Happy Stamping Weekend!

Winter Wonderland

I went to town with a friend today and bought something I have been wanting to try for a while. Can you guess by looking at my card?
Alcohol Inks!
I am very new to these but wanted to try tonight before bed. This little winter scene is done on glossy paper. I dabbed the alcohol ink on and then added some blender to soften. I stamped the memory box trees in black and my amuse penguin. Then added some snow with my white gel pen and some Verve snowflakes with chalk ink. The "winter wonderland" sentiment is Verve Visual as well. The other colors on the penguin are with glaze pens and I tried to make him look like he was hanging an ornament on the tree.
Looks to me like a first snowfall, with the green being covered with snow. Just like out my window right now! Our green lawn is being dusted with our first snowfall, so pretty.
There are A LOT of techniques that I am itching to try with these inks!

Happy Stamping!

Mod Trees

Lucky me! I could squeeze in some quick crafting time in between Christmas shopping today! This is using Beate's weekend sketch challenge. I LOVE circles! There are a lot on this card. I did the lollipop tree idea from a couple weeks ago but I have found the nice tree outlines from Memory box stamps. Two different sizes! I used my circles from "build a bouquet" by My Favorite Things and the little bird and sentiment are A Muse. The wonderful backdrop DP is Figgy pudding by Basic Grey. I stitched the circle to anchor it to my paper. Added some small accents, like the colored babbles and the ribbon with circles and dots.

I also cleaned up my craft table.....aka tornado valley....so it is ready for business tomorrow. See you then!
Happy Stamping!

The masses

Ahhh, yes, the sweet smell of productivity! In between designing I need to keep my local shops happily stocked up on cards. This is probably good for me, it reminds me that what is simple can be very good. This first set is SUPER SIMPLE. I went with the chocolate or sweet theme and scrounged through my stamps and found quite a few. The stamps are MFT, A Muse, Papertrey. The wonderful chocolate ribbon I buy in 100yd. mega rolls.....love the stuff! Colored with my copics.
These were even easier! No coloring, let my ink do the work! This is the "build a bouquet set" by MFT. The sympathy sentiment is MFT and the "get well" is SU. New Hey Sugar paper by Cosmo Cricket. Yes, the white ribbon, I buy in 100yd. rolls too! Just gotta package em' up and distribute. Whew! That should hold them for about a week....lol!

Happy Stamping!

Quick post

This is a real quick post today, as I am off to family functions and stuff all day. This card I did for yesterday's inspiration challenge on SCS and also inspired by Lauren's sketch challenge. We were to make a card based off the inspiring dishes from Pier 1. If I have time I'll post the link later. It was fun to dig out this penguin that hasn't seen ink in a year. It is by A Muse as well as the sentiment. The ovals were all cut with my colluzle and then my sewing machine went to work. Snowflakes are SU and colored with my copics. Thanks for stopping by, I'm sure I'll be longer winded tomorrow!

I've been tagged by Jeanne at Inky Paws, How cool is that! Jeanne is so inspiring in her work to me. This looks like fun!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Foxy Outlander

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Bubblegum gingersnap

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) SSIE

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Sage Koala

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)Lynn Quesnel

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Siesh

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”) The pink java

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Don Henry

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) I don’t wear perfume and don’t have a favorite so I’m gonna go with 2 candys instead (I'm following Jeanne's lead, I don't wear perfume either) Wine gum skittles

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Marie Dale

Who I tagged:

Alli at Card Metaphors

Theresa at The Joy of Cards

Kirsten at Confessions of a Naptime Stamper

A Muse Swap

Packing, packing and more packing....oh I hope it all fits! No time to play so I thought I'd post a picture of the fun A Muse swap I was a part of this summer. The lovely Taylor was the hostess so how could I resist! My card is the little doggie diva on the bottom row. Just wonderful eye candy to look over, wow there are talented people out there! These little jems will find a place of honor on my wall of cork they just make me smile, hope they do the same for you! If you click on the photo you can see them all close up! Have a wonderful day! Back to packing!

Summer Bouquet

What are some of your favorite things about summer? Mine has to be the flowers and sprays of color that the summer months bring! I wanted to create a tapestry of flowers for today's SCS limited supply challenge. This is a spray of many different stamp companies that I colored with my copics. I love the difference in scale on this card between the flowers and the little (A Muse) girl picking them.
Here is a quick picture of some of the supplies I used. I picked all these stamps up this summer and love em' all! It is so fun to color them any color I see in my mind's eye. If I haven't sold you on copics yet you really need to take a close look at these fabulous markers, I haven't had artistic training, they just require a little practice and then they are really easy to use! Check at the awesome sets at My Favorite Things! Take time to smell the summer flowers today!

Holiday Journal

The SCS challenge today was to create an altered journal. This was perfect timing for me as our family prepares for a large road trip! We are driving a total of 7200KM (4500 miles) to see the Grand Canyon and all the sites along the way. I have found from other trips that it is best to write stuff down and not rely solely on my memory. On to the journal... This is done with Urban Lily DP (so pretty!). The chipboard "S" stands for Siemens (our family name). I covered it with the matching DP and sanded the edges then inked the edges in black to give it definition. The holiday sentiment was stamped with my A Muse acrylic alphabet. The faux stitches, polka dots and the "soak up the sun" sentiment are all MFT. I'm looking forward to filling this journal with some fun memories!

Color Challenge and Doggie Diva

This one was for today's color challenge over on SCS. Tough combo... Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, and Green Galore. That makes one bright combo! I decided these colors suited something fun and whimsical. The background is an Impress stamp embossed in white. The sentiment is Anna Griffin and the girl on the bike is Great Impressions. I tried to tie it all together with pewter accents. The MM "laugh" plaque and the standard brads in the corners and the micro brads in her wheels. Colored with copics. Yes, I used my cuttlebug too, to create the flower behind the sentiment.

