Spring Woods Sympathy

Happy Monday, Friends.

I was greeted at work this morning by the news that my boss had just lost his Father-In-Law.  I am close with him and his wife, so a handmade card (plus some baked goods) are definitely in order!  Keeping with my New Year's resolution to USE EVERYTHING I ALREADY OWN and cut back on buying, I hit my stash and found the perfect set that I fell in love with last year - Papertrey Ink's Spring Woods.  Here's how it turned out:

I love birds! This pretty gold finch is bright and peaceful, and I think he will deliver a warm message of sympathy to my friends.  I didn't want it to be too 'busy'... less is more with Sympathy cards, so I found this trio of ribbons to add something without being flashy:

 I love the look of the layered stitched circles:

And my trademark finishing touch (the mailman hates me) is popping something out with foam squares - in this case, my gold finch!

This set was so easy to use - the multiple layers were easy to line up with my MISTI - I am happy I decided to pull out this set and use it - Now I can't wait to use it again!

Thanks for  looking - Have a great week!

About this card:
Card Base: Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White
Patterned Paper: DCWV Fresh Floral Stack
Stamps: Bird & Branch - Papertrey Ink Spring Woods
Stamps: Sentiment - Papertrey Ink Comfort Food
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black & Dandelion; Papertrey Ink New Leaf, 
Cocoa Bean & Summer Sunrise
Stitched Circle Dies, Ribbons, MISTI, 3D Foam Squares

Houston, We Have Cuteness!

Hello Crafty Friends!

Today I'm sharing with you, my first ever entry into a "My Favorite Things" weekly challenge.  This week's sketch challenge was to create my own take on this sketch:

I have quite a few "My Favorite Things" stamp sets that I haven't used yet, so I cracked open my BB Space Explorer set and got to work!

Isn't he cute?? I needed a card for a special boy, who is not a relative, for Valentine's day and this card will be perfect for him!  I colored our little astronaut with my Copics, trying to pull in the aqua color from the patterned paper I chose.  I also included a sheet of acetate for a window effect:

I found the most amazing 12x12 pad of patterned paper on the Hot Buy rack at Michael's recently - it's made by "Craft Smith" and the pad name was "AURORA" - lots of space and gem patterns, which were just PERFECT for this card.

For a little extra dimension, I popped my sentiment out with foam squares:

While still not perfect, I'm happy to see improvement with my coloring... practice is definitely essential with Copics!

I had a lot of fun getting creative with this sketch - I hope to do more in the near future.  Any time I can get a creative boost with a sketch or a color combo, it helps me get started.  If you want to play along, the challenge can be found here.  You have till Tuesday 1/30/18 at Noon EST to enter your card.

Have a great week - Make something BEAUTIFUL!

About this Card:

Card Base: Papertrey Ink Cardstock in "Pure Black"

Patterned Paper: Craft Smith "Aurora" pad (Michael's)

Stamps: My Favorite Things "BB Space Explorer"

Copics: E00, E31, Y00, Y02, Y06, BG10, BG13, BG15, BG18, C1

Stitched Circle Dies, Acetate Sheet, Sequin Stars, Adhesive Foam Squares

You've Been Spotted!

Happy Thursday!  To me it feels like Friday already - Here in early January in Pennsylvania, we have the Annual PA Farm Show in Harrisburg which runs for a full week.  I'm not really the "FARM-Y" type, but it has become a family tradition to go spend a day up there, so we're taking the day off of work/school to head up there tomorrow.  The schools are great about giving an excused absence to go learn all about our state's agricultural highlights.  There are TONS of animals, GREAT food and LOTS to learn.

One thing our state DOES NOT have is leopards! Does yours?  (I'm totally jealous if you do...) I got the cutest stamp set from My Favorite Things called "Lovable Leopards" and couldn't wait to use it!  I actually made this card to play along with MFT's current color challenge, but decided not to enter it when I realized that I forgot to use one of the colors in the challenge (insert really sad face here).  I was supposed to also use a cornflower-blue color, which you can see is clearly missing here:

I had tons of fun coloring this image with my Copics... And did you notice that I captured my little guy at night?? I'm not sure that a lighter blue would have really fit in anywhere on this card, so I'm happy to keep it the way it is and try harder on the next challenge.

I didn't secure the leaves, because I liked the way they were hanging freely - it also gave my little guy a place to hide!!

I feel like I'm getting better with my shading techniques when coloring with copics.  If you're looking for a good place to start that's easy, try doing some small leaves like these!

I hope I've inspired you in some way today - Come back soon to see if I can follow directions on the next challenge!!

About this Card:
Card Base - Classic Kraft (Papertrey Ink)
Stamps/Dies - My Favorite Things "Lovable Leopards)
Copics - YR02, YR04, YR07, Y11, Y13, Y15, G12, G14, G17, E11, E13, E15
Stash - Circle Die, Stitched Landscape Dies, Vines Die, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, Enamel Dots

Jammie Day!

Hi, and Happy 2018!

Clearly I took the entire year of 2017 off from this blog - Not intentionally, but 2017 was not a particularly great year for our family, so creativity was low to say the least.  The good news is that I'm committed to getting back into card making full steam!  I'm hoping to enter lots of challenges, so please keep me accountable.  2017 Didn't stop me from BUYING all the pretty things, so let's get to USING them!

My dear friend's appendix burst this past weekend, and thankfully she is ok, but had to have emergency surgery and is now recuperating.  She is one of my card-making buddies, so I wanted to send her something cute.  I've had Papertrey Ink's "Take It Easy" set in my stash FOREVER, which is perfect for this occasion, so I decided to put it to use:

What is more perfect than relaxing in your Jammies when you're recovering? NOTHING!  This set has different sayings you can put in the 'headline' of the newspaper, and offers 2 different sets of jammies to color/cut.  There are other accessories like a box of tissues, hot water bottle, pillow, food tray, etc. that help make the scene complete - I just like to keep it simple.  I had a lot of fun with it, and while I don't want anyone else to fall ill, I'm armed and ready with this set for the next time we need a 'get well' card.

I was excited to do a little coloring as well - I used my Copics on the jammies and tried my best to coordinate with the patterned paper.  Check out this cute set from Papertrey Ink for your next 'get well' project!

Have a great day crafty friends - stay warm!

About this Card:
Card Base - Amethyst Allure (PTI)
Patterned Paper - Fresh Floral Stack (DCWV)
Stamps/Dies - Take It Easy (PTI)
Copics - V15, Y15
Stitched Oval Dies, Memento Ink - Tuxedo Black - Stash