Halloween Craftin' with DS

Happy Halloween! At my kid's school, they pair up a 1st grader with an 8th grade buddy that helps them through out the school year. At Halloween they exchange little gifts. My son gave his "big brother" a bag of candy but I wanted to add something special.....but hmmmm, what could we do? And then Karyn posted these fabulous bag toppers and I knew exactly what to do. (Thanks Karyn!)

DS did all the spraying of the airbrush and the stamping of the bats. My son makes all the birthday cards for his buddies and his favorite technique is airbrushing. I did the cutting and the larger stamps. He was so proud to take this into his big brother!

Stamps: Gina K. Spooky Silhouettes
Paper: GP 110, Pumpkin Pie
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Nesties, Copics, Airbrush System, Ribbon from Pink Hedgehog

Enjoy!

Michelle B.

"Queen of the Scene"

C4C8 Daisies All Over

Hello, This weeks C4C8 challenge was to use 3 different geometric shapes. I have circle, oval and rectangle here. This card features my Oops-a-Daisies set from FireCracker Designs.

I started off by inking the solid daisy stamp with Cameo Coral. Then I inked Rose Red just on the stems and around the edges before stamping. I used the dotted stamp inked in chocolate for the center. Hmmm...still a lot of white space showing there....so I inked the solid daisy in caramel and stamped it off TWICE before goint to my main panel. Yep, that's what it needed. Now that was the easy part. The sketch idea in my head was to use the large rectangle panel and the large half circle. I fretted for like days to figure out the placement of that sentiment! Ha!

Stamps: Oops-a-Daisies from FireCracker Designs by Pamela
Paper: Papertrey White, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red
Ink: Cameo Coral, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel
Accessories: Textile Texture embossing folder, Cricut & George cartridge

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
Sometimes "Queen of the Scene"

SC252 Gretel’s Birdies

Today's SCS Sketch was a perfect sketch for some new images I had all colored and ready to go. I haven’t made one of these types of scenes in a while (no time!) so it felt good to return to the “old me”.

I stamped, colored, and clear embossed the branches. Then I cut out the center square (not sure why I did that in this order because I normally cut first). I sponged on some grass and a Mother Mark Cloudy sky. THEN I made the vertical cuts for the top half of the sketch - I did not make them earlier because they are small pieces and because they are a simple cut I wasn't likely to mess up. I framed my center rectangle and assembled all the pieces. Gretel, the bird, and the bench were colored with Copics, cut out, and pieced into place.

Stamps: CC Designs Swiss Pixies Gretel, Olivia’s Birdies, & Sugarplums Bench
Paper: GP 110, Whisper White, Brilliant Blue
Ink: Old Olive, Garden Green, Bashful Blue, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, Nesties, clear detail embossing powder

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

ATS Tall Card Challenge

I just purchased a bunch of stamps from All That Scraps during their recent sale and they are just crying to be used. So, I created this card for the ATS Challenge Blog’s tall card challenge. I made this sketch up myself which proved to be challenging as I’m much better at working someone else’s sketch! Ha!

Emma is a digi stamp so I printed, colored, and cut her and her apples out. I used a torn piece of paper as a mask to sponge in the grassy area. I stamped, colored, and used the emboss resist technique for the tree branch. Then I could sponge the sky using Mother Mark's Cloud Tutorial without damaging my lovely branch. Emma and her apples were glued into position.

Stamps: CC Designs Sugarplums Apple Emma, Olivia’s Birdies, Sugarplums Scenery, and AmyR Autumn Sentiments Paper: GP 110, Riding Hood Red, Cosmo Cricket DP Ink: Groovy Guava, Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi Accessories: Copics, clear detail embossing powder, Nesties, scallop edge punch, ribbon from Pink Hedgehog

Enjoy!
Michelle B. "
Queen of the Scene”

AIC05 Fall Bush Inspired

I have the most lovely Oak Leaf Hydrangea bush in front of my house. It has large leaves that are now shades of yellow, red, and purple. I was inspired by this bush and the AIC05 sketch to make this card. Here's a picture of my bush.

I tried to replicate those mustard and rose leaves by first stamping my flower image all over in More Mustard Ink. Then I used a little sponge to dab on Rose Red along the stems and edges of the flower....leaving the Mustard showing in the centers of the flowers.

Stamps: Artful Inkables Plant Prints, Artful Inkables Birthday Best
Paper: Papertrey White, Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard, Rose Red
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard, Rose Red
Accessories: Copics, Corner Rounder Punch, ¼” circle punch, white Prismacolor pencil

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
Sometimes “Queen of the Scene”

Brother

My sister just had a baby girl. This card was created for the new “Big Brother”. I had a terrible time deciding on an image. I was looking thru all my boy or baby kinda images. In frustration, I decided to look at EVERY image until I saw this one and I knew it was perfect (especially given that its October!). Think the two of them will look like this at the pumpkin patch next year?

