MFT Sketch Challenge 353

I AM ONE OF THE WINNERS!!!

Hi All!

I am soooo excited to announce that I was chosen as one of the winners in the My Favorite Things 2017 Card Design Superstar Contest!

My wining card is in the Coloring Virtuoso category and is the card I shared in my last post! 

Go check out all the other winners here!

Thanks for all you kind comments on my card!

I can't wait to spend my prize money on new stamps!!

2017 MFT Card Design Superstar: Coloring Virtuoso

This is my entry for the MFT 2017 Design Superstar Challenge in the Coloring Virtuoso category.

I used the Etched Flower Background stamp and colored it with prismacolor colored pencils on black Artagain paper.

The "Thank You" is from the Thanks so very much stamp set which I heat embossed in white on a strip of vellum.  

I kept the rest of the card simple as to not take away from the coloring of the flowers.

I had a lot of fun creating this card, I love any kind of coloring but I particularly love colored pencil on black paper. 

Hope you like it!!

MFT Sketch Challenge 350

MFT 2017 Card Design Superstar: Clean and Simple Genius

MFT Sketch Challenge 326

I made this card for The My Favorite Things cards challenge 326. I love these little farm animals and I had just ordered them from the last release.

This is the the sketch that this card was inspired from.

I used the Farm Friends stamp set and matching dies for the little animals and the tree.

I watercolored a piece of white cardstock for the blue sky and then cut a red square using the Peek a Boo Wonky Windows layered on top of each other.

I colored all the images with copics and cut the hill from green cardstock and the little brown fence from craft cardstock using the Rolling Hills die.

I cut a piece of red gingham paper from an MFT 6x6 pad and adhered it to a white ard base and assembled my scene..

I stamped a sentiment from the same stamp set on a scrap of white cardstock and cut it out in a rectangle to adhere along the bottom.

MFT Sweet Succulents

Another card using My Favorite Things stamp and dies. They are definitely my current favorite company!

This card was created using the Sweet Succulents stamps.

I stamped the succulents in their pots with some masking on kraft cardstock , and then colored them with prismacolor pencils. Since I stamped the succulents in their pots, I had to fussy cut everything out.

The box was cut using the MFT Gift Box Cover Up die, also out of kraft cardstock. I popped it up using foam tape.

The background was made using a blending tool with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a inexpensive stencil I bought a Michael's.

I stamped the sentiment with versamark ink on green cardstock and then used white embossing powder to heat set it.

I also decided to pop the succulents up as well.

Hope you like it!!

MFT Sweet Succulents

Ok, so it's been a while since my last post....sorry about that! I'm going to try and do petter with posting more often!

MFT Card Challenge

I made this card for the My Favorite Things weekly card challenge Sketch 320. I used MFT No Place Like Home card kit for the houses and tree. The heart background uses the MFT STitched Heart Grid. I painted all the pieces with my kuretake gansai tambi watercolors, adding stripes of blue to the background where the hearts were placed. The sentiment is also from the MFT No Place Like Home card kit.

I used Tim Holtz watercolor paper in the foreground and paper from the 6x6 MFT Sweet Celebration paper pack.

I hope you like it! More cards coming soon!

Valentines...a day late!

I have two Valentine's cards to share today. The first one I made for my husband and the second one I made just because I think the elephant is so stinkin cute!

This one features a smooshed watercolor background, then I embossed it with a We R Memory Keepers embossing folder. I added some more watercolor to some of the embossed hearts. All the watercoloring was done with Tim Holtz distress ink Barn Door.

The keyhole was cut with a die from  MFT card kit No Place Like Home, as was the key. 

Behind the die-cut I used a scrap of old Doodlebug Designs Valentines paper.

I then popped the watercolored panel with foam tape and stamped the sentiment from MFT No Place Like Home stamp.

The second card I made just for fun! I love these MFT elephants!

For this card I also watercolored behind the elephant using Gansai Tambi watercolors, in red, white, and a tiny bit of purple. The elephant is from MFT Adorable Elephants set. I colored him with copics, then stamped the flowers from the same set and drew grass with copics. The ballon is from the same set but I stamped it separately and attached it with a piece of hem cord. I die-cut the finished stitched rectangle with MFT Cross-Stitched Rectangle STAX.

The sentiment was stamped in black and is from Paper Smooches Word Salad set.

I popped the pink panel up using foam tape, and adhered it all to a 5 1/2 by 4 1/4 white cardstock base.

Thanks for looking!

Avery Elle Little Monsters

This card was done using Avery Elle Monsters stamp. I think these little guys are adorable! I did some masking on this one to put the one little guy in the box, like he is the birthday present. I colored all the stamped images with copics and used Tim Holtz distress inks spiced marmalade and wild honey blended behind them.

The orange background cardstock was embossed using cuttlebug embossing folder spots and dots. I added the sentiment with black ink directly on the turquoise cardstock. It is from Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler stamp. I used foam tape to pop the little guy in the box up.

This was a really fun card to make. In fact I made five different cards using this stamp set. I'll show more later.

A new beginning

So this is it! I've wanted to write a blog for awhile now, but didn't have much to share.

But lately I have become obsessed with card making.

I earned a degree in Graphic Design in my college years and worked for two production studios and a TV station using my trade. Then came marriage, and not long after, children! Three to be exact. So it was time to quit work and stay at home to raise my family.

I've always tried to use my creativity in some way throughout the years though. Decorative wall painting, stenciling, party planning and set design for high school plays.

But in 1999 I was introduced to scrapbooking and I never looked back! I got a job at a local scrapbook store and started teaching classes. I won several awards and was published a few times in the trade magazines. I've been doing it ever since, until lately when I found my self craving to use my talents in a different way.

I had always love painting and colored pencil work, but I had resisted card making because I was spending all my money on scrapbook supplies and couldn't afford both!

I finally put the scrapbooking aside for a while and focused on stamping. I was hooked from the beginning! I got to play with watercolor again, and colored pencil, and design. It was the best of all my worlds put together!

So here I am. My first blog post showing my first card.

I have a lot to learn about this blogging business, but I'm excited to get started!

This card was made using the Altenew Bamboo Rose stamp set. I colored it with Altenew alcohol markers which are pretty much like copics. I saw this technique done on Kathy Racoosin's blog and decided to try it. The awesome die-cut and the sentiment are from Neat and Tangled.

 I hope you like it!