Thank you

This has been a crazy month- my husband and I got a call on Jan 16 saying we had been matched to adopt a brother and sister- he is 10 months old, and she is nearly three. Our son was placed with us on February 3, and it's been a crazy ride ever since- going from no children to having an infant in the house has turned our world upside down- in the best possible way imaginable. It's incredible to watch him grow and develop each day, and the changes are amazing. He's moving along the furniture, crawling all over the house and is eager to start walking.
We met our daughter for the first time on Friday, and will be doing weekly visits with her to get her used to us and her brother before we start daily visits in April. We are hoping she's going to be home for her birthday close to the end of April.

I was thrilled to see the theme of Don't Scrap It. I'd had an idea for some thank you cards for a while, and this challenge fit it to a tee.

The card is 4.25x5.5 inches- with a piece of white cut 1/4 inch smaller and layered on top. The monkey was stamped on a scrap piece of bristol paper and coloured with copics. The blue is the same shade as the base layer and cut with a spellbinders die. It was adhered to the card with foam tape.

The thank you sentiment is stamped on the inside of the card.

I am hoping to have more time to stamp in the coming weeks, but with the addition of a toddler to our family, I think my fun stamping time will be reserved for after bed... or I could teach her early!

Reflection...

Over the Christmas holiday, my friend M sent me a picture of a card she did, with the word puzzle in the subject line and the instructions not to google it to see how she did it. She sent me a card with the reflection of the Lovely Trees set from Stampin' Up. When we got back to work, she told me how she did it, and I had to try it myself.

This is my second entry for the Less is More one layer bird card challenge.

For this card, I used the bird stamp from the SU Nature Walk set. I stamped the bird on the cardstock, then stamped it again on a sheet of acetate. Then, I lined up the acetate image with the cardstock image and rubbed the acetate to transfer the bird onto the card stock.

I coloured the grass with shabby shutters and crushed olive distress ink. The water is broken china distress ink and the sky is stormy sky distress ink.

The birds were coloured with copics- E31 and E33 for the reflection and Y21 for the legs and beak. The top bird was coloured with E33 and E35 and Y26 for the legs and beak.

A tutorial for the reflection technique can be found here. 

I am really pleased with how this card turned out. I have to say, it's one of my favourites so far this year.

Bird is the word

This week's challenge at the Less is  More blog is a one layer card using birds.

Some days, CAS cards are no problem for me- others, it seems next to impossible. I checked out the LIM blog yesterday morning while I was waiting for the dogs to come in from their morning constitutional, and immediately had a couple of ideas, but I needed to get chores done first. I also wanted to go to Michaels yesterday to see if they had any new spring stamps out. I hit it lucky in the $1.50 bins. I picked up a new bird stamp, along with a couple of others that I can't wait to use.

I really like the look of a coloured focal point on cards, and I took a little inspiration from Chrissie's so happy for you card. For the coloured oval, I used Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey and Scattered Straw distress ink. The bird and sentiment were stamped in Archival black ink. To give the image a little dimension, I outlined the oval with N0 copic marker.

I have another card to fit this theme, but I'll have to post it later.

Shades of purple

When I got up this morning, I checked the Less is More challenge blog, as I usually do on Saturday mornings. I was surprised to see that the challenge for today is Predominantly Purple.

 It was particularly fitting, as I had planned to post this card later in the week, once I'd done the LIM challenge. I made this card for my dear friend Gail for her birthday.

I don't usually use purple, but my nieces were visiting over Christmas and they LOVE purple and pink. I have very little of those colours in my stash, so I hauled out what I had, and we played.

I taught my older niece how to use alcohol inks while she was here- she had a blast mashing the colours together to see what she could come up with. While she was playing, I made the card.

I used shades of purple alcohol ink for the background and stamped the image with staz-on. It was then layered on a light purple background that I ran through the herringbone embossing folder and placed it on a darker purple. The envelope was stamped with dusty concord distress ink.

Now that the snow is starting to fall here, I think I need to make some spring cards. My parents will be opening the greenhouse in a few months, and I need to get my stock built up for their clients.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November...

I am a few days late, but when I checked out the Less is More challenge Saturday before I headed to a work event, I immediately had an idea. It had to stay in the back of my head until I got home on Sunday, but I am thrilled with the way it turned out.

The challenge this week is to use red and orange- and given that winter is just around the corner, I will jump at the chance to use warmer colours.

I have the Hero Arts Dandelion flower seed stamp, and I haven't played with it much yet, but I was immediately inspired to use it- reminds me of fireworks.

For this card, I used distress inks in Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany to stamp the image, and cut the white card to 5x5 inches. I matted it on glitter orange stock cut to 5.25 square. The sentiment is stamped in black. I added spots of sparkle on the flowers with a Spica clear pen. It's a little hard to see, but it looks fab in person.

For the second card, I cut a 4.25x5.5 inch front and created a mask with a 3 inch circle punched out.
I sponged on Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey and Fired Brick into the mask and dabbed it with a babywipe to brighten the colours, then stamped the dandelion stamp three times.

The black looks a little washed out in the picture- it's more bold in person. 

Metallics revisited

I am having so much fun with this metallic challenge at Less is More.
This morning, I did some more canning- love harvest season. After lunch, I decided to play.

I've gotten a bit of use out of my Boss Kut poinsettia die, and I decided to try it with red metallic paper.

 

I ran the die through twice, which gives it a nice, full look. Then I added the leaves, adhering them to the card stock with Glossy Accents. I seem to be using that as glue quite a bit lately. I stamped the sentiment on white and layered it over a bit of red. Easy, peasy. I did play with a few options, but decided to leave it plain, to let the flower stand on its own. 

