Popcorn challenge - lines

Popcorn challenge over at The Daily Marker blog is to draw lines then color them in however you like.  I did wavy lines then colored them in with gelatos and made a scallop circle card.  Did another shape card with straight lines and colored it in with pastel pencils.
card details:
stamps: MFP Stamp Shop
shapes: Spellbinders Nestabilities

Border dies and gap card

Had fun with this technique cutting out border dies leaving a gap between the dies.  For these two cards I CASED the design totally from Kirsten Werner .  I did use a couple of different sayings for my cards.
Border dies by Spellbinders Nestabilities

DIY cover plates Background Check

These DIY (DIY=do it yourself) cover plate samples are so much fun to create and a great effect on the card.  I plan on making a bunch of these to put on cards.  So get out all those border dies you have (you know you have them) and cut up some cards!  my border dies are from Spellbinders Nestabilities .

Cards for Background Check day 3 design break

The parakeet card is a suspension card....the parakeet is stamped on circle with clear thread taped to card so when you twist it up ..... then open the card it spins around.  this is one of the backgrounds from day 2 of Background Check class by Jennifer McGuire Ink.  A fun technique where you stamp an image with dye ink on glossy card...let dry....overstamp it with VersaMark...let it dry...color over all the stamping with darker dye ink.  clear as mud, right?
Second card has a masked off moon and horizon then blend distress ink with blending tool.  next over stamped with black ink and colored in the pirate ship with Prisma color pencils.



card one details:
parrot image by Paula's Kit club
floral background image by Hero Arts
CC044 C-A-C scratches background image by Impression Obsession Rubber Stamps
circle dies by Spellbinders Nestabilities
card two details:
images by MFP Stamp Shop Buried Treasure stamp set
 Ranger distress inks

what's alien-ing you?

It's been a crazy week with mother nature around here and it is going to continue tonight according to the forecasts.  Here is a fun shaker card I made for an upcoming card swap.  shakers are fun to make and fun to shake, shake, shake!  this is what I call an element shaker because only the circle part is the shaker not the whole card.  clear as mud, right?

card details:
stamps - MFP Space Fun stamp set
ranger glossy accents
cloud embossing folder
nestabilities circle dies

May Arts Christmas card challenge---didn't win

>>>>I wasn't one of the winners, I guess better luck next time for me.  Congratulations to the winners.<<<<<<

***this post will stick here till 12-18-14. If you have a chance please go to vote (see below) on my cards or any of the others. thank you.  scroll down to see most recent post.***
First wanted to say thank you to Bethney at May Arts ribbons for
accepting me as one of the twelve to participate in the Christmas
card challenge. Go here and follow instructions to vote on our cards, you have till 12/18/14 to vote . We were sent this ribbon that is like seam binding so it is perfect to use on cards with not a lot of bulk added to the card.  If you look to the left you will see my first card which is a twisted easel card with lots of green and brown tone ribbons that worked great for my gingerbread man theme.  the background piece is a take on the bargello technique then I added ribbons to the top tags by threading them through the holes to tie bows.  On the bottom tags I did what I call a ribbon folded bow kinda like ribbon candy.  For my second card (look to the right) again I did an easel card but I used Spellbinders Nestabilities dies for a shape card.  The background piece is the bagello technique and the top ribbon

bow is what I like to call a loopy bow.  All I did was thread a small piece of ribbon in the hole then I looped all the ribbons around my four fingers and next placed the looped ribbons in between the ribbon that was threaded through the hole and tied it off.....separate all the ribbon loops to make a fun floppy loopy bow.  Now if you look at the stamped candy cane there is another type of bow where I did a one hole bow.  Wrap the ribbon around the piece and thread both ends of the ribbon through the one hole and tie a bow!  comes out perfect every time! One last card which is one of my go to type of card ...... a shaker card!  A fun card that is always a wow card and this one is no exception.  First I adhered the ribbons to a piece of cardstock then ran it through my Big Kick with this big Sizzix snowflake for the shaker opening of the card then just finish off the card with saying and you are done.  Hope you stuck it out here for this long post and please go to Ribbons May Arts blog to see mine and all the other cards created with these ribbons and don't forget to leave a comment over there on the cards you liked.  thanks!
enter in following challenge:
1.  CCEE stampers - starring santa
card details:
all images by Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Co.
all ribbons by May Arts ribbons

Happy Halloween 2014!!!

