Author: stampcatwg

Greetings and happy Saturday to everyone! Hope you're having a great weekend so far! I have been hiding out in the craft studio making a giant paper mess…oh, and a card! Today's card features the cute stamp set from Penny Black called Betsy Bluebell! The images are ADORABLE and so much fun to color. The sentiment is also from Penny Black. For this card, I chose my purple and green color scheme first and then got out the Copics…a lot of them! Surprising how a small image uses like, 100 markers! hee hee. Hope you likey!

Here's a close up of my coloring. To get her cheeks to look faint/flushed I colored her entire face with E000. I then lightly colored uneven circles in RV10 and RV00 for the cheeks. Then, I went back over the entire face a second time with the E000, even going right over the pink. Once it dries, it all kind of blends together. Her hair is about four shades of yellow and brown. The purple was achieved using the BV01, BV02 and BV04 combo.

I finished my two main images first and then had to decide what to do with them! Originally I wanted both on the front of the card, but it was just too much going on. So I ended up saving the smaller circle for the inside. They were cut out with my circle Nesties. The sentiment here is from Taylored Expressions. So cute!

Here is a picture of the stamp set and my Copic color palette:  

I stamped the main image a second time and then cut out some of the flowers to give the card some dimension and more pow! I added ultra fine glitter to the butterflies and the flower centers.  

Here is the inside of the card! The butterflies are part of the main image….so I inked up just those parts of the stamp to make it match! 
 

 

I have to run for now! We have just enough time to get to the gym, work out, and get back in front of the TV in time for the massacre Cal vs. Oregon football game. Say prayers for the Bears!

Enjoy your day! 

Hi! Today I am sharing my second Design Team project for Eat Cake Graphics. I'm sure many of you already have snow where you live…and it's cold here…so I thought I'd do a cute snowy card. Such adorable images from ECG!

My Copic color palette and the stamp images from Eat Cake:
 

I always love a pop of bright red with light blue. Something about that color combination! The polka dot paper is from Bo Bunny and the Let it Snow paper is from Martha Stewart. The snowflakes are embellies from Martha too. The small sentiment at the bottom of the card is from Papertrey Ink.
 

Well, yesterday was a cold and very rainy day here in my corner of the world. The perfect day to stay home, start a fire in the fireplace and stamp! That's just what I did. DH and Mr. Buddy watched football all day by the fire and I cleaned in the craft room and finished Thanksgiving cards!

It all started with the pretty focal image which I had stamped and colored some time ago with my Copics – in warm Fall shades of olive and brown. That sort of set the color scheme for the card. Then, I wanted some printed background paper…but everything I had was in black and white and that just didn't look right…I needed cream and brown…so I made my own! Then I used some gorgeous antique lace sent to me all the way from The Netherlands (thanks Holly)! And it just all came together into a homey feeling greeting.

This card has a million little details because I kept fixing things and adding things and then distressing and inking and on and on! The stamp is from PSX. The green paper is my ever favorite Kiwi Kiss from Stampin' Up. The oak leaf punch is an oldie but a goodie from Creative Memories. The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse. The lace was sent from my sweet pal Holly all the way from Europe! It's gorgeous and meaningful.

Here is my home-made patterned paper! I had fun thinking of Thanksgiving words and then typed them into my word processing program. I picked a typewriter font that I liked and then printed it out on PTI cream cardstock in brown ink!

 My supplies and Copic color palette. Not too many colors this time!

Have a great week everyone! Thanks, as always, for stopping on by!
 
 
 

Hey! It's a new month and time for some new crafty projects non-Halloween related! Thanksgiving sometimes gets lost in the shuffle…but I will be making Thanksgiving cards here pretty soon. Not to worry. I love Thanksgiving and all that it represents. And…it's still Fall! But today – it's a bit o' Winter here on the bloggy blog!

I want to share my excitement - and my first Winter card. This card is my first ever Design Team card!! I am in love with the cute images I got from Eat Cake Graphics and want to show you the card I made. It's featured on the Eat Cake Blog today too! Woo WOO Woo! I hope you likey!

