Friday, February 25, 2011

A Mickey Valentine

Valentine's is long over, but I'm not quite done showing my Valentine cards.


This is the card I made for my husb... I knew I wanted to use this image, but it took me a while to decide what I wanted it to say. I found free Minnie and Mickey fonts, and went with the timeless couples idea. (The inside, of course, reads, "...you and me".)

Supplies: white & red cardstock, EK Success Mickey Mouse clear stamp, Brilliance graphite black ink, clear embossing powder, Prismacolor pencils Pin It Now!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Valentine Cards from Friends

Look at these fabulous Valentines I was fortunate enough to receive!


I love this card from Angela. It's a style I totally admire, and fail miserably at. Look at all the amazing elements she was able to incorporate into one awesome card.


Emily didn't just send this incredibly cute Valentine, she added some terrific goodies! She included all the supplies I needed to make a heart necklace just like the one she posted here (except in red, pink and purple); as well as a stamp of hers I'd admired that she no longer needed and a sweet clear stamp. Wow! Pin It Now!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Hambo Hoedown Goes to the Beach

There's something just a little bit addicting about getting a free digital stamp for playing along in a challenge. So here I am with another Hambo Hoedown challenge entry! This week is a bit of a double challenge: make your creation beach-themed, and use shades of blue, tan and brown.


If you played along with the challenge last week, Hambo sent a cute pelican digi to use on this week's challenge. I decided to use this heron image instead, maybe because there are herons in my neck of the woods, er, shoreline. Pelicans, not so much. I used watercolour pencils to colour this wetlands bird, of course. A little ripped oatmeal-coloured cardstock created the shoreline. This may also be my first unmailable card, as I doubt those little shells would survive the process.
If you were by earlier this week participating in the great big virtual Valentine's blog hop, you might want to check Taylor's blog... who knows, you may have won something! Hope you have a great weekend!

Supplies: oatmeal & blue cardstock, Hambo heron digital image, Inkadinkadoo sentiment, Colorbox royal pigment ink, watercolour pencils, dimensionals, shells Pin It Now!

Monday, February 14, 2011

It's a Valentine's Day Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Virtual Valentine's Day blog hop! There are a ton of participants and a lots of sponsors. If you pop over to Taylor's blog where it all starts, you will see the entire list of blogs and prizes. And I know you will see a lot of great Valentine-related creations! I'm participating courtesy of the sweet folks over at AmberINK.


Here's my Valentine creation:


The main panel of this card was created using the quilted card tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers. I tried the design with three solid colours and two patterned papers as the directions suggested, but decided I just had to add a few squares of my very favourite AmberINK iPaper! Solid black just looked too harsh. ;) The other elements of the card each pick up on two of the colours from the quilt; white and black ribbon, black on red Love sentiment and white embossed on red for the smaller sentiment. The stamps are from my current favourite Unity set, the August 2010 Kit of the Month, All You Need. That means it qualifies for the All Things Unity challenge this week!
Hop on over to Kristi's blog next; and remember, you have till Thursday at 6 pm EST to leave comments for a chance to win a fabulous prize. Thanks for hopping by, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Supples:white, black & Ruby Red Stampin' Up cardstock, AmberINK Schoolgirl Plaid-Fire and Ash: Tiny and Spin Pin: Holiday Black Tie Tiny & Festive Punch Tiny iPapers, Unity August 2010 Kit of the Month All You Need..., Brilliance graphite black and Versamark inks, clear & white embossing powder, EK Success 3/4" square punch, Offray ribbon Pin It Now!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Hambo Hoedown for Valentine's Day!

With V-Day on Monday, Hambo Hoedown's challenge this week offers a multi-eyed monster holding a heart. When I think of Valentine's Day, my mind of course goes immediately to strange-looking monsters. :P It does make for a perfect boy Valentine, though!


The image is coloured with Prismacolour pencils. The sentiment is actually a mash-up of the two sentiments offered with the eye-guy. I brought them into Word, and coloured, cropped and moved until I had exactly what I wanted. I think I might even be (almost) ready for the big day on Monday!

Supplies: white cardstock, digital images from Hambo Stamps, Prismacolour pencils Pin It Now!

Monday, February 7, 2011

AmberINK Birthday Challenge

The latest AmberINK INKredible 21 Day challenge is to create anything birthday-related. (Amber herself recently celebrated hers!) I wanted to do something more than a card, and thought of Emily's terrific paper bow that she made when she was an orange torchbearer. Here's my birthday take on it:


This bow is even easier than it looks! Especially if you follow the step-by-step instructions here. I once again used my very favourite AmberINK iPaper, Spin Pin: Holiday -- Black Tie. It's just so classy-looking. I used both the regular size and the tiny version, although you can't really tell in the end result. Then I used a square of the regular size to make a matching gift card. I really like how the birthday sentiment fits in one of the circles of the paper. I plan to use the bow and card on a parcel wrapped in silver paper. I think it will look so elegant! I'll just have to make sure the present inside is worthy!

