Orchids

These new Flourishes Orchids stamps are gorgeous. But let me tell you they were very hard to color the rirst time. I looked up many photos of Orchids. And this is the my first finished one. I took several tries at different colors and then decided on this color scheme.

I started on the edges with RV63, and then added some RV66 to darken. I went back over with RV63 and went toward the center, leaving some white areas. I went back over it and blended into the white areas with RV00. For the inner petals I did the edges again with the RV63. Then I started in the center with Y11, 13, 15 and went out toward the edge. After that I went inside the line of the RV63 with RV69 and feathered and streaked into the yellow with that. I outlined the very center of each flower with the RV69 and the inside is the RV63. The leaves are YG61, 63, 67.

Thanks for stopping by. Going to go stamp up some sexy ladies next I think. See you soon!!!

Brighter Days

I got my new Flourishes stamps a couple of days ago. LOVE them. The boots were just so cool, I had to have them.

I don't do a LOT of masking but I get the urge once in a while. I stamped the Boots first, and then I used post its to protect the areas I didn't want stamped over. I then stamped the bucket and tulips and followed that up with the tulip blooms on the other side. I really like how the image was so easy to mask.

I started coloring the boots first (colors below), then I colored the leaves, then the bucket, then the ground and then the flowers. I want to talk little bit about the bucket and the flowers and how I did them. The Bucket I started coloring with the Cool Greys. Covered the entire thing with C0, then went over a little on the edge with C1, C3 and C5. Just a small bit and blended in. Then I used the C0, and I picked up using tip to tip a little E08 and used that in the deep back edges. For the middle rusty look I added a bit of E04 with tip to tip and had those streaked a little in the center.  For the flowers, I did a similar thing. I used the Yellows and layered them how I wanted (Y11 all over, 13, 15 closer to the edges of some of the petals, and then also darker toward the base), Then I used Y11 and picked up from the cap of the R11 and R14 and added the streaked coral to the tips of the petals and dragged it down toward the middle of the petals. 

Ok. so to finish it up, I added the Paper Studio paper and (Adhesive Simplicity). I matted the main image in black. I also masked another stamp from Flourishes to split up the sentiment. I stamped in Versafine, clear embossed, and then matted those in black and placed them on the card. 

Easy Peasy. Really. Masking is sometimes seen as hard with intricate cutting, but it doesn't have to be. It can be fairly quick and simple.

Copic Colors Used -

Flowers - Y11, 13, 15, R11, 14, YG11, 13, 17

Bucket - C0, 1, 3, 5, E08, E04

Ground - E11, 13, 15

Sky - B0000

Boots - B12, 14, 16, 18, G12, 14, 16, V12, 15, 17

Thanks for taking a gander at my blog today. Can't wait to see what creativity this weekend brings!

PWC151 - Paper Piercing

WOW. I cannot believe that it has been 2 whole months! This is my last time to participate as a Guest Designer for Paper Pretties and play with the Prettie girls. I have thouroughly enjoyed the entire stint, and have been inspired to try some very new things (sentiment only cards WHEW).  The girls over there are a super bunch and incredibly talented. And the images are some of the cutest out there!  I want to thank both Heather for allowing me to represent her company and images for the past two months, and Frances for being an amazing Design Team Captain, extremely talented paper artist and all around nice lady.

The last card for this term is for their weekly challenge - PWC151. This weeks challenge is Paper Piercing. This is one of those stretches I have had to go through, as I don't do a lot of Paper Piercing. But Jabbing sharp metal objects into things. . . how can that not be fun?!!

I started by choosing the image. I ADORE this image of the dragon illustrated by Victoria Case (Imagine). She is such a pretty dragon. I have colored this one before and tried to make it more of a male image (a boy dragon with REALLY pretty long eyelashes). This time I wanted it all girl. So I asked my girly girl what colors a girl dragon would be. She said purple and green and pink... There you have it, Firebreather is purple, pink and green.

Here is a close up of my Firebreather (named such by my girly girl). I used the G000, G12, G14, V0000, V000, V12, V15, RV0000, RV000, RV00 and RV02.  Once I was done, I used a Sakura Gelly Roll pen called clear star to outline the wings, horns, ears, add some sparkles to her eyeshadow, and the spots on her tail. I know, shocker... didn't use the Clear Spica... but the Gelly Roll is a little more sparkly, and I didn't exactly want subtle.  She wanted to show off her pretty!
So after coloring her, I layered her on the black paper and then pierced the edge. I used a plastic mesh for this, and really... I think I actually like the ones I freehanded on the big black background cardstock better. But, live and learn. :-)

If you play this week, you will have a chance to win a fun stamp set.  You do not need to use Paper Pretties stamps in order to play along, but if you do, you will get a bonus entry into the drawing! Please be sure to mention our challenge and link back to the Paper Pretties blog in your project posting. When uploading to SCS or PCP please use keyword PWC151.

