Wednesday, December 30, 2009

A few more Annies


I found a couple more Annie images in the wonderful stash that Alice shared with me. Even though the designs are rather small, they're surprisingly quick and easy to color.







Stamps: Sugar Nellie, Cornish Heritage Farms, Hero Arts
Cardstock: Neenah, Stampin Up
Ink: Memento, Versafine, Colorbox
Other: Copic markers, Nestabilities dies, Sizzix embossing folder
Hero Arts gems, ribbon, pop dots


These are probably the last two cards that I'll be sharing in 2009. We have some major housecleaning
and preparations to do for the New Year and that means cleaning my stamp area, packing up the Christmas stamps and hunting for my Valentine stamps.




Here's wishing you all a very safe and Happy New Year!
I hope 2010 will be a very good year for us all...

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Meet...Annie!


My super sweet friend Alice shared a box full of stamped images with me and I found several of these Sugar Nellie Annies inside. I decided to make a cheery Goth card since I started coloring her hair black.

These Annie stamps are by Leanne Ellis and is it just a coincidence that Pure Innocence artist Heather Ellis shares the same last name? I wonder if they're related? Does anyone know?

I love Annie and I'll be making a visit to Funky Kits to get more stamps of my own. Thanks, Alice, for introducing me to Annie!

Stamps: Sugar Nellie, Hero Arts sentiment
Cardstock: Stampin Up, Neenah
Ink: Memento, Versafine
Other: Copic markers, Nestabilities dies, pearls,
sheer dot ribbon, pop dots

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Still more Innocence

I'm waiting patiently for my new Hero Arts stamps to arrive in the mail. In the meantime, I made a few cards with more (yep, you guessed it!) Pure Innocence digis.

My new favorite Nestabilities die is the nested blossom. I've used it here on all three cards, and I think it goes well with the Pure Innocence images.


These two digi images are now on sale at Heather Ellis' website . Pure Innocence clear stamps can also be found at My Favorite Things. The clear stamp sets come with sentiments, but the digi sizes can be played with--something I've learned to appreciate.


My daughter asked me to make some cards for a friend. I think I'll be making a set using Pure Innocence images since they're fast and fun to color--and I think I may have bought them all.

Stamps: Pure Innocence digital images, Hero Arts
Ink: Versafine
Cardstock: Stampin Up, Papertrey Ink
Other: Nestabilities blossom dies, Cuttlebug embossing folder,
Sizzix embossing folder, Copic markers, sheer dot ribbon,
Inkssentials white pen, Martha Stewart butterfly punch,
pop dots, K&Co pillow stickers

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Have a Gorjuss Christmas!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
I had this Gorjuss Girl cut and colored a long time ago and finally decided to use her on a Christmas card with non-traditional colors, along with my favorite brown.

Hope Santa brings you what you wished for!

Stamps: Gorjuss Girls, My Sentiments Exactly
Ink: Memento, Versafine
Cardstock: Stampin Up, Papertrey Ink
Other: Copics, Cuttlebug embossing folders, buttons, ribbon, pop dots

A treeless Christmas...

I've seen photos of some gorgeous Christmas trees on friends' blogs. Perfectly sculpted, beautifully decorated trees. Here's a photo of ours. This is the first Christmas that we are without a real, honest-to-goodness, bloomin' live evergreen. Oh, we could have gotten one earlier. We kept seeing that Christmas tree tent up and thinking that they'll still have trees for sale the following weekend.

But there were definitely less trees for sale than last year and it didn't help that several containers of trees were rejected and returned because of some bugs that the inspectors found. I think our daughter would have taken a tree with bugs and sprayed it with insecticide herself, if it meant having a live tree.

So thank goodness for the 18" artificial one that her boyfriend gave her last year. I kind of like it. You don't have to water it, it was already decorated and even has lights on it. The only thing missing is.......the smell. But at least we have a tree to put our presents under! Or around....

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

More Pure Innocence


Here's another card made with Pure Innocence digis. Heather Ellis' Etsy shop is closed until January 3rd because she's on holiday, but you can still get some digis from her second website here and, as Erin informed me, they are now on sale! And there are a few new images as well. Thanks, Erin!

I just love the innocent charm of Pure Innocence designs. They are quick to color and make for super quick cards. Hope you'll like them, too!

Stamps: Pure Innocence digital image, Hero Arts sentiment
Ink: Colorbox, Versafine
Other: Copic markers, Nestabilities Label dies, Sizzix embossing folder,
K&Co pillow stickers, MS butterfly punch, ribbon, twine

Monday, December 21, 2009

Post Blog Hop...

