Happy Birthday Bird

Happy Tuesday everyone! Greetings from Florida! Yesterday the kids and I flew down to visit my mom & dad, we'll be here until early next week. I still plan to be stamping and blogging, and checking e-mail, so I am here, just dividing my free time between relaxing at the beach, the pool, or at my mom's crafting area while the kids get spoiled. Seriously, I've been looking forward to this for months.

Anyway, ONWARD to the card! Today's project uses some of my newer Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. I love this bird!! He's sooo pretty and his swirls and flowers coordinate with other stamps on the sheet and in the store.

After I stamped the bird in Night of Navy I colored in the designs with colored pencils. The colors are Kiwi Kiss, Bashful Blue and Night of Navy.

Wicked Bats - MTVD12, SC195, VVPP06

Lots going on with this card today!! I have had these Wicked Bats from Jessica Lynn Original for about 6 months and haven't had a chance to get them inky. That's a CRIME! They are so cool, I love how she drew them - they are just fabulous.

As soon as I saw this week's Sketch Challenge on Splitcoast (SC195) I knew these bats would be perfect. Since I'm on a Kraft kick from the Verve Project Parade and still had some out on my table, I reached for that (of course!!). I paired it with Pale Plum and Perfect Plum for the Meet the Verve Divas Challenge this week from Jen - just use purple.

Once those decisions were made this came together pretty quickly. The bats and the "Happy Halloween" sentiment are from Jessica Lynn, the "I'm bats about you" is from a clear set I got at the Archiver's Hot Spot. I sponged the edges of the Kraft with Palette New Canvas before I assembled the card. After I stamped the main bat in Palette Noir, I painted over him with Coal Shimmerz. I am addicted to Shimmerz!!

Supplies, etc.: Stamps - JessicaLynnOriginal.com. Paper - Pale Plum, Kraft, Perfect Plum, GP 110# white. Ink - Palette Noir, Palette New Canvas, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum. Other - dimensionals, Copic marker, scissors, Coal Shimmerz, black satin ribbon, sponge, paint brush, craft knife, circle punches.

The Ten-Minute Pirate Ship

Here's a super fast and easy card - it actually took 10 minutes to make!! Of course, that's because (notice the similarities to the post below) I had colored and matted this ship for the previous card, only to find it was WAY too big to look good on that card. SO, I continued with that one but saved this image to make another card. Ha! So the 10 minutes doesn't include the main image (which is, of course, the only way I got it done in 10 minutes!).

The colors are the same as the previous card too. Kraft cardstock for the Verve September Project Parade - Natural Fiber Challenge. Still loving getting reacquainted with Kraft! Also this week's Color Throwdown using Olive, Kraft and Red (CTD12). The card is 4-1/4" square.

Supplies, etc.: Stamps - Pirate Ship and Adventure Words from JessicaLynnOriginal.com, plus an A*Muse oval. Paper - Red, Kraft, Olive, GP 110# white. Ink - Palette Noir. Other - Copics, dimensionals, black and olive grosgrain ribbon from SU, Cuttlebug and ribbon tag nestabilities.

Aaarrhhh! A Shimmerzy Pirate Cupcake!

Ahoy Matey!! Here's a fun Friday card featuring my adorable new pirate images from Jessica Lynn Original. I really like these because they LOOK piratey - not all cutesey'd up like some I've seen lately, YKWIM? Anyway, they were perfect for several challenges when I sat down to stamp today ~ love it when a plan comes together!! But what the heck am I talking about cupcakes for?? I used Taylor's Cupcake Challenge for the sketch (TECC35) even though I am aware that pirate ships are not cupcakes, heehee.

I wanted to use Kraft today for the Verve September Project Parade - Natural Fiber Challenge. I was thrilled to see this one because I LOVE Kraft! I haven't used it in awhile though, now that I think about it, so this was a fabulous push in the right direction. Since I wanted Kraft in there anyway, I went with the colors from this week's Color Throwdown of Olive, Kraft and Red (CTD12). Nice! They were probably thinking Christmas but hey, pirates work too!

This is a pretty straightforward card. I cut all the cardstock to size, then ran the red layer through my Cuttlebug with the Skull Scroll folder. Then I covered the whole thing with Angel Dust Shimmerz to give it some more depth. After I stamped the skull images I painted over them with Coal Shimmerz. Go Shimmerz! I colored the ship with Copics and layered it on. Lots of dimensionals here as usual, I need a place to buy those babies in BULK. May Arts ribbon finishes it off, and the sentiment is from another Jessica Lynn Original set (Adventure), punched out with the Word Window punch.

Supplies, etc.: Stamps - JessicaLynnOriginal.com. Paper - Red, Kraft, Olive, GP 110# white. Ink - Palette Noir. Other - Cuttlebug and Skull Swirl folder, dimensionals, Copic markers, scissors, red glaze pen, Angel Wings and Coal Shimmerz, Word Window punch, 1/16" circle punch, May Arts ribbon, paint brush, craft knife.

Bask in Sunsets OSW Card

After having some fun playing around with the Verve September OSW template using the fall theme, I decided I had to make some more. I know they're a bit mixed up now, but this is the third {I think?} sketch from the OSW template, found HERE. I posted the first card using this second set of papers a few days ago.

This sentiment stamp is from Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. They have some really wonderful sentiments that I think I have been under-using lately, so I made the focus of this card words. My favorite part about this one is that it can be used for just about anything - birthday, thinking of you, miss you, just because, etc. It's a *really* versatile stamp, and a GREAT size. You know how I hate those giganormous sentiments - I never know what I'm supposed to do with them!!

You can't see it in the photo, but I took a bottle of Diamond Stickles and put a drop on every single one of those Swiss Dots to give it a little something extra. Did the clouds with my home-made cloud template.

Supplies, etc.: Stamps - Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. Paper - Bordering Blue, Kiwi Kiss, GP 110# white, unknown patterned paper. Ink - Old Olive, Bordering Blue. Other - MS Butterfly punch, mini glue dots, dimensionals, Diamond Stickles, tiny pearls, Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots folder, cloud template, sponge.