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!