Pink Elephant for Valentines

It feels so good to be back stamping and creating after the long holiday season.

I colored this cute Dr. Pea_Nut elephant from Our Craft Lounge all in pink and soo in Love!

Isn't she just the cutest little elephant. I used copic markers to color her and the flowers. I added a peanut border to the pink panel behind the main image and added brown dots to look like stitch holes. I made a border using my corner rounder punch for the top and bottom of the main image for added interest. I just love all of the accessory stamps that come in each of the Our Craft Lounge sets. There are lots of sentiments which helps me because it may take me an hour to create a card and another hour to find just the right sentiment. They thought of everything.

I bought the background designer paper at Target in the dollar bin, gotta love the dollar bin. The coral pink flowers on the designer paper matched some coral pink ribbon that I had in my stash as well as the brown with the pink stitches.

I have to go finish the two InStyle cards that I am working on. If it isn't too late when I finish them I may post again tonight, you just never know.

See you later,

Cathy

Last post of 2008 Where has the year gone?

Hi Everyone,

Well, we are drawing near the end of another year. A very creative and exciting year for me personally. Here is a Birthday card I made for my soon to be 7 year old granddaughter. I think she will like it.

I just can't get over how darn cute this little elephant is. In case you haven't been to my blog for a few days this elephant is from the Dr. Pea_Nut stamp set I bought at Our Craft Lounge a couple of weeks ago. I also bought Bub's Beaver.

I of course colored the elephant with copic markers. I stamped the scalloped punch birthday and trimmed close around the scallops and cut another yellow scallop punch to put behind it.

I used a corner rounder punch to create the scallop on the orange panel under the main elephant image. I tied a yellow stitched grosgrain ribbon around the entire image panel. I mounted the scalloped sentiment circle up on a photo mounting square. I added a few white gel pen accent dots and my cute cute birthday card is done. I think she will like it.

I will have some more cards for you tomorrow. My husband is out of town and nothing to stop me from stamping from dawn till dusk until Sunday, that's what I call a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!!!

Cathy

Look at these cute stamps from Our Craft Lounge!

I am going to show you three of the cutest stamps that can be used for many different occassions from the fairly new Stamp Company Our Craft Lounge. The stamp set is called: Dr. Pea_Nut






I showed you this stamp a couple of days ago but I didn't make a card out of it and I had colored that one blue. I thought that a "sick" elephant would be green. He looks like he feels pretty bad to me. I colored them with copic markers of course, I seldom use anything else these days, just seems to be what I always grab.

Bub's the Beaver is the name of this stamp set from Our Craft Lounge and I love love love to color this set.

I have to work at using designer paper on my cards sometimes. It isn't that I don't have any, I have hundreds of sheets because I buy it when I see something I like or it is on sale. It is probably because I color the image and then make the card afterwards and I don't always find what I feel is the perfect dp. Sometimes being a perfectionist is a hinderence.

I sponged the edges with Ranger Vintage Photo Distressed Ink to soften the cut edges a little. I added a green brown ribbon under the main image. I popped up the main image on foam picture mounting tape and the scalloped sentiment is up on two stacked foam tapes to make it higher than the main image.

Finally I added the brown Robin's Egg Dew Drops from the Cowboy bottle.

My final image is also of Bub's the Beaver with my new favorite sentiment. "Well, I'll be dammed....."

This is another image that I showed you the other night with the blue elephant but I sponged the edges with Ranger Vintage Photo Distressed ink and added the cute brown gingham ribbon. It is still a pretty masculine card since there is only a ribbon knot and not a bow. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I may post sporatically for the next few days. I have to work tomorrow (Christmas Day), and Friday,and we are having our family Christmas on Saturday. Hopefully the weather stays nice like they are forecasting.

Hope to see you back here soon.

* * * *

I just read that Whimsey Stamps was having a Guest Designer call for January and the Bub's Beaver qualifies for the 3 layers and at least 3 embellishments and besides I think he is too cute. Must be an animal or Whimsey stamp. Here are the important details. Full requirements are available on Splitcoast Stampers under Design Team Calls:

Monthly guest designer for January 2009, design call now open!We are looking for a talented crafter who loves to stamp, create and share! Each monthly guest designer will be asked to create atleast one Whimsy Stamps project per week. This project must then be posted on your blog. Whimsy Stamps will post your artwork on the gallery page of our site. We also ask that you participate in any other Whimsy related challenges.Important:-Anyone from around the world may enter this design call.-Monthly Guest designers must have their own blogs to share and promote projects featuring Whimy Stamps.-Enter as many times as you would like.-It is not necessary, for this particular design call, to use a Whimsy Stamps image, however if you have one, please do.