Supplies: (bow) AmberINK Spin Pin: Holiday-Black Tie iPaper regular & tiny, brad; (mini-card) white & black cardstock, AmberINK Spin Pin: Holiday-Black Tie iPaper regular, Studio G stamp, Versafine onyx black ink Pin It Now!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Papertrey Ink Aniversary Challenge, Part III

(This is my third post of the evening! Don't expect this to ever happen again! I certainly don't. :P)
Papertrey Ink (PTI) is celebrating their fourth anniversary with a great series of challenges! I do like their stamps -- so elegant and classy. I've yet to order from them though, I have to admit... I'm a little intimidated by the cross-border shipping. So when they offered a sheet of digital sentiments, and a prize to co-design and receive a stamp set, how could I resist? :P


For my third card, I decided to go with a 3"x3" gift card and the cute heart design from Lisa Johnson. Instead of the über-classic red, I decided to go with pinks and purples. I coloured my image with Sharpies, and picked two complimentary shades of cardstock for circles. Ah, that old rule of three. :P The trio are overlapped and popped over some Lilac twine from the Twinery. This could be a Valentine's card, but would also work as a little love card anytime one is called for. ♥

Supplies: white cardstock, fuchsia & purple cardstock, digital sentiment from Papertrey Ink, Sharpies, lilac Twinery twine, pop dot tape Pin It Now!

Papertrey Ink Anniversary Challenge, Part II

(This is my second of three posts, please scroll down for my first PTI card...)
Papertrey Ink (PTI) is celebrating their fourth anniversary with a series of challenges and giveaways. Today's challenge offers a free download sheet of digital sentiments, which can be used to submit to the challenge. The drawback for me... the challenge ends at seven am tomorrow! So I'm doing my best at crafting in the dark, so to speak. ;) Here is my second card:


This lovely Thinking of You sentiment is from design team member Heather Nichols. And no colouring needed! The olive green leaf-print circle reminded me of this patterned Stampin' Up paper (and yes, in real life -- or is that light? -- they do match quite nicely, tyvm...) The other strips are pink mica paper. I've had my eye on this card layout from the November/December issue of Paper Crafts magazine, and it seemed the perfect opportunity to test drive it. The sentiment circle is popped up over the intersection of the strips.  I like how this turned out!

Supplies: white cardstock, Stampin' Up designer series paper, pink mica paper, digital image from Papertrey Ink, pop dot tape Pin It Now!

Papertrey Ink Anniversary Challenge, Part 1

(Please note, this is the first of THREE posts! This is a total whirlwind pace for me!)
Papertrey Ink (PTI) is celebrating their fourth anniversary this month. I've long been an admirer of their classy, clean designs, but frankly, their international shipping charges give me pause. So imagine my excitement when, as part of their anniversary party, they offered a free Anniversary Tag download, with an accompanying challenge! One drawback... I was out most of the day, so only discovered this great giveaway/challenge at dinnertime, with a deadline of 7 am tomorrow! Since I don't do early mornings, the supplies came out right after dinner. Here is my first creation:


The sweet rainbow sentiment is from design team member Melissa Bickford. I kept the design simple by colouring it with Prismacolor pencils and popping it up on my most spectrum-like patterned paper (which, confession time, actually comes from a magazine insert a few months back. Frugal R Us, what can I say?) Please remember, I'm crafting and photographing at night, which is not my best time. I'm a natural light kinda girl. I've tried to show it as best as I could!

Supplies: white cardstock, found patterned paper, digital PTI image, prismacolor pencils, pop dot tape Pin It Now!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

The First Hambo Hoedown Challenge

There's a new challenge blog in blogland called the Hambo Hoedown. Sponsored by Hambo Stamps, they are offering a free digital image that participants can use in their entry. Their theme this week is football, which is not exactly a big draw for me. But as soon as I saw the little football jersey-wearing bear, I thought of my husband's aunt. She's a huge BC Lions football fan and has had season's tickets forever. With her birthday coming up, I knew I had her card.


In case you can't tell, the Lions' team colours are orange and black. I coloured the bear with Prismacolor pencils and layered him up. I thought about cutting him out and popping him up on a white layer, but decided that might be a little fussy for a football card. ;) Amazingly, I had no football-related sentiment stamps, so that is computer-generated. (If you're not familiar with the Canadian Football League, the season runs from June to November. And yes, I had to double-check that with my husb...)

Supplies: white & orange cardstock. Hambo Stamps digital image, Prismacolor pencils Pin It Now!