 Yesterday, I was going through my stash of metallic papers- yes, I have an entire container just of metallics. I love coppery colours, and this one jumped out at me. I decided to try a couple of things with this card. I have never done the cracked glass technique, and I was a little nervous about trying it. I discovered that if you don't like what you have done, the cracks can be heated back up and they will fill in, then you can start from scratch.

I used three rounds of ultra thick embossing enamel then stuck it in the freezer for 10 minutes. After I cracked the enamel, I rounded the corners and adhered it to the brown card base. The inside of the card has a white insert so the writing can be seen.

One more day left of this weekend. Can't wait to play with some of the new toys I purchased on Saturday.

Let's get metallic!

I didn't have a chance last week to play along with the Less is More blog, but when I got up this morning to let the dogs out, I logged on to see what the challenge was this week. This week, it's a colour challenge with METALLIC.

The wheels immediately began to turn. I had a few things to accomplish before I got creative today, including stopping at a couple of craft stores with my friend M. It looks like the Michaels stores here will start to carry Spellbinders (they were not actually on the shelves, but there were tags for them!). Then we headed to one of our local scrapping stores that is under new ownership and checked out the cards we'll be making at a Dreamweaver class later this month.

OK- on to the challenge. Anyone who knows me, knows I love sparkly things. Bright, shiny, new things. So, this challenge is a natural fit. However, there were a few false starts. I thought I had a brilliant idea, but combining two embossing powders just turned into a gigantic mess.

As I had to stay in the basement until the laundry was done, I decided to play with a punch I got last year that I haven't really done a lot with

 I punched the pine needles out of metallic green cardstock and adhered it to a green base. There are about 40 punched out boughs on this card. To dress it up a bit, I punched the circles out of metallic red card and adhered it with Glossy Accents. To finish it, I tied the bow and attached it with Glossy Accents as well.

The greeting was stamped and embossed with holographic embossing powder.

 I have a couple more ideas for this challenge, and there's two more days left in the weekend for me to play.

I like to move it, move it!

It's been a crazy weekend. I was busy yesterday, busy puttering today, and finally got a chance to play this afternoon. I went to my favourite LSS this weekend with M, and there were new House Mouse stamps... this one called my name. It fits in perfectly with the Less is More challenge this week, which is THINGS THAT MOVE. We could make a moving card, have an element that moved, or depict something that moves. So, mousey it was.

I actually stamped, coloured and punched the mouse yesterday, but I was in a bit of a bad mood, and nothing was turning out, so I put it to the side and came back to it today. It turned out that I didn't like the colour of the flower (pinks), so I decided to colour over it using purples. I had never done that before- colouring over one Copic job with another, but I like the way it turned out- it added a bit more depth of colour.

I finished off the card by punching the mouse out using a 3 inch circle, layering it on a 2 inch strip of purple and putting it on a base.

The more I play with the Less is More challenges, the easier the clean and simple method is becoming.

Can't wait to see what's in store next weekend!

LIM- one layer get inky... take one

This week over at Less is More Mandi and Chrissie have us making a one layer card, using ink. Now, everyone uses ink to make cards, you say... but there are lots of ways to make cards without ink- embossing, ribbons, embellishments, stickers, etc. I usually use ink on mine, and have no problems getting inky... in fact, my fingers are green and black at the moment, thanks to a wayward ink pad.

I had lots of time to mull over my creations today- the dogs had me up at 6:30, and when they were out, I checked the blog, went back to bed for a while, did some errands, and when I went to my stamping space nearly 12 hours later, I had some pretty good ideas about what I wanted to do.

The additional bit to the challenge is to do something you don't usually do, or use a technique you haven't tried. One of these cards fits into that.

I really admire Chrissy's cards, especially when she uses bands of colour, such as this one. I decided to give it a try. This one incorporates four distress inks- honey, marigold, rusty hinge and marmalade. I sponged them onto the card and then washed over it with a baby wipe. I find that the paper curls much less doing it that way. Then I stamped the Inkadinkado image over it in Momento black.

Seems as though I am on an orange and black kick tonight. I stamped the butterfly and sentiment in black, then coloured with distress inks. I put some colour onto a stamp block and painted it on with an aqua pen. For a little more dimension and sparkle, I ran a bead of glossy accent over the body and let it dry. 

I think I'll be taking full advantage of my weekend and playing with the one layer challenge more tomorrow. I usually do a card front and add it to the base, but Less is More is becoming easier for me, and the one layer challenges are helping to save paper.

LIM- Week 18 Less is More

Another busy weekend- before I headed out to work and errands on Saturday, I checked theLess is More challenge to see what was on order for this week. Monochrome. Not something I am really comfortable with- or really work with. I enjoy participating in this challenge because it helps me get out of my comfort zone, and gets me exploring my inner creative soul.

I got this stamp set from Chapel Road Artstamps last summer, and it hadn't seen ink- in fact, the rubber hadn't even been cut. I loved the look of the stamps from Chapel Road, and wasn't sure what I was getting into with unmounted rubber- all of my stamps before ordering from them were either mounted or clear. I really like they way they ink up- I just attached them to an acrylic block with a little tape and that worked like a charm.

 This is a 5 inch square, stamped in black ink. The diagonal band was embossed with holographic embossing powder to give it a little shine, and the dragonfly was embossed with clear EP five times to give it dimension and shape. It was embossed then cut out, before it was placed on the dragonfly background, which was cut out and placed on top of a black square.

This card I decided to do in shades of brown- the stamp is from LaBlanche. I stamped it in sepia archival ink, then sponged all over with tea dye distress inks. The edges were rubbed with a darker (burlap, I think) distress ink. The sentiment was stamped in the same darker distress ink and sponged all over with tea dye. I think it needs a little something, maybe a couple of brads or something... not sure.