LSC231 Cards Three

Yippee, I have completed the SCS challenges for 7 days in a row! Thanks to everyone who has been cheering me on! Now I’ll miss you while I’m out of town for the next few days! I have some posts scheduled for you while I'm gone so stay tuned!

I’m not a big punch/die cut kinda girl but I really like how these turned out! I think its the sponging around the edges of the ornaments that really made this come to life for me. The idea to have the branch outside the box was a happy accident...I had cut my rectangles to small for both the ornament and the hook. I decided to put the branches outside the box. Bet you thought I planned that because it does look like my usual style!

These 3 cards allowed me to finish my Christmas Card Challenge for the month also!

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
"Queen of the Scene”

WT229 Christmas Tag Card

Here we are on day 6 of my 7 day goal of doing the SCS challenges for 1 week while I was on vacation. It has been sooo fun! Thanks for cheering me on!

Today’s Ways To Use It challenge was for office supplies. My husband bought these cool tags at the office supply store last week and I just had to have a couple. I didn’t know what I was going to use them for at the time but I was glad I had one this morning for the Office Supplies challenge. Hmmmm…this is the 2nd time this week my husband has helped me out in crafting. I think he’s a keeper! (and still working on getting all those Christmas cards done!)

Stamps: Trees Three, Snowfall
Paper: Papertrey Kraft, Whisper White
Ink: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Not Quite Navy, Blue Bayou, Baja Breeze, Versamark
Accessories: Tag from office supply store, Ribbon from Pink Hedgehog, clear detail embossing powder

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

“Queen of the Scene”

SC239 Wish Big

I always get up at 4 on Wednesdays and do the sketch challenge before work. I’m off work today but I have plans with the kids so I figured I better get up early……it was MUCH harder to get up when I knew I didn’t have to work! So, I’m wishing big I was back in bed!

I masked and airbrushed the background. I'm tired of plain old blue skies so I added some purple to the sky today. I originally had a bright green grassy area (like the green on her wings). But it was so bright it hurt my eyes this early in the morning! Great thing about copics is that I was able to simply color over it in a more olive green.

Stamps: Stamping Bella Eloise Greengrass, Magnolia Summer Background, Short & Sweet
Paper: GP110, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Elegant Eggplant Ribbon, Copics, Copic Airbrush System, Nesties, Eclipse Tape

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

CC229 Husband Saves the Day

I vowed to do all the challenges this week while I’m on vacation. I was worried about the color challenge as they are the hardest for me. I struggled for over an hour and….nothing…..Then my husband called. I'm thinking "why is he calling me now...I've gotta get this done before its time to pickup the kids!" When I explained what I was trying to do, he said “sounds like sunset colors to me”. I said “I’ll call ya back”. And in just a few minutes I had this beauty! Wished he would have called sooner! Ha!

Stamps: H & M Stamps Seeds of Kindness
Paper: Papertrey White, Basic Black, GP110
Ink: Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Pixie PinkAccessories: Ribbon from SU & Mike’s, White Gel Pen

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

The One That Got Away

I tried to get up and do the sketch challenge this morning but it just wasn't the right sketch challenge for me on 4 hours of sleep! Ha! So, I'll post one I did a while back but haven't showed you yet.

This one one of those cards that just didn’t quite come out as I had envisioned. I wanted to try coloring on kraft paper. I've seen some other folks do some beautiful things with that technique. I think I should have tried this on some larger images so I could get more shading to show.

This is for the following Dare to Get Dirty challenges:

*PickleTree’s Animal Theme challenge
*Sgtstamper’s blue embellishment challenge (blue ribbon, brads, rhinestones turned blue with Copics)
*Rainy’s sketch challenge

Stamps: Our Craft Lounge Oceans of Fun
Paper: Papertrey Kraft, Tempting Turquoise
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Brilliant Blue (sponged edges)
Accessories: Copics, Nesties, ribbon from Pink Hedgehog, Brads from Mike’s, Kaiserkraft rhinestones (with copic coloring to make them blue), Prismacolor Pencils and Goo Gone

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

CAS25 Snowflake

Woo Hoo! I'm on vacation this week! and Woo Hoo! I was alone all day yesterday and was able to complete all the Dirty Girl Challenges! I also have a few trips planned this month so I'm going to show you only one card a day so I'll have some posts while I'm gone!

Now, since I am on vacation, I thought it might be fun to do the SCS challenge every day. I started Saturday and I'm going to try to go thru Friday (we leave town Friday night). So today I am doing the Clean and Simple challenge. I really wanted to do some of these to help me in my quest for some faster cards. Don't worry, I'm also going to keep doing those detailed scenes I love so much!

