Love Shoes

My daughter recently had a birthday. She has been very busy this fall with soccer, volleyball and her very favorite - Dance! I happen to love shoes so I thought I would feature all her activities by the shoes she wears for them. I just stamped the images, colored with Copics and added a little sponging. Cut them to size and placed them on a card base featuring her favorite colors of turquoise and lime. A hit!

Stamps: Pink Cat Studio Sporty Billy, H&M Living the Girl’s Live, High Hopes Settin Sara, Autumn Leaves Swirls V:I
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Green Galor, GP 110
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Soft Sky, Pear Pizzaz, Pink Pirouette, Basic Grey, So Safron, Creamy Caramel, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: Copics, ribbon from Pink Hedgehog
Enjoy!
Michelle B.

30 Years

30 years.....how long since I posted last! No, not really but it feels like it! Life has just been me running as fast as I can! I'm sorry and I'll try to be back more regularly.

I really made this card as a 30th anniversary card. I love this little chef and believe he can be used for just about any occassion. I used my Cricut to cut out the black layer, the pattern paper layer, and also the "30". I colored the chef and cut him out (and when I realized I was going to have to cut out his mustache I was thinking maybe this wasn't such a good idea!!!). This all went together really quickly.

Stamps: SU Voila
Paper: Papertrey White, SU Mocha Morning DP, Basic Black, Real Red
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, Cricut & Storybook Cartridge


See ya soon!
Michelle B.

PS: My photography skills clearly need to be brushed up on!

Harry Potter Starring Billy

I needed a Harry Potter card for my nephew's birthday. Now, I could have purchased an appropriate image, however, that would have given me a creativity score of zero today. So I asked Billy to star in my card (and he agreed!). To get Billy into costume, I drew in the glasses and scar on his face and added a magic want. I also used the graduation gown and added a tie and scarf. I sketched these items in with a pencil first, drew over the pencil sketch with a fine marker, and then went back and erased the pencil lines with a white art eraser.

I love stretching my stamps to be something other than the obvious! I hope you'll give it a try too!

Stamps: Pink Cat Studio Dress Up Billy, Pink Cat Studio Lily and Billy Accessories, Pink Cat Studio, Limitless Limbs, SU One of a Kind (sentiment)
Paper: Whisper White, GP 110, Basic Black, More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Baja Breeze, Night of Navy, Close to Cocoa, Early Espresso
Accessories: Copics


Enjoy!
Michelle B.

I did it!!!!

Not a stamping thing but I just have to say "I DID IT!!!!". I ran the Go St. Louis half marathon (that's 13.1 miles). I finished in 2 hours and 20 minutes (great for me!). It was an AWESOME experience and I'm planning to do at least 1 more this year.

Enjoy! (and get some exercise today)
Michelle B.

Card Buddies

In just one more week, I'll be running my first half marathon! The training schedule has left me little time for stamping. To make good use of the time I have, I have started a "card buddies" program.

When I look over the list of people I need to make cards for this year, I find that there are many people with similar interested that don't know each other. For example, my husband and I both have someone in our families that like deer hunting. They become card buddies. I just need one deer hunting design, and I make two cards. This saves me time in both the design and production of the card. I also have the 2nd card ready and waiting for the event so saves me a little last minute stress too.

If I don't have an immediate need for a second card, I make it anyway and keep it generic. In this case, I am making this card for my in-laws for Easter. I don't know yet what I'm going to do with the 2nd card so I used a more generic sentiment. Hope you'll give this concept a try.

Now, for this card, I was inspired by THIS piece of artwork. I stamped the flowered branch and colored it in a bit with Copics. I them clear embossed the image TWICE (to make sure no green came thru). Then I sponged Sage Shadow starting at the outside of the image and working to the center so it would be lighter at the center. Finally, I sponged a little Chocolate Chip around the edges.

Stamps: SU Easter Blossoms, SU Clearly for You
Paper: Whisper White, Sage Shadow
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Copics, Versamark pen, clear detail embossing powder, heat gun, ribbon from Mike’s, Stamp-a-majig

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

Running at Sunrise

My husband and I work at the same place. We recently joined some co-workers that run over our lunch hour 3 days a week. We also try to do a little longer run on Saturdays. Last week I logged 17 miles (my all time high!) and had a blast! I knew I wanted to make him a running card for his recent birthday. I didn't find a lot of running images out there...especially for a man. Luckily, I have the Cricut Sports Mania cartridge that has a running man image.

Now I needed a scene to put him in. I choose to CASE the background in THIS fabulous piece by Michelle Zindorf. I did notice that I don't like a lot of lines showing in my direct to paper pieces so I caught myself swirling the ink pad a bit to make it just a little smoother. As I always do with silhouettes, I gave the man the silhouette treatment!