Now I am SUPER proud of myself.....I actually used 2 different DP's on the same card AND I like it. I know its just a little piece of the one but it still counts for me! I have never felt very good at mixing the DP's and always admire those who can. Me? I can barely squeek one piece on there. So Whoo Hoo for me!

The image was colored with Copics. The grassy area was colored with Copics and then I used a darker green to draw in little sprigs of grass. TIP: Turn your paper upside down when you do this as its easier to pull the marker towards you than away from you. I used Mother Mark's cloud tutorial for my sky.

Stamps: High Hopes Wagon Full of Blessings, H&M Stamps Generation of Stitches (sentiment)
Paper: GP 110, Kiwi Kiss, Unknown DP, Riding Hood Red
Ink: Bashful Blue, Whisper White
Accessories: Copics, Corner Rounder Punch, Word Window punch

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

“Queen of the Scene”
Designer for FireCracker Designs by Pamela

Mojo109 Daisy with Texture

After my brayer class back in August with Michelle Zindorf, DH asked what I had learned. I grabbed the nearest supplies I had and did a little demo. I happened to have Georgia Pacific 110 lb cardstock, Old Olive ink, and Elegant Eggplant ink. I loved the effect of my little demo so I kept the sample in my idea file (ok, I really had it sitting on my stamp table all this time!). I decided to combine this look with my Oops-a-Daisies set from FireCracker Designs by Pamela and this week’s Mojo109 sketch.

So to make this background I first brayered Old Olive ink every which way across the GP 110 cardstock. This breaks all the normal brayering rules (smooth cardstock and one direction brayering) but I like the imperfections here. Next I brayered a little Elegant Eggplant on the upper and lower edges. The daisy was colored with Copics and cut out. Well that part took all of 10 minutes and then the struggle began! You know I’m not good at all this embellishment type of thing so I struggled to find the right combo of ribbon, texture, tag, etc. and I finally finished the card in about 1 hour total.

Stamps: FireCracker Designs by Pamela Oops-a-Daisies
Paper: GP 110, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White
Accessories: Copics, Nesties, Textile Texture embossing folder, SU ribbon, Designer Label punch

Enjoy!
Michelle B. aka “Queen of the Scene”
Designer for FireCracker Designs by Pamela

FS141 Birthday Penguins

Congrats to Riley (DancerRiley) for being today’s Featured Stamper! What a wonderful gallery! I wanted to make my daughter a birthday card using green and blue and this penguins & cupcake image that I had. This card was the perfect inspiration.

I changed the sketch to Crazy 4 Challenges #7, took away the pink (DD hates pink!), kept the cupcake themed image but added one with penguins (DD loves penguins!), and added some more color to my embossed panel thru punched out dots and sponging.

Stamps: The Cat’s Pajamas Smells Like Cake
Paper: Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red
Ink: Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: Copics, Nesties, glitter pen, ¼” circle punch, Spots & Dots embossing folder

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene” when I have time! Ha!

FCD October Blog Hop

Welcome to the October Firecracker Designs By Pamela Blog Hop! This month's theme is "Fall Creations Using Mesh." Mesh....you mean that stuff I had in my hand but didn't buy the other day on one of my rare excursions to the scrapbook store? Yep, that's the stuff. Now what's a girl to do but GET CREATIVE! So I went over to DH's area of the basement and found the drywall mesh. Drywall mesh is normally used to seal the seams between two pieces of drywall and can be seen here.

NOTE: The official start time of this Hop is Friday, at 8:00 AM (EST). If you arrived early, please be patient as all the links may not be live yet.

This is a “circular blog hop” where the only beginning is wherever you start!! You will know you are at the end of your blog hop when you’ve come back to the blog you’ve started from! (It’s not a huge circle…so it should be easy to remember where you started.) The winner will be chosen from a mystery blog hostess that we don’t even know who it will be until the hop is over…so that’s why you’ll want to leave a comment on EVERY blog, so you don’t miss out!

**To find out if you’ve won… you will be contacted by Pamela via e-mail (so be sure to leave it with your comment.) and you can also find out on Pamela’s blog after the blog hop ends on Mon, at 8:00 PM (EST).**

COUPON TIME! Use coupon code hopidays for 15% off (except magazines) and its good til Monday at 8:00 PM (EST).

Now, to continue the circle, you will need to hop on over to

SHELLY'S BLOG!!!!