Stamps: Snowfall, Trees Three, CC Designs AmyR Christmas Sentiments
Paper: Papertrey White, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky
Ink: Whisper White, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky
Accessories: Ribbon from Pink Hedgehog, Kaiserkraft Rhinestone

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
"Queen of the Scene"

Mt. Rushmore

THIS IS MY 2ND POST TODAY SO BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN!

My brother recently rode his bicycle (yes, he pedaled!) from St. Louis, Missouri to South Dakota. You can read about his adventure here. I wanted to commemorate this ride with his birthday card. I was so excited to see Kittie’s scene challenge and new this was the perfect opportunity!

I made “Mt. Rushmore” by finding some pics of it on the internet. I looked for a face stamp that was approximately the correct size (enter Fella). I masked off Fella’s body and stamped just his face (using my stamp-a-majig) in the approximate locations that the faces were carved on Mt. Rushmore. I colored my Mt. in shades of grey and surrounded the base with trees.

Stamps: Pink Cat Studio Lily & Billy Sweetheart Stamps, Stamping Bella Grillafella, Rubbernecker Kittie Kit Cause a Scene The Moose is Loose #2, Birthday Whimsy
Paper: GP110, Basic Black, Basic Grey
Ink: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Wild Wasabi, Always Artichoke, Whisper White, Basic Black, Ranger Distress Ink Broken China, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, White Gel Pen, Fine Black Marker, Stamp-a-Majig

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

“Queen of the Scene”

FS129 Just the Feet

Congrats to Today’s Featured Stamper, Versamom! Love all those A Muse cards I found there! I choose this one to case. The three things I changed were the stamps (although kept with the girl swinging in the trees theme), the sketch, and I think the brown DP in the inspiration piece was just supposed to be a backdrop but I really liked how it framed out the pic so I went with that on my card!


Again, I'm trying to use stamps I have purchased and never inked. I was thinking about taking a pic of all the stamps I've bought in the last 3 months and never used....but I haven't had the guts yet. I got the idea about just the feet of the swinger from a commercial I saw the other day (phone commercial maybe?).

I really like how the leaves turned out here. I didn't have a really light green in the same color family so I just grabbed my lightest one (which was much more yellow) but it looked awesome! I'll be using this combo again: G99 + G21+ YG00

I added glitter to the leaves and smeared some glitter pen in the clouds to also qualify for this week’s High Hopes Challenge to Sparkle & Shine.

Stamps: High Hopes Swinging Shannon Front, High Hopes “Hey There”, High Hopes Branch
Paper: Papertrey White, Chocolate Chip, SU DP
Ink:Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, Stamp-a-Magij, Glitter pen (clouds & dp), Green glitter from Mike’s (leaves)

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

“Queen of the Scene”

5 Challenge Couch

Is this a world record for me? 5 Challenges in 1! And I've use a new stamp set 2 times...in a row!!! (I'm trying to work on actually using the stamps I buy! Ha!)

Here are the challenges:

• Dare to Get Dirty- One_Happy_Stamper’s Sketch Challenge
• Dare to Get Dirty - blondie090277’s challenge to use Paper Tole. I’ve been wanting to try this technique and I thought this couch was the perfect image for this technique! The back of the couch is one layer thick, the seat is two layers, and the arms are three layers. IRL this looks awesome!
• Dare to Get Dirty – KrystieLee’s challenge to use something clear. I have clear dew drops, clear acetate, and glossy accents on the “glass” part of the picture and for the “buttons” on the pillows.
• Dare to Get Dirty - Scrapnextras challenge to spell it out. I used a package of rubons that had never been opened in the last 18 months. What a hoarder I am!
• And last but not least, Today’s Inspiration challenge provided me the colors. I actually had all the other parts of this card planned last night but couldn’t decide what colors. Good thing I waited til this morning as today’s inspiration was perfect!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink On the Couch, wood floor drawn and digitized by me available here
Paper: Creamy Caramel, Mellow Moss, Very Vanilla, Yellow by Bazzill, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Grey DP
Ink: Mellow Moss, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, White and Brown Prismacolor Pencils and Goo Gone, White Gel Pen, Dew Drops from Pink Hedgehog, Glossy Accents, Pop Dots, Acetate left over from some packaging, SU rub ons, Circle Nesties, Round Tab Punch

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

“Queen of the Scene”

SC238 I need a Couch Day!

I just received my new couch set from Papertrey Ink. I couldn't wait to use it since I am in serious need of a couch day myself! I messed something up at work yesterday...bad enough I cried! Ug! So today's sketch challenge was just right for this set.

This card probably would have been pretty quick if I hadn't spent 30 minutes picking out the cardstock colors! Maybe doing blue skies and green grass every time isn't so bad!