Enjoy! (and get some exercise today!)
Michelle B.

Too Lazy to Color

I wanted to use this image for a birthday card for a family member who loves shopping. I didn't feel like coloring all that background. So, I was thinking that these were pretty nice straight lines in that background so maybe I could mask and sponge it all in. I think it worked great!
Here's the image with the sidewalk and brick wall already sponged. I'll show you how I did this on the window.
I used sticky notes to mask off the area outside the window. Notice that I let those black lines along the bottom and left side of the window show. You can never sponge right up to the edge of the sticky note....this little black line is just the right amount of spacing to keep you from having a white edge there.
I sponged in the blue ink. Its a little hard to see here but I ALWAYS start sponging on the sticky note and work in a circular motion towards the center of the image. This keeps me from getting any harsh areas of color. Everything is nice and softly faded.
Here's what it looks like when I remove the sticky notes.

And here's the finished product again. I paperpieced in the lady. For the sketch I used SCS Sketch Challenge #369. Oh, and I used a fine black marker to draw in the cracks in the sidewalk and a few bricks.

Stamps: My Favorite Things What A Girl Wants
Paper: Whisper White, GP110, Night of Navy, Basic Grey Marrakech DP
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Basic Grey, Really Rust, Soft Sky
Accessories: Copics, Versamark, gold embossing powder, fine black marker, Crystal Stickles

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

Not too late for a calendar.....

Its only the middle of January so you have 11.5 months to go, right? I did make these for myself and my boss before we returned to work from the Christmas break. This is very similar in style to the calendar I made last year as that one just worked out so great (my post is here).

CALENDAR PAGES: The calendar pages are again from Cat (again, used the CD pages and cut them down). You can find those HERE.

DIRECTIONS FOR BASE: Cat also referred me to some great directions I used to put the base of the calendar together. You can find those HERE.

So get comfy and lets look at all these pages!

JANUARY: Stampin' Up Snowfall
January is so much prettier in real life...I just couldn't capture the sparkle of the Stickles.

FEBRUARY: Artful INKables Into the Moonlight
We are both Twilight fans so I figured why not use a Twilight image for the romance of Valentine's Day.

MARCH: Treehouse Stamps My Lucky Charm
I think this one needs something....should have added glitter!
APRIL: High Hopes Easter Basket
After I made this one....I realized I didn't check to see if Easter was actually in April this year! Shew, I'm lucky that it was!

MAY: CC Designs Sugarplums Olivia's Birdies
(lesson learned this year was don't be afraid to mask off the bottom of the stamp like I did here to the bottom of the bird bath....I like the look!)


JUNE: Artful INKables Pond Friends
I love that little fish. HERE is a tutorial on how I did this fish tank technique.


JULY: Oops, can't remember what star I used!
Again, I think I need glitter!


AUGUST: Stampendous Hey There Cupcake
Both of our birthdays are in August so why not a birthday theme. (see, glitter makes it!)


SEPTEMBER: Stampin' Up Trendy Trees
Again this year, September is my favorite! This was inspired by THIS post.


OCTOBER: CC Design Sugarplums Halloween
This was inspired by THIS post.

NOVEMBER: Stamping Bella Chefabella
See, I masked the bottom of the image off and again I like the look.

DECEMBER: Stampin' Up Welcome Christmas
I was inspired by several pieces on Splitcoast Stampers that used this image as an ornament.

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

Earrings and earring cards

(sorry, not the best pic!) Each December, the 8th grade scouts at our school host a "Santa Sale" to allow all the students in the school to purchase inexpensive Christmas gifts for their families. The other grades at the school contribute hand made items to the sale. This year our troop made over 65 pairs of french wire earrings. I needed a way to package them inexpensively so the children could get them home. I decided to cut cardstock into pieces, punch holes to put the earrings through, and tape them to the back to secure. I stamped "Merry Christmas" on the front for just a bit of decoration. Where there is a need, there is a crafty solution!

Supplies: Riding Hood Red Ink, Double Rectangle Punch, sentiment from The Angel Co.

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

Who Made This Mess??!!??!!

Hi and Happy New Year! I am so glad to finally get some time to stamp and work on my blog. This photo is a pic of my stamp area around Thanksgiving. As you can see, it is a total disaster and I'm afraid to say that almost all of this mess is mine! It was so bad that one day I walked in and shocked myself. I said "Did I do that?" Late summer and fall were filled with carpools to dance, soccer, baseball, and volleyball so I was rarely home (as I work full time also). All crafting time was done at the speed of light with no time to pickup (or that's my excuse anyway). I have now cleaned up a bit, heavy sports are over and I'm ready to spend some time sharing some project with you. I'll be back soon.

Enjoy!
Michelle B.