Deets on this card: I stamped the daisy, colored it with Copics, and embossed it with clear detail embossing powder. Then I placed the drywall mesh over the image and sponged More Mustard and Creamy Caramel over the top of the mesh. I peeled off the mesh to reveal this awesome texture! Yippee my experiment worked!

Stamps: Firecracker Designs by Pamela Oops-a-Daisies
Paper: Papertrey White, Elegant Eggplant, Basic Grey Granola DP
Ink: More Mustard, Creamy Caramel, Elegant Eggplant, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Drywall Mesh, Copics, clear detail embossing powder, SU Eggplant ribbon, ribbon from Pink Hedgehog, pop dots

Enjoy!
Michelle B. aka “Queen of the Scene”
Designer for FireCracker Designs by Pamela

TESC86 Where do Cupcakes come from?

Cupcakes come from a cupcake plant of course! Ha! As soon as I saw this Taylored Expressions Cupcake Sketch I thought it looked like a shelf.....and then it took me all week to decide what to put on the shelf! Ha! I wanted to go with a cupcake theme but I didn't want to just plop a cupcake on the shelf. So, I decided to go with the cupcake plant.

I just had to enter the Cupcake Challenge this week and be considered for the Sketch Crew. The Cupcake Challenge is near and dear to my heart because it was one of the first challenges I ever did and because being chosen as a Featured Cupcake Sampler was one of the first honors I ever received.

To make this card, I cut the rectangle out of the dp "wallpaper" first, backed it with some chocolate chip for a mat and attached it back to the larger piece of dp. To make the shelf, I punched the scalloped edge. I masked off the "top" of the shelf with some post it notes and sponged Chocolate Chip downward towards the scallops (so it would be dark at the "crease" of the shelf and lighter as it moved down). I placed that piece into position on the card. Next I stamped the greenery and basket. I stamped, colored, and cut the little cupcakes out (cutting off the tiny cherry stem). I stamped the cupcakes right into my scene (so the cherry stem would show again) and paper pieced my colored cupcakes in.

Stamps: Love Blooms, Pink Cat Studio Limitless Limbs
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Basic Grey Two Scoops DP, GP 110
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, scallop edge punch, stamp-a-majig

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
"Queen of the Scene"

10 Minute Daisy

I worked until 1:00 am (at my paying job) so no sketch challenge for me today! Boo Hoo! Luckily Firecracker Designs by Pamela issued a challenge to the design team to make a 10 minute card. That's about all the time I've had lately! Ha!

This piece actually took about 15 minutes....but some of that was spent looking for my long lost exact-o knife! I used 4 different flowers from the Oops-a-Daisies set. Again, I bent the stems when placing the stamps onto my acrylic block. This allowed me to get them at exactly the right angles.

Stamps: Firecracker Designs by Pamela Oops-a-Daisies
Paper: Papertrey White
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, kraft knife, SU ribbon

Enjoy!
Michelle B. aka “Queen of the Scene”
Designer for FireCracker Designs by Pamela

FS140 Catfish Pond

This card from today’s Featured Stamper, Glowbug, reminded me of a pond I saw on a recent trip to the country. The pond was full of lily pads. The owners feed the cat fish occasionally so these huge fish come right up and poke their heads out when you stand on the dock.

I used the brayered sky technique to make the sky, sun, and pond. I then stamped my cattails, fish, and lily pads in Chocolate Chip. Why not stamp them in black? Because using Chocolate Chip allowed me to give these images some life using the silhouette treatment (shading with a fine black marker and a white gel pen). Finally, I cut the image apart before assembly.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Pond Life, Papertrey Ink Faux Ribbon
Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Summer Sun, More Mustard, Baja Breeze, Blue Bayou, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: White gel pen, fine black marker

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

“Queen of the Scene”

Wanna Free Digi?

Happy Friday! Wanna free digi image for fall? Hop on over to the Firecracker Designs by Pamela blog and pick up a copy here!

I'm a mom so I just gotta say: "And don't forget to say Thank You!"

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

SC249 Daisy on Black

I have started keeping a list of “things I never do” to keep me from getting in that blue-sky-green-grass rut. One of the items on that list is stamp & color on black cardstock. I decided to try that technique for today’s sketch challenge using this lovely large daisy image from FireCracker Designs by Pamela. This daisy is from the Oops-a-Dasies set I am featuring this month.

I stamped the daisy using Whisper White ink onto Basic Black cardstock. I gave it a bit to dry and then started coloring. I colored the petals from the centers (in a dark pink) towards the tips (in white). I thought the tips needed just a bit more pop so I added some white gel pen on the tips and blended towards the center with my finger. The center of the daisy is colored yellow and has white and glitter pen dots for texture. NOTE: There is no blending of these Prismas with any kind of Goo Gone or anything here.....just overlapped the various layers of colors to make them blend.