Seriously…can you stand it? That little girl is so adorable and the little birdie with the ear muffs?? Puhleeze! Ack! I stamped the Christmas tree image to make a focal point as if she's skating outside in the fresh air. Added lots of chunky glitter stickles. Added some clouds… 

These are the three Eat Cake stamps I used. The sentiment is from Amuse and the little swirl behind her skates is from a clear stamp set from The Cat's Pajamas. You can see my Copic color palette. The chalk ink was for the clouds and the ouline of the sentiment. That ink is the perfect blue.

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! Did you dress up? Get lots of trick-or treaters? It was pretty quiet around our house. No wild parties for us this year! hahaha. Oh…it's my birthday week! Yay! DH and I both have the day off (Wednesday) and I think we're going to go have lunch and see if there's a good movie. Can't wait. I hope you all have a good week ahead.

Today I have a card to share that celebrates a happy occasion for some of my friends! My friends KB and SB are a wonderful couple and they finally got their own house! Woot woot! No one is more deserving than they are. I am so excited for them! I haven't been to the crib yet but I wanted to send a card right away. I am anxious for them to have a party so I can check it out! 

This card came together with a pretty piece of patterned paper and matching circle die cut. I "popped" the die cut with a crisp black scallop circle around it and also mounted it on some foam tape. the salmon colored polka dot paper is the back side of the other paper so it matches perfectly. I found a nice piece of ribbon in my stash with that pretty slate blue color.

The saying is one that I love from Amuse – May your house always be too small to hold all your friends…that's a nice sentiment, dontcha think? I wish them many years of happy memories and good times in their new home!

 
 Happy Weekend everyone!

I'm taking a break today from all the Halloween and Fall projects to share a pretty pink card. Over on the WPlus9 Design Blog they are doing a color challenge for Breast Cancer Awareness. The colors are light pink, white and grey or black. I definitely want to acknowledge BCAM so I was glad for the reminder to stop and take a minute to do so. Click here to go to the WPlus9 Design Blog! Maybe you want to make a card too…there is still over two weeks left.

Here is the Trigger Image for the Color Challenge:

Here is my Copic color palette and the stamp I used. That stamp is an old favorite from PSX that was purchased in 1995!! Don't you love their images? So detailed and classy. Their stamps are timeless. I wish they were still in business. I used many shades of pink for the flowers. I started by coloring every flower the same very light shade and then added darker (tiny) parts afterwards. To get the look of galvanized steel, use your cool grey palette.

This patterned paper has all kinds of nice sayings having to do with gratitude. I really liked it and thought it fit nicely. I used pink bazzill doodlebug paper and of course, a pink ribbon. The heart is from a Tim Holtz package of goodness!

Does your stamping table look like this after you make something? I mean, you would think I made 50 cards…but no…just one! It looks like a hurricane went through there! I have this big table, but I end up stamping in a tiny 6 inch square of space! hahaha. Have a great week everyone! My thoughts and prayers to our loved ones who are breast cancer warriors.
 
  

Today's card was inspired by the There She Goes Clear Stamps Blog and their Color Challenge #77. The colors for the challenge are orange, black and green. Perfect Halloween colors. I had this spooky potions stamp I've been wanting to use so it was a great match! There are only a few more days to make Halloween stuff! Can you believe Halloween is next weekend? It finally feels like Fall here…and we just turned on the heater for the first time (Buddy is very happy about this development!) and we are all snuggled in for the night.

Here is my card for the challenge entry:

There She Goes Clear Stamps…Color Challenge!

My Copic Palette:

The stamp is from Whipper Snapper…and it's called "Halloween Grocery List" – funny, huh? I colored it with my Copics and then added some glitter glue to the tops of the bottles and jars! I don't know where those funny shiny bats came from. They were a sheet of stickers in the Halloween bin! I like that little furry spider!

The patterned papers are from a cool collection from Stampin' Up!

I have something else kinda cool to share tonight! I am a Red Cross volunteer and sometimes that means I get invited to neat events. Today was the kick off for Sacramento's volunteer week at Sacramento City Hall. City Hall is just down the street from my office and the event was at lunch time – great! To make it even better, Captain Sully Sullenberger was the keynote speaker and he was given the key to the city! DH drove down and we went together along with another friend.

