Monday, May 31, 2010

It's official!



This widget says it all:  I am a proud member of the Tiffany Doodles design team! I was so excited when Tiffany approached me and asked if I would join her team!

Tiffany Doodles offers a wide variety of digital images, from cute to whimsical and she has some very realistic nature images as well.

She also offers great freebies so you can "try before you buy". I think there's something for everyone! And there's going to be a challenge on the 7th of each month, with the first one happening in June.

Tomorrow, June 1st is our official blog hop and you won't want to miss it! Lots of chances to win digis along the way, as well as the grand prize of 10 digis of your choice and some great candy, too!

Please come by and hop with us! The hop officially starts at midnight on June 1st. See you then!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

One Layer Wednesday #6--Overlapping



I love Wednesdays.  Time to visit Simplicity and see what Susan has in store. This week's OLW is overlapping.  Create a one layer card and overlap the image and sentiment.

I had a lot of ideas and decided to use Hero Arts' Traditional Butterfly. Thankfully, the sentiment is a clear stamp, because I knew that I wanted to curve the sentiment to mimic the butterfly's movement.

I had two more cards but felt they weren't "publish worthy". This one was my fave and I'm sure I'll use this design again, if ever I need a quick all occasion card.

Visit Susan's blog and give her one layer challenges a try. Next to a glass of wine, it's a great way to decompress after a week of coloring, layering, trimming, embellishing....

Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black,  Memento Cantaloupe
Cardstock: Georgia Pacific
Other:  corner rounder


Wednesday, May 26, 2010

a new 'do for Jade



Here's my card for the latest Saturday Sketch challenge at Club Anya & Friends. It looked pretty simple, and I had WS Jade already colored so putting the card together would be pretty fast. Or so I thought.


As I was trimming Jade, I accidentally trimmed off one of her pigtails!  I thought about leaving just one side, but it looked too weird...so I trimmed off the other.  It wasn't my intention to alter Jade, but I'm starting to like her new look. I'm going to try trimming out another Jade, and hope to spare both pigtails!

And an FYI about the ice cream that my daughter's class made from yesterday's recipe--it received two thumbs up from the whole class. They absolutely loved it!

Stamps: The Greeting Farm
Cardstock: Martha Stewart kraft
Patterned paper:  Me & My Big Ideas
Other: Copic markers,Nestabilities, Stampin Up scallop border punch,
Sharpie poster paint pen, star button

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

my favorite teacher




Just sharing a card dedicated to my favorite teacher--our daughter Jamie. She's in her third year and doing such an awesome job!

Being a teacher is a challenging job, but very rewarding, too. I know she's glad that summer is a few days away, and a bit sad because her current class is a fave. 

Today she's having them make ice cream by tossing around a bag of half and half and ice. They'll be learning math--measuring out the ingredients--and get to reap the rewards of their work....eating the ice cream!



Here's the recipe for anyone who wants a fun summer activity:
  • 1/2 cup half and half 
  • 1 Tbsp. sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • crushed ice
  • 6 Tbsp. rock salt (or Hawaiian salt)
Place the first three ingredients in a quart ziploc bag.  Seal it well.  Place this bag into a gallon size ziploc bag, half filled with ice and salt.  Start tossing the bag around.  Either throw it back and forth or keep shaking it but not so violently that the bags break. The bag will get extremely cold. In about 10 or 15 minutes, you should have a solid mass of some yummy ice cream!

Bon appétit!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Mush home hospitality



Isn't this the cutest mushroom house? It's a digital stamp by Tiffany Doodles and when I saw it in the store, I bought it and knew exactly how I wanted it colored.  It's such a fun, whimsical image!

I think the image can be used on all occasion cards but I paired it with a sentiment from Hero Arts.


And speaking of Hero Arts....here's a shot of my $100 worth of goodies that FedEx delivered a few days ago. My name was chosen from a random drawing of comments left on the Hero Arts blog!

Here's proof that it pays to visit Hero Arts for tons of inspiration, leave a comment on the blog, and be eligible to win! I'm hoping to ink up the stamps and share some cards this week.  Hope you all have a great one!

Stamps: Tiffany Doodles digital image, Hero Arts sentiment
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Martha Stewart kraft
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Colorbox
Other:  Copics, Nestabilities, ribbon, twine, pearls, pop dots


Saturday, May 22, 2010

Burtonesque Challenge #3


Hope you're all having a great weekend!  Now, you're either gonna like this, or not....but I had FUN coloring and putting this goth wedding card together.


The current Burtonesque challenge is to use black flowers and skulls on your card.  How fun and quirky is that? I used Tiddly Inks' Happy Couple goth image and printed it out in grayscale again.

I colored the image with different shades of gray Copics and then sponged Black Soot distress ink around the edges.  The white dots were made with the Sharpie poster paint pen and I heat embossed the sentiment with white powder.

The black roses were made by dripping some Copic refill inks onto white ones, and believe it or not, there are teeny tiny skull earrings and a teeny skull hanging from the bride's neck.  So this card fit the challenge! I may even give the card to my daughter next year!