Stamps: FireCracker Designs by Pamela Oops-a-Daisies
Paper: Basic Black, Basic Grey, SU DP
Ink: Whisper White
Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, White Gel Pen, Glitter Pen, ribbon from Mike’s & Pink Hedgehog

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
Seems there is no time to be “Queen of the Scene” anymore! Ha!

World Couch - Australia

And my final card continuing on with my idea to do the remaining Papertrey World Card Making Challenges with the same set...and kind of re-decorate the room each time. This is my entry for Austrialia featuring masking of the chair and white dot accents.

This one is getting a little sloppy....think I could be tired? Ha!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink On My Couch
Paper: GP 110, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Momento Tuxedo Black, Whisper White
Accessories: Martha Stewart Punch, White gel pen, Prismacolor pencils & Goo Gone to blend

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

World Couch - India

Just continuing on with my idea to do the remaining Papertrey World Card Making Challenges with the same set...and kind of re-decorate the room each time. This is my entry for India featuring “jewels” as fringe on the pillow. I think this one is my fav!

Look I used DP again. I even tried what I'm SUPPOSED to do and picked the DP first and THEN colored. Hey, that works pretty good!

I stitched around the edges of the shape to also qualify for Crazy for Challenges C4C5!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink On My Couch
Paper: Papertrey White, Whisper White, GP from Marrakech by Basic Grey, Tangerine Tango
Ink: Old Olive, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, rhinestones

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

“Queen of the Scene”

World Couch - Mexico

So I had this idea to do the remaining Papertrey World Card Making Challenges with the same set...and kind of re-decorate the room each time. I love this couch set and I think I could do any challenge with it! It even helps me do color challenges which are my most difficult.

For Mexico - I love the idea of Mexican tiles mentioned on the Papertrey blog so I made a little sample using my Guidelines set and Pacific Point ink. I colored it in with Copics. My main image couch was stamped with black ink for for placement and then I sponged in my floor and walls. I used a piece of dp shaded with Copics for the couch itself and paperpieced it in.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink On My Couch
Paper: Whisper White, Pacific Point, GP110
Ink: Pacific Point, More Mustard, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, ribbon from Pink Hedgehog

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

CAS35 Asian Flowers

This is a multi challenge card for me. Yippee! For today’s CAS inspiration challenge, I was inspired by the shading and silhouette flowers on these pillows. I will also enter this in Papertrey’s World Card Making Challenge #1: Japan. The sketch is from Fall to Layout #59 (turned).

The branch was stamped with Virsamark and then Chocolate Chip. The flowers were only stamped in Virsamark and then I used by blender pen to add a little Regal Rose to the centers. All was covered in clear detail embossing powder and heated. Then I sponged Riding Hood Red Ink around the edges and worked toward the middle as I ran out of ink so it would fade.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Out on a Limb
Paper: Whisper White, Papertrey White, Basic Black
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose (flower centers)
Accessories: Virsamark, Clear detail embossing powder, ribbon from Pink Hedgehog, blender pen

Enjoy!
Michelle B. aka “Queen of the Scene”
Designer for FireCracker Designs by Pamela

IC200 Simple Daisies

Where have I been? Wow, what a week! Lots of extra things on my schedule this week! I did make a card for the sketch challenge on Wednesday morning but near the end I somehow got a blop of black ink right in the middle of my piece. I tried to simplify my design and remake the card but I ran out of time before work. Boo hoo! OK, let's get on with the show.....

Throughout the month of October I'll be featuring a set from Firecracker Designs by Pamela called Oops-a-Daisies. As always with Firecracker Designs by Pamela stamps, I love the variety of sizes given for an image. No matter what your idea, there is a daisy of the right size just waiting for you here!

I loved the water bottles from today’s inspiration site. I had a hard time deciding but finally went with this one because I loved the colors. My sketch is from Fall To Layout #60. I curved the stems of these daisies just a bit before attaching them to my block. They are stamped in grey ink and then I added just a bit of B00 Copic and blended just a bit for the slightest hit of color!

Stamps: Firecracker Designs by Pamela Daisies Oops-a-Daisies, Firecracker Designs by Pamela Silhouette Flowers
Paper: GP 110, Certainly Celery, Basic Grey
Ink: Going Grey, Whisper White
Accessories: Corner Rounder Punch, Copics

Enjoy!
Michelle B. aka “Queen of the Scene”
Designer for FireCracker Designs by Pamela