I had some leftover Crate dp from the other day, so I thought it was the perfect colors to use my little A Muse stamp. The sentiment I created with Karen Foster snap stamps. This image I colored with prismas and blended with OMS. Scalloped scissors for the bottom and around my frame. Large Primas and the cutest little ribbon for the top. I also cut little holes into my scallop edge so the card wouldn't be too top heavy. Thanks for coming to look!

Sweet Wishes

I just love this little bear by A Muse. He has an outstretched arm which lends him to so many possibilities! Here he is doing a delicate balancing act with the A Muse cupcakes. I colored their icing with my copics and have little micro brads from my CPS win to embellish each one. The sentiment is created with Karen Foster snap stamps. The background was part of today's challenge on SCS. To use up scraps that you would otherwise toss. These skinny strips were just laying around so I sewed them together to create the funky look. MMMMmmmm. Makes me hungry.

Polka Dot Parade

I did a dozen of these and they were a ton of fun to do! Loved using the polka dot theme. Start to finish they took me about 1 1/2 hours...not bad considering there is coloring and sewing involved. The flower/gift shops will be getting these this weekend.

Here is a close shot of the card. I used the Savvy banner stamp that was part of another set for the A Muse elephant to hold. I received this wonderful polka dot ribbon in some blog candy from Alli at Card Metaphors. I colored it with my copic to match the pink elephant theme. It is really quick and easy to do when you used the chissel end of the marker. The DP is from that mega stack of patterned paper from Costco. I drew in the patch of grass and both sentiments are A Muse.

My sewing machine went into overdrive on these. I did a dozen. Great cheap adhesive....these things will NEVER fall apart! Have a wonderful weekend! Go Lions Go! (for my hubby who is a huge BC Lions football fan!)

Happy Day!

Look at this little guy! He makes me smile. Happy Saturday everyone. I wanted to make some of those wonder gate cards that Beate has inspired me to make. It is nice having the seam up the middle, makes me feel like I am gift opening! This also qualifies for the "heat it up" challenge over at Amuseapoolza. I embossed the little bear.

Details: Bear and "happy day" sentiment are A Muse Balloon is memory box "wish big" is Savvy Colored with prismacolors and blended DP is wild asparagas (Costco pack) Ribbon, prima and brad from my stash

Enjoy your Saturday, I'm off to a wedding!

CPS sketch

Here is my CPS sketch challenge card. I love the sketches that are thought up on this site. My cards sell quite quickly (I know tough problem) but this usually means when I make one I better just make a dozen. Love this little girl from A Muse and her polka dot dress goes great with MME patterned paper. I added Rhonna Farrer flourishes to the middle and a strip of that yummy martha stewart ribbon. I used a large prima then punched out of my scraps a small flower for the center and secured it with a brown brad. Colored with prismacolors and voila!

Simple Joys

I rarely decorate the insides of cards but I couldn't resist on this one. I had some scraps leftover and I thought since it opens in a unique way it draws attention to the inside. Tired of birds yet?.....Not me! Love em'! This is Basic Grey pp (Phoebe) and a little bit of stamping and sewing. The sentiment is Papertrey and the little bird is A Muse. I cut out the flower with an exacto knife. You know it really doesn't take as long as you would think to do that. I wanted the flower to overlay on the solid strips of pp so I had to think this card out a bit. I usually just start right at it and don't really plan where a card is going. Wishing you many simple joys....my stampin' friends!

Mr. and Mrs.

Wedding season is well on it's way and I needed to get some cards done! I did up a dozen of these. I started out with Beate's weekend sketch challenge but in order to create balance on this particular card I couldn't do the three items down the side. It got too busy on me. Oh well this is a modification of that sketch. We'll see if Beate lets me enter it in her fun draw......

Details:
Image is A Muse
Sentiment is SU
Marvvy gigga scallop punch
Rhonna Farrer flourish
PP is MME
Primas and a jewel brad
White and glitter gel pens
Prismacolors and gamasol to color the image and shading in the BG.

What's Up?

Amuseapoolza challenge #5 is up.....create a scene. I have a few little animals of A Muse so I sat for a while with my stamps and tried to think a little outside the box with scenery. I decided to use my Rhonna Farrer flourishes to make waves in my ocean and a flourish for the water out of this whales' blow hole. I colored the water and whale with prismacolors and mineral spirits. The sentiment is A Muse as well. The background polka dots is a stamp by B-line Design. You gotta try this challenge....so fun!

Don't forget to keep scrolling and enter into my blog candy draw! Good Luck!

Ton of Love

I have had a ton of fun (hehehe) with the acrylic A Muse set of animals. These little elephants are so cute and I love that there is a male and female and that they can face each other. My little balloon is by memory box and the layout is inspired by Beate's sketch challenge. The paper is from that MEGA pack from Costco. A mixture of magnolia and wild asparagas. I used my Gigga scallop square punch to create the mat for the elephants and alternated colors to create a larger square. Karen Foster snap stamps for the sentiments. Wishing you TONS of fun this weekend (groan, I know).

Just Ducky

This is so NOT my color palette. This was for the SCS color challenge, and a challenge it was! The yellow we were challenged to use is so bright. I tried to break up the color by cutting up the card stock to see the strips of black. The Duck is A Muse and the little balloon is Memory Box. I created the yellow dots on my black scallop by first doodling them in white then going overtop with my yellow glaze pen. Used a glaze pen to color in the duck and his balloon. Amuse skinny oval stamp for the "puddle". I also used my small scallop scissors to create a border and to tie in with the gigga punch.

Good luck to those of you who attempt this challenge. I think I'll be putting my Yo Yo yellow AWAY! Have a ducky day!