If you are here for MFP blog hop post please click here or scroll down....boooooooo!

It's all Hallooooo-ween night when all the ghosts and goblins come out to play.  Witches, ghosts, and goblins, Oh My!   I don't have any small children anymore (all grown) so I'll be home tonight watching some scary fun on T.V.  The card on the left is what I call a circle closure card and the one on the right with all the scary ghosts is what I call a cut down card but whatever you call them they fit the scene for Halloween night.  all coloring done with Prisma color pencils....what else?  boooooooo!
entered in following challenge:
1.  Craft Hoarders Anonymous - layer it!
2.  SweetStampsBlog - spooky
3.  Divas by design - anything goes
4.  That Craft Place challenge - halloween
5.  Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C259 photo inspiration
6.  Simon Says Wednesday challenge - anything goes
circle closure card details:
stamps - Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Co. Home Page
oval punches and Nestabilities circle dies
ribbon

cut down card details:
stamps - Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Co. Home Page
Sizzix ghosts die
decorative paper
prisma color pencils

Chrysanthemum power!

I'm calling this card a circle closure card although as I always say there is probably a fancier name out there in cyber-land and if there is leave me a comment and let me know.
this card has a lot of coloring with .... I know, you know but I'll say it again.....prisma color pencils my favorite coloring medium.  if you click on photo to enlarge it you will see that I did the leaves twice and popped them up on the card.  this is also, I think, an unique color scheme....burgundy, dark purple and a dust slate blue....sometimes I just have to go crazy with my colors.  used my dies for the circles and ovals except for the "tag" with the saying at the bottom of the card that I just cut out and then used a circle punch for the end of the tag.  you have to insert the card stock into the circle punch from one side and push it out.  sounds complicated but not really.  inside of the card is simple...just stamped the image and stamped the saying.
card details:
stamps - MFP Chrysanthemum stamp set
prisma color pencils
spellbinders nestabilities circle and oval dies

The sky's the limit!

Yes, the sky is the limit with this card....hot air balloon floating high in the air without a care in the world.  Made this a bright and cheery birthday card but can be used for any occasion you wish.  Even an anniversary card as it should have been for me today but I have another card for that occasion.  Besides having fun coloring with my Prisma color pencils I also did a fluffy seam binding bow which I feel adds to the cheeriness of this card.  I call this card a circle closure card but I'm sure there is a fancier name out there somewhere.  Well, I'm off to celebrate my anniversary today and see my brother, S-I-L and my adorable niece.  
card details:
stamps - MFP Stamp Shop Hot Air Balloon stamp set 
Prisma color pencils
seam binding ribbon
Spellbinders Nestabilities circle dies

Here's looking at you

I think this is just a fun fish to be staring into a port hole of a ship.  couldn't resist making a gel card with this fish.  Here are instructions I wrote for Speedy TV I wrote a while back.  It's really an easy card to create just takes a little patience and if you know me in person you know I'm not a patient person but I have made several of this type of card. There is a lot going on in this card besides the cheap hair gel in a mini baggie....I made this card look like the fish, who I colored with prisma color pencils, was looking into a ship's port hole....he looks a little surprised at what he is looking at....what do you think he sees?  As you can see this is a wood ship because I used a wood grain embossing folder for the texture and since ships or boats only go out on the water in the summer I thought this is a good summer card.