* * * *

I love to be on a design team, it gives me a true purpose to stamp and create not just because I love to do it and would do it anyway.

Cathy

OMG these stamps are too dammed cute!

I placed my first order from Our Craft Lounge on Friday and they arrived today. I was soo excited to get them. I was even more excited when I realized that I didn't have to cut them out and the packaging is the best I have ever seen. Here are my two samples:

This darling elephant image is from the Dr. Pea-Nut set and I thought since I was making him a little sick elephant he would be blue. I used copic markers to color him and I haven't decided what kind of card I will make I couldn't wait to post these to show you.

The second image is the cutest grumpy beaver and who doesn't need a stamp that says "Well, I'll be dammed...." I know I do and I know I will use it a lot :)

Isn't he just the cutest ever! I can't wait to have some time to color some more as there are several cute images on this set that I can't wait to use. Make sure you check out these sets and all of the others from Our Craft Lounge. This set is called Bubs the Beaver.

The artist of these darling stamps is none other than Marianne Walker, Product Specialist for Copic in North America, who taught the Copic Certification Class I had the pleasure of attending in Kansas City in October. (I apologize Marianne if I got your title incorrect, I couldn't find it anywhere on your blog tonight.)

I have to go play some more, I can't help it these are just too much fun.

Night......

Cathy

I did a scrapbook layout--Yea Me!

I have never really thought much about scrapbooking, I leave that up to my three daughters and I just make cards and altered projects. Well I had colored some images from the Home Stamp plate from Artistic Outpost and when I tried to lay out my card it became a scrapbook page. Sometimes the images just take on a life of their own and become what they want to be not necessarily what I had invisioned. Here is my scrapbook page:

For the past two years I have been gathering papers and stamps that I wanted to use to create a scrapbook of my Dad and Grandparents. I have their photo albums and want to make a Memory book for my kids and grandkids to look at and learn a little bit about their Grandpa and Great Grandparents. They never knew them because my dad passed away before I got married and my grandparents died before my oldest daughter was born.

I decided when these images became a scrapbook page that I would use a couple of the photos of my grandparents house. The top picture is of my grandparents in 1957 in front of their house. I didn't want to ruin the photos from the album so I scanned the photos onto photo paper and used those images. I also wanted to make the photos in the scrapbook sepia instead of black and white or colored. I also used the photo that had my dad and grandma and grandpa by Grandma's Lily pond, which she was so proud of. This photo was taken in 1942. I am grateful that my grandma added the dates to the back of the photos and it is so nice to see her handwriting on them as well.

I had sponged the edges of the Artistic Outpost images with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and Pine Needle so I also sponged the edge of my photos with the same Distress Ink to maintain the continuity of the color scheme.

I added the antique prima flowers that I picked up at Yesterday's Scrapbook store, yep the one a couple of blocks from me. I love that they are cut from printed paper and there is a vast variety of neutral colors in the one container to choose from. I didn't want to just attach the prima flowers with a small brad so I used these medium sized decorative brads that I bought at Michaels.

The Rooster weathervane and flower are popped up on foam mounting tape to complete my page.

I really like the way it turned out and it may be the jump start I need to actually get my scrapbook started.

Hope you are all staying warm, it is really cold here in Omaha. A good reason to stay in and stamp don't you think? We got snow, sleet and thunder snow Thursday night and it is supposed to stay cold so we will have a white Christmas for sure.

I got new stamps today from Artistic Outpost so I will be making new projects and getting a jump start on my Valentine cards. I got the Cutie Pie Vintage Valentine stamp plate and the Adventure stamp plate. Can't wait to play with them but tonight the glue is drying ( I buy the unmounted and put Ailene's Over and Over glue on the back so they adhere to the acrylic blocks) so I can play with them tomorrow.

I also have new stamps coming from Our Craft Lounge, whose stamp artist is none other than Marianne. Marianne is the Product specialist for Copic Markers and taught the Copic Certification class that I attended in Kansas City in October. I'm thinking they are going to be awesome to color with my copic markers.

I also ordered some individual stamps from InStyle Stamps, a brand spanking new stamp company. You might want to check their site out, they have some pretty cool stuff as well.