Thank You so much. Can't wait to see you later, and if you didn't come here from the Paper Pretties Blog - head on over and check out all the stabby stabby fun!

Sketchy Masculine Card

I recently got some new to me Bombshell Stamps - the King of the Road set. I love the look of the oldfashioned cars. This is my first attempt at coloring up one. I hope to get better at it as time goes forward.

The image is colored with B21, 23, 24, 26, 29... and a C0, C1, C3, C5, C7.  The Nestie was edged with a radk blue of B29. I also sponged on the Dark Brown Memento Ink using a dauber. I am entering this into a couple of challenges:

Sketch Saturday # 152

Challenge #108: PILE-IT-ON!

Color Throwdown #138

OMG - THREE WHOLE Challenges with one card. I feel like a Challenge Junkie!

Have a great week - I hope you had a wonderful Easter!!!

In olden days a glimpse of stocking

Was looked on as something shocking,

But now, God knows,

Anything Goes.

That is the theme of this weeks Kenny K's Krafty Girlz challenge. Anything Goes. So here is my anything!

I used Devilish Donna, and colored her up with new shades of Copics... and a little old. :-) Colors below. I then cut her out and mounted her on the black oval. I circled the oval with the clear crystals, and added slightl bigger ones on the bottom. I was trying to make it seem as if she was coming out of the card.  There is a sheer ribbon that has tinsel going through it behind the oval.

For  the colors I used RV000,00, 63, 66, 69 for the pinks. The skin is E0000, E000, E00, and the blush is the RV00.. For the greys I used C0,1,3,5,7. For her wings I feathered the greys and the pinks together. I think it turned out really really slick looking. I love it! (If I do say so myself!) Her grey eyes, also have a touch of the pink in it to seem as if they are reflecting some of the pink.

Hope you have a GREAT Easter weekend, and I will see you all again really soon!

Bombshell Blog Hop

If you are looking for the Paper Pretties Post please scroll down.

Hey all. Today is the Bombshell Stamps April Challenge Showcase and BlogHop! This months challenge was designed and is hosted by the oh so talented Ms. April - - Racheal! The April Challenge is to make something Wedding related. If you are arriving from Sparkly Mary's blog then you are on the right track. If you haven't arrived from there, why don't you head on over to the Bombshell Blog and get started!!!

Now, I am not sure about all of y'all, but let me tell you I absolutely am extremely excited about the Royal Wedding. I know I am not from England, but I remember both of the royal weddings (Diana and Charles, and Sarah and Andrew), so I can't wait to watch William and Kate. YAY. Yes, I will be watching! EEeeeek.

Anyway, my take on this was to try to make a wedding bouquet.

I got the idea from the World Card Making Day Challenges last September where we were to make a card using JUST the icons. I made a wreath. For this one I used the same technique... coloring and cutting out flowers. The flowers I stamped are from the Hula Girl set. I then put the flowers in a bouquet like shape (or my attempt at it). :-) The sentiment... well I am a dorkfish, so I liked it. LOL.

The other cool thing was to use the Text Generator and Font Database on the Bomobshell Stamps page to create the sentiments!

The flowers were SIMPLE. I colored them up with R81, 83, 85 and YG61, 63, 67. That is it.  Then I cut them out, ran them through a Xyron and then pieced them together. :-)

I hope you all continue along on the blog hop. The next step on the hop is Stempelientje's Stamped Creations.

Hope to see you again soon!

Paper Pretties - It is Pink and Green

Hello. I am a busy little chick these days. If you are looking for the Bombshell BlogHop Please hit the Main Blog Home or scroll up to the previous post and you will get to it. If you are looking for the Paper Pretties Post - - YOU ARE HERE!

This weeks challenge was a Pink, Green, Neutral challenge. I have been itching to use this little chick for a LONG LONG time. I made this card specifically for a cousin (and I sent it to her and I HOPE she gets it today)!

The colors used were RV00, 63 and 66 and YG11,13, 17.  The paper was DCWV and Bazill. I LOVE this card. I think the image is one of the CUTEST ever!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you check out the Paper Pretties blog and all the wonderful talented Design Team creations that are posted there this week. You have a chance to WIN RUBBER - or at least a clear version of it. :-)

Have a great week!

Bookend Birthday Cards!