entering in the following challenges:
1.  Frilly and Funkie challenge - cool water
2.  Simon Monday Challenge blog - mid-summer's challenge
3.  Craft Hoarders Anonymous challenge - who's the boss?
4.  The House that Stamps Built challenge - summer fun
card details:
stamps - Repeat Impressions Contain yourself stamp set
cheap hair gel
mini ziplock baggies
paper punches and spellbinders circle dies
mini brads
sizzix wood grain embossing folder

summer fun or maybe it was spring

I did a private class back in May with a great bunch of gals making a couple (of what I call easy cards) easy cards and a couple others that take a little more time and effort.  But I know we all had fun!  You see with the bird card we masked off the bird then sponged on some color.  The life is a sea card is a gel card.  You can see tutorial here that I did for Mark's Finest Papers and Stamps .  the

gel card is one of those cards that does take a little more time to create but it
is also a card that will have your friends saying, "how did you do that?" and that is always fun!  The frog card is just so cute and look at all that fringey goodness.  that was done with one of those fringe scissors.  I'll leave here today with a photo showing the fun we had creating these cards.
bird card details:
stamps by Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Co. Home Page
inks - Ranger Adirondack dye ink pads
gel card details:
stamps by Rubbernecker
little ziplock baggies found at craft store
spellbinders circle nestabilities
frog card details:
stamps by Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Co. Home Page
spellbinders oval and circle nestabilities
fringe scissors
Prisma color pencils

MFPaHC Birds of the Orient blog hop

Welcome to the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Company

February Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Feb. 9

Foo Dogs

Featured Feb. 10

Birds of the Orient

 Featured Feb. 11

Birdcages

Featured Feb. 12

Medallions

Featured Feb. 13

Fairies

Featured Feb. 14

Lucky Duck

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All six winners will be announced on 

Feb. 15, 2014 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for 

commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday Feb. 14, 2014

This month I'm bringing back an oldie but goodie......SHAKER cards!
 I know you remember them whether you use foam board, foam mounting tape or washi tape for faux shakers.

Birds of the Orient are the topic for today.  I really enjoyed playing with this stamp set....I like birds and these are wonderful.  This time I used foam mounting tape --- a lot easier then foam board --- and Nestabilities for the cut out openings.  Second card is a faux shaker card.  You can get instructions here on Speedy TV which is a free site with lots ideas and challenges.  On day 3 of our hop I will have a silent movie showing the first three stamp sets in action.  Stop by An'Jenic blog to see her birds.

Here's the Design Team:

 Jane C

 Thrfity Stamper

Marilynn

 Bonnie 

Cathy C  

Sue W

An'Jenic

  Amy

Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

Come on back tomorrow for more creativity.

Horse

If you are here for MFPaHC Feb. blog hop click here or scroll down.

This is the first time I have participated in Splitcoaststampers queen for the day/week (not sure how long) but it is.  Basically you are supposed to case a card from the queen's Splitcoaststampers album so that is what I did.  Robin's card is here in her album.  Go here for all the comments and to see the cards everyone else have done.
For my card I copied the idea of leaving cut out image in die and adding color plus I used some recycled brown packaging as did Robin.
card details:
stamps - Mark's Finest Papers and Stamps a Heinrich Co. Wild West
spellbinders oval nestabilities
ribbon by Stampin' Up
DSP by Stampin' Up

Pretty northern lights

Earlier in the month I showed you all the fun a couple of friends and I had
doing the northern lights technique (search online for complete instructions) and said I would show my finished cards.  Well, today is the day to see a few of my finished cards.  I wanted the star of the show to be the technique so I kept the cards simple.  I sent out a few of them to friends who weren't able to attend our stamp meeting.  The one on the left with the trees was sent to our friend who is home with a fractured foot.  I did a little more black on this one then normal and I liked it.  The one on the right with the girl on the funky fish flyer went to our friend who was home sick.  With this cold, warm, snowy and rainy

weather lately it's no wonder everyone isn't down with cold/flu.  Snowflake lady went off to our friend who was home with the plumber the day of our meeting.  If it's not the weather then it's our house that keeps us from our fun of stamping.  Leslie likes all things snow so she got this serene looking snowflake lady but I did her in greens because I like things green in stamping.  More to come soon.
card details:  all cards used white gel pen and nestabilities dies
tree card:
trees - Stampin' Up
thinking of you - Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Co. Home Page
inks - Ranger Distress inks
swiss dots embossing folder
funky fish flyer card:
stamp - Picture Show
inks - Ranger Adirondacks
snowflake lady card:
stamp - Stamp Corner (out of business)
snowflake embossing folder