He gave a great speech about what it means to be a hero. His thought is that he was just a guy doing his job when an incredible situation presented itself. He is so humble and modest. He talked about how we never know what we are capable of until given the opportunity. He thanked all the other people involved in the incredible plane landing. It was super interesting that he talked about how he felt that day and what happened in the moments right after the landing. His wife and kids were there too. (He lives about 90 miles from Sac-town). The cartoonist Rex Babin, who drew a great cartoon, was there, and presented Sully a signed copy of it. What a totally uplifiting and inspiring event!

 
This is Sully and the Mayor, Kevin Johnson. He used to be an NBA basketball player…and he lived in my same dorm in college! Fun factioids for you! haha. You could tell the mayor was thrilled to have Sully here in our town – rightfully so. 

 Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

Happy Friday everybody! This was a long week even though I am not working today. I started to feel bad yesterday like I'm getting a cold. Really tired and achy…slept 10 hours straight last night. I stayed home from work today, and I'm still in my pajamas. I need to get better because we have a crazy weekend ahead of us (more at the bottom of my post).

Today's card is made with a fun Halloween Hedgie! I am in love with Penny Black stamps again! When I first started stamping 17 years ago I used to buy tons of Penny Black stuff. They used to have a booth at our local stamp conventions too. Remember when country was in?? All the stamps were so CUTE and COUNTRY! I still have a lot of those stamps even though that's no longer my style. Recently I re-discovered PB images at one of our local stamp stores. I bought this adorable Halloween Hedgie along with some cute Christmas images I will show you later.

I really had fun coloring this image with my Copics! To make the fur I used a bunch of different shades of brown and gray. No particular method, just kept coloring until I got it the way I liked it. His tummy is done in E000 and his cheek is RV10. Those are my two favorite colors for skin on people too.

I stamped, colored, and cut out a second balloon and then put some bling on it! The ultra fine crystal glitter is a fav! Then I put the second balloon over the first one to add some dimension to the front of the card. I didn't add a bunch of other elements because it's too hard to mail out. Keeping it simple and clean lets me mail out Halloween cards, easy peasy.

The "Flying by to say hi" image is a clear stamp from the Hero Arts Halloween words set. I think it was meant to go with a witch, but I thought it was perfect for our little hedgie too! The inside sentiment is from Amuse.

Okay, so I gotta tell you about our crazy weekend ahead! For part one of this story see this post from June! Part two of the Silver Surfer statue story (say that three times fast) is that tomorrow we are driving to Los Angeles (Greek Theater) to go to the Spike TV Scream Awards show! The producer of the show is the man who bought the SS statue! He has been so nice and gracious to us – unbelievably so. He invited us to be his guest at the awards show: VIP backstage access, parking, drinks… We are meeting his assistant tomorrow so she can show us around! It is bound to be an interesting evening! I'm still not sure if I'm allowed to bring a camera. You know I NEED to take pictures! DH got a new outfit (foxy!) and I just finished putting three coats of glitter nail polish on my nails. I think we're ready! I will have a full report on Monday. Take care everyone!

Today I'm back with more vintage-y Halloween stuff! I had everything out to make my card for this weekend's challenge and just kept going for this week's Taylored Expressions #131 Challenge! I love all this yummy Martha Stewart product! And I always love doing Taylor's challenges… Check it out!

Here is the sketch image:

I have never made one of these accordian circle thingees before! It took me a few attempts to get it right. I ended up cutting a strip of paper 1.25" x 12" and then scoring it at each 1/4 inch on my scor-pal. That seemed to get it the right size for a card. 

I wonder if this leaf bouquet is the reason Mr. Buddy had a tummy ache this week??? I found him munching on it. Of course he stopped and posed all cute when he was busted! 

Well hello there!! Today I'm posting my first Halloween project! I'm also continuing with the vintage theme. The Shabby Tea Room Challenge #30 this week is Vintage Halloween! I knew I had to make something. I happen to really love old Halloween stuff! I busted out all the black and orange and all the stamps and just sat there…overwhelmed… It was hard to get started. So, I decided to put the challenge inspiration image up on my computer screen (see below) and just let it speak to me! Voila! Chandelier pattern paper! and Spiderwebs! That got the creative juices kicked in. Hope you likey. Are you ready for the spooky holiday?