I have been very busy lately as I have had two big birthdays to make cards for. My mother's birthday was a week ago, and my oldest daughters birthday was last night. Two more different types of cards you cannot imagine.

The first card I made for my mother. I have this Kraftin Kimmie stamp with the lady sewing a quilt and so I used that and colored it up with BG7x series, E7x, YG9x and  B9x series primarily. The Paper is Old World DCWV, and the other stamps used were Darcies that I stamped with Versafine and clear embossed on a slightly beigeish grey paper. I then followed a tutorial on SCS for a stair step card. What is weird is after I colored it and put it together, I remembered I had these extra little embellies... and then discovered that the spools of thread matched EXACTLY the colors. WEIRDNESS.

My second Birthday card is for my daughter and is using my lovely Bombshell Sacred Hearts and Sugar skulls. YAY. I colored with Cx greys, R2x and B2x. I then cut them out, and then used Crystal Effects on the top to make them shiny! I stamped on black paper the sugar skulls with Imprintz White, and embossed with white. I mounted the heards on the top of this. Then on the inside I repeated the excercise, and stamped in black on white the sugar skulls. YAY... I had a birthday card for my daughter!

What did I say - VERY different!  Thank you for stopping by and I hope to see you all again really soon!

Flourishes SPEED Challenge for April

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEkkkkkk.... I was so excited when I found out they had a speed challenge this month, because 1) their release this month is so STINKING cute, and 2)I had just finished coloring up one of the Lenten Roses, and hadn't done anything with it. YAY.
I followed their sketch, and here is is done, photographed and put in in less than an hour. So what if I am exhausted, and I have to go to work tomorrow. YAY.

So here is my take, and I hope that you like it! The paper is Linen Closet from DCWV. The stamp is Lenten Rose. The water is BG0000, 000 and the leaves are G21, 24, 28. The Lenten Rose parts are the YG21, 23, 25 amd E50, 51, 53. Not sure about the green, but I did see some that were green on the web, so I thought I would give it a whirl.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a great weekend! I plan on it!

Paper Pretties Blog Hop!!!

Hello Everyone! Happy Wednesday. It is the day for the Paper Pretties Blog Hop and weekly challenge. I am so excited to be a Guest Design Team Member this month and have the opportunity to work with the very sweet ladies over at Paper Pretties.  If you arrived from the Paper Pretties Blog, then you are on the right track.

For this weeks challenge, we were asked to use 2 design papers on our layout. I found this wonderful Sock Monkey paper, and I could not resist - I had to use the new Sock Monkey stamp set. I colored the sock monkey to match the one on the paper as best I could.

I decided to make a box in a bag. I based it on the tutorial over at SplitCoastStampers. For my second DP, I used this lovely Cork paper. I also took this opportunity to use the Lacey Pennants Nesties I got.

 I colored these with Copics. I used several colors, but a lot of E70, 71, 74 and some C0, C1 over it to get the color. The reds are R22,24,27,29 and the whites are E50 and E51.  For the wrapping paper, I used E30, 31, 33 and just used little bitty dots on it to make it look a little like the cork. Once I was done, I layered it on the same red carstock I used everywhere else, and then cut it out with a bit of an edge.

Thank You for joining me today. Your next stop on the Paper Pretties hop is Amber Hillman's blog "Amber's Antics".

Hope you come back again soon!! have a great week!

Bombshell Hotness

Hey there everyone. I haven't made a big deal about this yet, because this is my first OFFICIAL post, but I have been honored to be selected to be a full time member of the Bombshell Design Team. I am so extremely thrilled with this. I LOVE their stamps, and everyone on the design team is so incredibly talented. It is really exciting to be a part of this wonderful group of ladies! 
Every month, in addition to just having fun with the stamps, the Bombshells bring you a couple of challenges. The first is a Sketch Challenge, and the second is a challenge selected by the monthly pinups. For this post I am concentrating on the Sketch Challenge.

Kathi came up with this very wonderful Sketch:

I used Girls Ruin for this sketch, and a couple of pieces (little ones) from other stamp sets. For the Main image, I colored it with my Copics.  Before coloring it I added some squigglies in the top and the tops of the hose as well as some scallops on them as well. This was to make it look like lace.

I colored her entire body with the E000, E00, E01 first. This included her chest and legs. Once I was done and had them looking the way I wanted, I went over her chest and the hose with C0, C1 and C3. This made them look like they were transparent with the skin showing through. The shoe is R22, 24, 27, 29 and 39 along with C3, 5,7,9. Once I was done with all of the coloring, I layered it on red cardstock, and then decided I did not like it, so cut through both layers. This gave it a little more heft and made it easy to stick down and stay. I then went back over the shoe and her hose and bra with a little clear Spica. It made it shiny and sparkly. You can really see that on the red shoe in the close up picture.  On the red squares I used black liquid pearls. I need to practice a bit more on this. I will say it looks much more even in real life than this picture indicates. The camera shows every flaw.

