A Toughee for Me

First, sorry I've been away but I was literally in bed sick for over 5 days. So glad to be back!

I have a family member who loves ladybugs so that's how I got my start on this card (I'm working that birthday list of mine!). I really like how so many of you can mix and match dp and make it look so good. I wanted to give this another try. Its SO HARD! I worked for hours on this trying to get the look I wanted. I'm pretty happy with this but I need to get a lot faster at this!!!

Stamps: All That Scraps CC Designs Sweet November Sprites Darby & Bumbles
Paper: GP110, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Real Red, SU DP, Recollections DP
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Bashful Blue, Creamy Caramel
Accessories: Clear Button, Nesties, Red embroidery floss, EK Success Rock Fern punch, EK Success Embossed Curve punch, Martha Stewart Scallop Dot punch, Martha Stewart Grass punch, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, Crop A Dile Corner Chomper punch, sewing machine, Copics


Enjoy!
Michelle B.

FS206 Ruffle Girl

You know what I hate? I hate when I don't have a birthday card ready for someone's birthday and I'm rushing around at the last minute. Like I didn't know the birthday was coming or something! I really fell apart this Christmas and was totally disorganized. SO, I'm trying to make a birthday card for someone with any challenge that I play. I've listed all the birthday's out by date and some general ideas of what the different people like to keep me on track. I am also REQUIRING myself to finish the inside of the card before I can consider myself "done" as I often neglect that last step.

When I saw THIS card from today's SCS Featured Stamper, it reminded me of ruffles on a little girls dress. I changed the color scheme to more bold shades of pinks and I changed the sketch to use "ruffles" across the entire card. This is for my niece's birthday in March.

Stamps: Pink Cat Studio Dress Up Lily, Pink Cat Studio Lily & Billy Accessories
Paper: Whisper White, GP110, Melon Mambo, SU DP, Basic Grey DP
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Creamy Caramel, Pretty in Pink
Accessories: Stickles, Angel Wingz Shimmerz, Nesties Labels 4, slit punch

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

SC314 Drink at the Beach

Posting twice in one week! Yippee!! The SCS sketch challenge used to be the one thing I never gave up and I even lost track of that lately. It felt great to play!

My DH loves margarita's so I thought this would make a fab card for his upcoming birthday.

I used the brayered sky technique to create the sand, sky, and ocean. I colored the margarita and cut it out and glued it into place. A few (messy but fun) dazzling diamonds for the "salt" on the glass.

Stamps: Amuse Margarita, CC Designs AmyR Underwater Sentiments, Sanded, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Baja Breeze, Taken with Teal, River Rock, Creamy Caramel, Whisper White
Accessories: White gel pen, Fiskars wave punch, Versamark pen, Heat and stick powder, Dazzling Diamonds

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

Happy New Year & FS204

First off.....Happy New Year!!!! I found myself home alone (that doesn't happen very often) so I decided to play the Featured Stamper Challenge this morning. I choose this card to CASE. I changed from the original by 1) changing the color scheme and 2) simplifying the sketch a bit.

I used the brayered sky technique to create the color on the main panel with a brayer. Whenever I use silhouette stamps like this, I always add a few white highlights to make them pop. The punched butterfly only has one wing glued down - the other is "flapping in the wind".

Stamps: SU Essence of Love
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Pacific Point
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Baja Breeze, Pacific Point
Accessories: Stamp-a-majig, white gel pen, EK Success Punch Morocco Lace, Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly Punch


Best wishes to you for 2011!
Michelle B

2010 Christmas Card #1

Shew, I have almost all my Christmas Cards done! 2 years ago, I made all the same card. B-O-R-I-N-G!!!! Last year I made 75 different cards. EXHAUSTING! This year I'm making 10 or so of 4 or 5 different designs. JUST RIGHT! Here's my first one.

Obviously, this is a Michelle Zindorf inspired piece. To make the main panel, I masked the snow area, brayered the sky (first in lighter blue and then just a tad of darker blue), stamped the trees and removed the mask. Next I stamped the deer into position. Just a tad of inking around the edges of the panel. All that was left to do was stamp the images onto the card base and assemble. It went much faster than I expected.

Stamps: SU Dasher, SU Lovely as a Tree, Papertrey Ink Damask Designs
Paper: Whisper White, Not Quite Navy
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Baja Breeze, and eek, I can’t remember….was it Pacific Point and Night of Navy???
Accessories: Stamp-a-majig

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

New Barn Birthday

I really enjoy making birthday cards for people that reflect something that has happened in their life in the last year. I have a family member that built a new barn this year so that inspired this card.

For this scene, I started by stamping and coloring the barn with Copics. I colored over the barn with a Versamark pen and embossed with clear detail embossing powder (gotta use the "detail" embossing powder!). I brayered the sky. I sponged the grassy hills in using a torn piece of paper as the mask (been using the same torn piece of paper for years!). Finally, I stamped in the large tree silhouette.

Stamps: FireCracker Designs by Pamela Create-A-Scene (barn), SU Nature Silhouettes (tree), Papertrey Ink Faux ribbon, Hanna Stamps Things Hanna Would Say
Paper: Basic Black, Marina Mist, Early Espresso
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive
Accessories: Versamark Pen, clear detail embossing powder, Stamp-a-majig

Enjoy!

Michelle B.

Long Time No Stamp!

Hey, How are you? I think I needed a break here! Thanks to those of you who were checking up on me! That was so nice!

My DD just had a birthday and I couldn't decide what kind of card to make her so I decided to do a collage style. I went thru my stamp inventory and grabbed any image that reminded me of her. This was super fun and really captures who she is! You can find a tutorial I wrote on collage stamping at the Artful INKables blog HERE.

Stamps: EVERYTHING I OWN!!!! Ha! Stamping Bella, Pink Cat Studio, Artful Inkables, Hanna Stamps, H&M Stamps
Paper: Whisper White, Brilliant Blue, Green Galore
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Virsamark
Accessories: Clear detail embossing powder, Photo Corners Punch, rhinestone

Enjoy!
Michelle B.