I stamped the rug in Baja Breeze and the table in Chocolate Chip. I added a bit of shadow to the table with a fine black marker. The books and couch were colored with Copics and pieced in. The coffee cup and pillows were stamped on cardstock, shadowed with Copics, and pieced in. There was a lot of solid green showing so I stamped a little flourish in each corner with Virsamark, sponged the edges, and swiped the sponged across the front of the green.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink On the Couch, Papertrey Ink On the Couch Additions, Papertrey Ink Guidelines
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Regal Rose, GP 110
Ink: Virsamark, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Momento Tuxedo Black, Accessories: Copics, White Prismacolor Pencil

Enjoy!

Michelle B.

"Queen of the Scene"

FS128 JPA does CAS

Since I have so little stamping time now, I’ve been wanting to try doing a Clean and Simple card (so not my usual style). I liked this card from today’s Featured Stamper but I couldn’t figure out how I could simply do the little buildings. So I was about to give up when I saw this card in the CAS gallery which provided me a perfect sketch.

The things I changed on the FS card were the colors (blue instead of yellow), the sketch, and eliminated the buildings and made santa the focal point.

I could hardly stand all that white....kinda hurt my eyes it was so bright! Ha! It is kinda growing on me though! I am proud to say that this card only took about 20 minutes to complete. THAT is motivating to me. Clearly I need a little practice in photographing an all white card!

Stamps: A Muse Santa’s Silhouette, CC Designs AmyR Christmas Sentiments
Paper: Whisper White, Soft Sky
Ink: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Night of Navy
Accessories: Glitter from Mike’s, glue pen, white gel pen, 1 ½” circle punch, post it note for a mask

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

IC189 Somethin' Different

I've been getting tired of the blue sky/green grass/girl in the middle kinda cards lately. I have trouble thinking of what other colors to use. Today's inspiration challenge was the answer. When I saw this rug, I thought it would make a fabulous background.

I've also fallen back in love with my Papertrey stamps. Returning to working full time has caused me to struggle to find time to stamp, my Papertrey stamps allowed me to do this background without a bunch of masking and coloring. I did this card in 1 hour which is FAST for me (not counting the coloring....I had this little girl in a stack of already colored images).

This fab sketch is from Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #74. I'm so glad Taylor is back to those Friday sketches....I missed them!

How do you like that wall she's sitting on? I love how those circles pop off the page. IRL this is flat as can be. I simple blended a little dark brown prismacolor pencil on the lower left and added a pop of white in the upper right (unblended). Really fun optical illusion, eh?

Stamps: Sugar Nellie Gorjuss Girls A Little Birdie Told Me.., Papertrey Out on a Limb Revised, Papertrey Guide Lines

Paper: Kraft, Mellow Moss, Elegant Eggplant, GP 110

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Whisper White

Accessories: Copics, Paper Piercer, Nesties, Dark Brown and White Prismacolor Pencils, Blender Pen (to add a little shadow to the leaves), SU 1/4" Chocolate ribbon

Enjoy!

Michelle B.

"Queen of the Scene"

SC237 Sarah's Bday

Ug, I stayed up last night to buy that new On My Couch set from Papertrey and then I was up early for today's sketch challenge! I'm tired but its sooo worth it!

I used today's sketch challenge to make a card for my niece's Birthday. She lives in the country so I think she'll like it. I didn't realize until it was too late that I shouldn't have cut my fence apart in the sketch. Too late now! I hand drew in a few extra clumps of grass. I also had to add a flower in the bottom corner because there was too much green and (the real reason) because I had a little fight with my paper cutter there!

I'm late for work so...All my usual deets here. It was just brought to my attention the other day that I wasn't linking up the correct place for MotherMark's cloud tutorial. Here is the correct link to a video on that technique. Sorry bout that.

Stamps: High Hopes Summer Sweetness
Paper: Regal Rose, Whisper White, GP 110, Real Red (flower center), SU DP
Ink: Soft Sky, Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Wild Wasabi, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, white Prismacolor pencil, ¼” circle punch (flower center), Martha Stewart Fence Punch, Flowers from Mike’s wedding section, Rectangle Nestie

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

“Queen of the Scene”

Come On In!

Hiya! So glad to find some time to do this card today (because it came out even better than the vision in my mind!). My inspiration came from this card in today's Featured Stamper gallery. I also tried to simplify from my usual style and didn't do so much coloring and cutting (well maybe a little less than usual! Ha!). The three things I changed were the color scheme a bit by adding more red, I added a garden around the window, and I left off the sentiment.

I started by stamping the window image on some kraft cardstock just for placement. Then I stamped my tree branch and the flowers. I used a blender pen to add a little bit of the next darker shade on the branch, flowers, and leaves for depth.