I've finally recuperated from the Hero Arts blog hop a few days ago...It was so much fun! So many wonderful ideas from special guest bloggers--did you see Tim Holtz?? --that my wish list of the newest stamps got even longer!

I want to mention that the technique that I used on the row of houses can be found here. The wonderfully talented Jennifer McGuire shared this during Fall Stamp Camp at Two Peas. When I first followed her tutorial, I couldn't stop making the backgrounds.

Just follow Jennifer's tutorial and you'll be water splotching, too. I covered the embossed house design and "grass" portion with a protective piece of paper so the water spots would show only on the "sky" portion. I hope you'll try it.....it's so much fun!


Also, the paper wallet was a lift from a cute one that my super creative friend Kelly Booth shared on her blog a few weeks ago. She sewed hers, which made for a stronger wallet, while I used terrifically tacky tape and faux stitching. We both used velcro closures. Thanks, Kelly, for the great gift idea!
...........

The online version of Hero Arts' 2010 catalog is available here! The catalog features all the new stamps shown during the blog hop and favorites from last year, too. Enjoy!

Friday, December 18, 2009

It's time to hop!





Welcome to Hero Arts' 2010 Catalog Blog Hop! The excitement has been building all week and the hop has officially started! Start here and visit over 30 blogs featuring ideas using Hero Arts' newest stamps!

The 2010 catalog will feature some house stamps and this row of houses stamp has a lot of possibilities--new home, a move, housewarming. After embossing the houses, I ink distressed and water splotched the "sky", then stamped over the entire card with the Friend definition stamp. I trimmed the image to make a smaller card and added a puffy heart sticker for dimension.




And here are two ATCs that I made with some smaller pieces using the same technique.

Stamps: New! Row of Houses (H5328),
Friend Definition
Ink: Distress Ink in Peeled Paint, Pine Needles, Broken China, Spiced Marmalade and Walnut Stain; Versamark
Cardstock: Stampin Up and Basic Grey
Other: Clear embossing powder, buttons, twine, puffy heart stickers

I am so glad that I got to play with these little girls. They are so cute and fun to color! I tried to use different skin tones and hair colors and it felt like I was playing with paper dolls! There are so many possibilities for using them, too.

Here's a simple paper wallet to hold a little cash or a gift card. I used a Cuttlebug folder to give some texture and decorated with Hero Arts felt flowers.




On this card I trimmed off the heads (ouch!) and tilted them slightly towards each other for a "best friends" card. I also sanded down the embossed background to make the flowers pop.



Stamps: New! Sweet Wonderful You (CL381)
Cardstock: Hero Arts notecards, Stampin Up
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Copic markers, Sizzix embossing folder,
Hero Arts gemstones, felt flowers, sanding block


Thanks so much for hopping by! Now hop on over to
Lisa's blog for more great ideas on using Hero Arts' 2010
catalog stamps.

Remember, if you find a link that doesn't work, you can always hop back to the Hero Arts blog for a list of direct links to all the blogs in the hop!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

More Christmas cards...



Here are a couple more Christmas cards that I made over the weekend. This poor Greeting Farm deer was cut and colored months ago and tossed around in my scrap bag. His neck was a little bent so I supported it with the poinsettia button and he's good as new. Can you tell that the little snowflake is resting on his nose?
Stamps: The Greeting Farm, My Sentiments Exactly
Ink: Memento, Versafine
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Other: Nestabilities dies, Cuttlebug folder,
Copic markers, buttons, ribbon, pop dots


It's pretty obvious that I love Pure Innocence digis and found more on Heather Ellis' second website. There are some images here that aren't in her Etsy store. This is the same image I used on an earlier card but I used softer colors and it's the first time I've placed the sentiment on the side. Does it look weird?

I think I'm pretty much caught up with my Christmas cards...don't ask me about my shopping!

Stamps: Pure Innocence digital, My Sentiments Exactly
Ink: Colorbox
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Other: Nestabilities dies, Cuttlebug embossing folder,
Copic markers, pop dots

Monday, December 14, 2009

Hero Arts' Blog Hop countdown


In just four days, Hero Arts will be having if not the largest, then the most exciting blog hop in blogland history! Thirty artists and guests will be showcasing the newest images from the 2010 catalog and I am honored that I was asked to be a part of this exciting event!

And stamp stores worldwide will be hosting preview parties. Check here to see if there's a store near you so you can join in on the fun and get your hands on Hero Arts' newest releases.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Love digis?




Just sharing two cards made with Pure Innocence digital stamps that I bought from Heather Ellis' Etsy shop. You can find her stamps online, which cost three times as much, and then wait for them to arrive by snail mail. Or you can get these digis in 24 hours or less--sometimes as soon as you pay for them. Gotta love that!