 Here is the Shabby Tea Room challenge inspiration image – so fun!

I decided to use the fun black and orange chandeliers to make my own background paper! Luckily I had a small-ish size chandelier clear stamp (Martha Stewart) so it was easy-peasy to alternate the black and orange!

The inspiration image also has spooky cobwebs so I thought I would add some! The final touch, that I think makes the background paper seem vintage, was to sponge black ink all around the edges.  I think it turned out kinda cool, if I do say so myself.

This card ended up with tons of different elements on it. The large focal image is a stamp I've had forever from Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers. Do you remember them?  After I stamped the image in black I distressed it with walnut ink stain and a sponge. Then I added this neat glitter glue that is black with flecks of green in it.  The other two stamps are also from Martha Stewart collections. I think the ribbon is too. That girl Martha loves her some Halloween goods!!!

While I was making this card I had the internal dialogue (again) about hoarding craft supplies… Some of the stuff on this card I have had for years! I threw caution to the wind…and used it all up! Know what? Nothing bad happened! I think I'll survive! I don't know why I do that. Oh well, just rambling. Hope you are having a great weekend!  

Inspiration can come from anywhere… Sometimes I pick out a stamp first. Sometimes it's a piece of patterned paper…or a die-cut…or a color scheme. Could be just about anything. Today's cards were inspired by a package of thick cardboard stickers from Debbie Mumm that I've had in my stash for a long time. I liked the images, and the colors, and decided to build my cards around them…and they also fit perfectly for the Curtain Call #50 at Stacey's Stamping Stage Challenge!

Here is Stacey's pretty inspiration image and color scheme:  

This pretty leaf border is one of those giant EK Success flat punches… Instead of making a border on the paper it makes a strip of cut-outs! The plaid paper is from a 12 x 12 paper pack I got last year at Michael's and is from K & Company.

Hey! It's October! I went to Target last night and I witnessed the Halloween-o-rama first hand! We are in full-on Fall mode now peeps! Yay! Now, if the weather would just realize it.

I just have a cute and simple card to share today. Sometimes you don't need to use everything in the craft room to make a card. Hee hee.  Sometimes, less is more. The images are super adorable Amuse stamps – what else? Hope you like it! The hubs and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary this weekend – nine years - on Sunday. Looking forward to spending some quality time with that guy! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

I want to share an idea I got from Julie over at her blog – Paper Trufflez. Holla Julie! She did some pumpkins on her card and I just loved the technique. I stamped my Amuse pumpkin in a nice pure orange dye ink. Then I got out my dark orange prismacolor pencil and colored over the image to shade it! Isn't that cool?

I didn't want my card to seem like a Halloween card, but rather just a hello for Fall. If you use orange and black, automatically is says "Halloween." By adding a pop of green (Stampin' Up Kiwi Kiss) you don't get that effect.

Hey! How is everyone today? I am back to Fall cards! Today's card is made with beautiful stamps from Waltzingmouse Rubber Stamps. I got out the Copics and started coloring away to make some pretty shiny red apples to share. 

I'm also super excited to report that I was selected as a Top Crop again for last week's challenge over at Taylored Expressions! Thanks, Taylor, for being so kind to me! This was a great sketch that I know I will use over and over again. It is the perfect sketch for a large square image as your focal point. Check it out!

As you can see, I'm back in the groove with my dark red, olive green and brown color scheme! This is the Cherry Cobbler and Soft Suede paper from Stampin' Up and some pretty patterned paper from Amuse. I used some new vintage brads from Stampin' Up also.

Here is a close up of the focal image. I used some clear glaze on the apples after coloring them in. I wanted them to be super shiny and appealing. Also, one trick I've picked up from other stampers is to shade all around the image in a very light grey. For some reason this makes the image seem more crisp. Try it!

Here is my Copic color pallette:

Brown is very hard to shade and blend. Use your darkest color sparingly at first – you can always use more. Start light and just keep working with it until you get the effect you want.