Please head on over to the Bombshell Stamps Blog On Wednesday April 13 to check out what the other ladies have done.  You can also check out the Bombshell Stamps Forum which is always hopping with great ideas!

 THANK You for stopping by. I hope you are having a great week! And I hope to see you back soon!

Paper Pretties Day 2 - Inspired by a stamp set!

Hey there all you people out in Blogland. This is the last of the Paper Pretties Previews for the month of April. This set being previewed today is Inspirational Quotes.

I have done up a clean and simple (for me) card  for todays preview. I found this beautiful black and white print paper. I LOVE the simplicity of black and white. I think it looks so pretty. I cut out the blcack Bazill paper (Raven I think) with a Round Nestie. I stamped the quote and butterfly from the set using white Imprintz Ink and then embossed with detail white EP. I then used the next size up Round Nestie and cut out a white circle. The last layer(s) are the same size black and white Lacey Circle Nestie. I cut the white parts all around the Nestie (one side only), and then laced it in with the Lacey Circle Black cut out. I added a touch of the black pearls around where the white edge was cut, and then a black bow. It was very quick and simple, and turned out so elegant (IMHO).

• Join us for our release Blog Hop tomorrow (Wednesday) starting at 12 AM EST 13th April, starting on the Paper Pretties Blog.

• New Release Stamps available in the Paper Pretties Boutique from 7AM EST Wednesday 12 AM EST 13th April.
• Don’t forget to check out the Paper Pretties Blog to see who else is previewing the new stamps today.

THANK You so much for stopping by. I hope you stop by again tomorrow for the Blog Hop for Paper Pretties, AND I will have my post for the Bombshell Stamps Sketch Challenge.

Paper Pretties Preview Day 2 - Sock Monkey

Hey there all! I am so happy that I was chosen to be a Guest Design Team member for Paper Pretties this month because I got SOCK MONKEY to play with! I LOVE this little fellow. He is sooooo cute. And my daughter recently became obsessed with sock monkeys so that made it even better.

I used the Core'dinations whitewashed paper for the card base and the red paper as well. I love the look it gives. The diamond paper is from DCWV Safari Chic. I cut it so it would fit the card base... well to be honest I cut the card base to fit the already cut cardstock that I trimmed. LOL.

The sock monkey was stamped with Memento on Hammermill. I used E70, 71, 74 for the colors and R24, 27, 29 for the red and B21, 24, 26 for the blue. The beige was a lttle E50 put on with the colorless blender.

When I was done I cut him out and attached him to the cardstock with pop tape to give him a little bounce. :-)

• Join us for our release Blog Hop this Wednesday 12 AM EST 13th April, starting on the Paper Pretties Blog.


• New Release Stamps available in the Paper Pretties Boutique from 7AM EST Wednesday13th April.

• Don’t forget to check out the Paper Pretties Blog to see who else is previewing the new stamps today.

THANK You so much for stopping by. I hope you stop by again on Tuesday for the next Paper Pretties Release, and Wednesday for the Blog Hop for Paper Pretties, AND I will have my post for the Bombshell Stamps Sketch Challenge (I better get cracking to get that one done!!!).

Happy Birthday Pardner!

This weeks challenge over at Paper Pretties was a SKETCH challenge. I was lucky because I JUST received my new Banners Spellbinders Nesties, so I was able to use them for this. YAY!

I inked up Cowboy Cooper and colored him up all purdy-like!  He was colored with Copics. I used several browns - the E50,51,53,55,57 family, as well as the E31, 33, 35 family. I also used the Warm Greys which I rarely use. But the reds on there... yup - - those are E04, 07 and 08. Gives it a nice BRICK Red look.
Once I was done coloring him up I cut him out and then went around the edge of the cutout with a Black Copic Brush tip Multiliner. This kind of makes the edges disapear and if you have a little oops in the cutting, it doesn't show up as much.  YAY.

The Happy Birthday Pardner was stamped using versafine, and then clear embossed. The DP is a double sided Creative Imaginations paper.

I hope you enjoyed this, and I REALLY hope that y'all hop on over to the Paper Pretties site and join in on the challenge. The ladies over there always have WONDERFUL inspiration pieces to help you to get your craft on!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you all back again really soon.