Now a ton of stamp companies are going digital and besides being less expensive than an actual piece of rubber, you can play with the sizes and flip the images to face different directions with the click of a button!

All main images from digistampcharacters
Nestabilities dies
Copics for coloring






And I just have to share that I won some stamps in a drawing from Your Next Stamp, just by displaying their blinkie on my blog! They're having a blog hop right now, through December 14th with lots of fun and prizes. They have a new release of the cutest bugs and animals--perfect for little boy cards which I'm really excited about! Can't wait to choose my prizes! Thanks to Maylee for helping me with the blinkie code--I wouldn't have won without your help!

Monday, December 7, 2009

A Christmas Sprout and Sneaky Peeks!



A few months ago, The Greeting Farm held a contest to design a new "Sprout" character. There were a lot of amazing entries and some pretty talented people out there. The winner was Kim Yu and her design was turned into rubber. She named her Sprout "Sassy Suzi" and dressed her in a long fur trimmed coat and gave her a cool hairstyle!

I bought Suzi last week, during TGF's release and made this Christmas card for an older teen. Although it's hard to see, I lined up all the sentiments from a MSE stamp set and stamped them as the background and made my own patterned paper.

Stamps: The Greeting Farm, My Sentiments Exactly
Cardstock: Gina K, Stampin Up
Ink: Memento, Papertrey Ink
Other: Copics, Assorted Nestabilities dies, snowflake buttons,
Sizzix embossing folder, pop dots


And come and join Hero Arts all this week for sneaky peeks and reveals from their 2010 catalog! In the evening they'll reveal that morning's peek and be sure to wear a bib because you'll definitely be drooling! Contests and prizes galore! There's even a blinkie contest going on along with their weekly challenge. Are you excited yet? Then head on over and join the fun and excitement of their new catalog reveal! See you there!
***
Big hugs and thanks to Vera Rhuhay for kindly helping me put the blinkie on my sidebar. You are a techy genius, Vera!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Peace, love, and cupcakes


Before I send the Sophie card to Jennifer, I thought I'd make a few more cards and mail them all out on Monday. I had these Taylored Expressions cuppies already colored and the card drive is a good incentive to turn them into cards.


I bought these stamps last year and they were my first introduction to cling stamps. When my friend Alice was chosen to be a part of Taylor's Sketch Crew, I found them and remembered how cute they were. I just realized that the tan cuppie looks more like a muffin.
Stamps: Taylored Expressions, Hero Arts
Cardstock: Gina K, Stamin Up
Patterned papers: Basic Grey, Papertrey Ink
Ink: Memento, Versafine, Papertrey Ink
Other: Nestabilities dies, Copic markers, ribbon, pop dots,
Hero Arts gemstones, Glossy Accents, ultrafine glitter

And look at this adorable mini card that Jenyfur from Caardvarks sent me along with a RAK that I won last month. I was more excited about her card than the Clean and Simple stamps which were the actual prize. It's a cute 3x4" digital hybrid card, and I noticed Hero Arts' digi penguin and snowflake images. So much texture and embellies on a tiny masterpiece. The stamps are pretty cool, but receiving a handmade card is priceless! Thank you, Jenyfur!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Card drive and yummy candy!

Jennifer McGuire is once again hosting a card drive for ailing children and their families. Cards for Kids is an ongoing one, and cards can be sent not only at Christmas, but year round.

Visit her blog for the details and even if you're super busy, it's such a "feel good" effort to send even one card to brighten a young child's holiday or any day. Even a (gasp!) Hallmark card would be heartfelt and appreciated.

Our younger daughter was a cancer patient when she was 10 months old and I can empathize with families who spend the holidays in or out of the hospital with an ill child. Siblings are sometimes forgotten and a card would surely brighten up their day as well.

Thanks to some enabling from Alice, I've discovered Mo's digital images that are so easy to print and color. This Sophie card will be on its way to Jennifer this weekend.
Stamps: Mo's Digital Pencil, My Sentiments Exactly
Cardstock: Gorgeous red by Gina K (thank you, Judy!)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Other: Nestabilities oval dies, Sizzix embossing dots,
Copics for coloring, corner rounder, buttons, twine, pop dots



And the very talented Jenn Biederman is generously giving away her prizes that she won for a Hero Arts challenge together with a card and an ATC that she created. Her cards alone are the true prizes and I can attest to this because I own a "JB original"! Visit her blog and prepare to be dazzled by her cards, projects and layouts. Thanks, Jenn!