I got the idea for this fabulous siding from Michelle Zindorf's blog here. I turned my project upside down when I sponged in the darker color so it would look like shadows under the piece of siding. Here's what I mean:



I stamped the window onto red cardstock and cut out the pieces where glass would be. I stamped the window yet again onto some very vanilla cardstock for inside the house. It was a bit too bright so I toned it down by sponging on some Old Paper ink. The cupcakes are stamped on this layer and colored with Copics. I assembled everything to complete.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Out on a Limb revised, Window Dressing, Love Blooms, Pink Cat Studio Limitless Limbs (cupcakes)
Paper: Riding Hood Red, Bazzill Kraft, Very Vanilla, SU DP
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Old Paper Distress Ink, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Rose Red, Bravo Burgundy, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, blender pen

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

Princess of the Pond

Lily is hanging out in the pond for today’s sketch challenge. I think I would have liked this a lot if I hadn’t been so sloppy in lining things up in the back…especially that frog in the upper left. I can honestly say that today was the first day I have ever felt like I needed a big honkin' flower up in the upper left corner! Unfortunately, I don't own any. That's what I get for rushing to work....gets in the way of my creativity! (notice I didn't say that if I had gotten out of bed the first time the alarm went off that I'd have had plenty of time! ha!)

I started out by stamping the lily pads and flowers (filled them in with ink and blender pen) and embossing them. Then I inked the sky and pond using bashful blue. For the horizon line, I held a scrap of paper across and sponged some tempting turquoise across and blended it down into the water. I used a Nestie to cut out my main image panel. I "eyeballed" the placement of the lily pads and flowers on the blue and green layers (wished I'd have used my Stamp-a-majig!) and stamped them with Virsamark. Lily is totally colored with Copics and cut out. I outlined Lily's wings with glitter pen. I also added glitter pen at the base of her flower and smudged it upwards with my finger. Assembled everything and I'm off to work!

Stamps: Pink Cat Studio Enchanted Lily, Papertrey Ink Pond Life
Ink: Bashful Blue, Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Pixie Pink, Green Galore, Gable Green
Paper: GP 110, Whisper White, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: Copics, Nesties, Glitter Pen, Virsamark pad, Virsamark pen, clear detail embossing powder, heat gun, blender pen

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

Happy 4th of July!

I saw this American Flag card by Michelle Zindorf and was blown away. Later we had a craft day for our Girl Scout troop and I wanted to make cards for the troops with this idea. The girls made the flags on the front of the card (with some help of course!). It was funny how some felt compelled to count out the 50 stars and other's would be happy with just a few. I had printed off a sentiment on cardstock for the inside layers and had the girls all sign their names. Later at home, I assembled all the pieces into these cards and mailed them off to the troops just in time for today!

Couple of pointers if you'd like to do these with your kids: I tried to use cheap ink pads. This was a bad idea because they fell apart with all the dragging. Go ahead and let them use the good ones. Have the card base and inside pre-assembled so it doesn't take you months to get that part finished (like it did me!).

The "how to" is also included in the link to my inspiration card above.




Enjoy the 4th!
Michelle B.
"Queen of the Scene"

Bella in the Garden

Another card I made last week but had no time to get posted...Ug. I started with the Bellarific Friday Sketch. I was inspired by Emily and Sue to use some DP for the "grass" of my scene (I'm DP challenged you know!).

This girl has been sitting on my stamp table all colored and ready to go for a while.....but with blue jeans. Because I had colored only with Copics, I was able to go right over the blues with browns and make her fit perfectly into the color scheme of this card. Now that's fun!

Stamps: Stamping Bella Gardenia Greenthumb, Stamping Bella “Have a Sunshiney Day” Sentiment
Paper: GP 110, Chocolate Chip, SU Old Olive DP, Bashful Blue
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Copics, Ribbon from Mikes, Word Window Punch, glue pen, dazzling diamonds, Nesties

Enjoy!

Michelle B.

"Queen of the Scene"

Dawn L Saves the Day

So I got up this morning and looked at the sketch and said .... man, I can't do that. I couldn't think of anything to do in 9 panels with nothing larger than 1 piece of the panel. Ug. So I went back to bed. Then I was laying there thinking how I should get up and do a card for last Sunday's Featured Stamper, Dawn L. She's always so kind to me in the gallery and I hadn't had a chance to honor her yet! Then it hit me....I remembered a wonderful ocean card she had in her gallery. AND IT WOULD WORK FOR TODAY'S SKETCH! I changed the sketch, the stamps (but kept the ocean/fish theme) and the color scheme.

Thanks Dawn for saving the day and congrats on being the featured stamper!!!

Stamps: Stampendous Sushi Bowl, Stampendous Loads of Sushi, Stampendous Many Happy Messages, High Hopes Shell 2, High Hopes Sea Weed, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Whisper White, Green Galore, Night of Navy, GP 110
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, River Rock, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Soft Sky, Baja Breeze, Pacific Point,
Accessories: Copics, blender pen (to cover those tiny areas I couldn't cut out)

Enjoy!

Michelle B.

"Queen of the Scene"