Stamps: Tiddly Inks digital image, Inkadinkado (dawn houser) sentiment
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Bazzill Basics
Ink: Versamark, Black Soot distress ink
Other: White detail embossing powder, circle cutter, Copic markers and refills,
Sharpie poster paint pen, paper roses, Marvy leaf punch

Friday, May 21, 2010

One Layer Wednesday #5


Susan's latest One Layer Wednesday challenge is to incorporate faux embellishment stamps on a one layer card.

According to Susan, a faux embellishment is any stamp image that "pretends to be a real embellishment, like a button, ribbon, paper clip, eyelet, brad, fabric or stitches".

I happened to have some faux stitching stamps and made these cards in a jif.







Close zigzag stitching,














a stitched flower,















and fancy zigzag stitching.




Once again, it took all of my willpower not to add anything more.



Hope you all have a great weekend!  Thanks, always for visiting my blog!

Stamps: Sassafras  stitchery, Skipping Stones Design
Cardstock: Georgia Pacific
Ink: Memento Bahama Blue, Grape Jelly, Lady Bug ink,
Versafine Onyx  Black



Wednesday, May 19, 2010

ATS Dry embossing challenge




I was planning to enter the challenge at Club Anya & Friends which was to make a card using neapolitan colors...
but I missed the deadline.

But I found out from fabby Miss Amy that the challenge at All That Scraps is to use some dry embossing on your card and an image that they sell in their online store. Perfect!


I do reach for my embossing folders quite often, and my Nestabilities, too. Since I didn't have any pink roses, I simply colored some white ones with Copics to match. The white dots on Stella's dress were made once again by the Sharpie poster paint pen.

Hope you're having a great Wednesday!  I'm off to meet some friends for sushi....

Stamps: The Greeting Farm, Hero Arts sentiment
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Stampin Up, Hero Arts notecard
Ink: Memento, Versafine
Other: Copic markers, Nestabilities, Cuttlebug embossing folder,
Marvy oval punch, paper roses, Sharpie poster paint pen, pop dots


Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I'm a Weekend Winner!



I just found out that I won the weekend challenge over at Create with TLC! Of course, there were only three entries because you had to buy a digi, make a card with it and upload it in a day and a half.


There were several digis to choose from and I chose a set called It's a Kid Thing.

I also had The Greeting Farm's Audrey in mind because of her cute and sassy attitude. I think it's a perfect match!

And my prize?  A $10 gift voucher to be used at TLC...so I can buy more digis!



Thanks for letting me share my good news!
Have a great week...

Stamps: Created with TLC, The Greeting Farm
Cardstock:  Papertrey Ink
Patterned paper:  Basic Grey Eva
Ink: Colorbox
Other:  Copic markers, EK Success binder edge punch, 
Martha Stewart 3-in-1 butterfly punch, sewing machine


Sunday, May 16, 2010

Sharpie pen winnah!


Thanks so much for all your comments over the weekend. I was having internet problems and I'm posting this a little late but according to random.org, the winner of the Sharpie poster paint pen is #26, Pia.I will email you, Pia!

Here's a couple of cards--two different looks from one stamp. The image is by Leanne Ellis for Sugar Nellie stamps. It was out of stock for quite a while and I snatched her as soon as I saw it was available again at Funky Kits.



 I kept the card pretty simple, and just used some pop dots under the birdhouse to give it dimension.


The second card uses just the Sharpie pen for highlights on kraft. Easy peasy and super quick!
You can do this with any white pigment pen or colored pencil, but I love the Sharpie!
Hope Pia does, too.

Friday, May 14, 2010

One Layer Wednesday + ribbon


The One Layer Wednesday challenge on Susan's blog is to create a one layer card with a piece of ribbon on it. And here's my card.






I used the Pure Innocence baby digi which looks like a little boy because it's bald, but just by adding a teeny pink bow, he became a she! I also chose to color just her jammies and give her a bit of blush. I'm loving these OLCs!


See the dots on her jammies? They were made with a Sharpie poster paint pen. Suzanne Dean first mentioned how much she liked this pen and now I'm a big fan, too.

I'll be giving away a pen to a random commenter sometime this weekend! Stay tuned....it might be you!



Stamps: Pure Innocence Digistampcharacters, Hero Arts sentiment
Cardstock: Stampin Up ivory
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Other: Copic markers, Sharpie poster paint pen, ribbon, corner rounder

* * *


Thanks for your comments on yesterday's card and here's a close up of the clouds which were described as "marshmallowy"! After cutting out random cloud shapes, I simply edged the bottom portion with two Copics--C00 and W00. Can you see it?
Glad you liked them!

Thanks so much for visiting...
Hope you have an awesome weekend!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

always the flower girl...





Here's an image by Tiddly Inks from their Gothic Cute line of digital stamps. This digi is called "Always the Flower Girl" and she was a lot of fun to color.

I made the dotted background using the Raindrop Background stamp and Crushed Olive, my new favorite color of distress ink.






Since it's a Goth image, I tried to keep it "dark" and added some gray clouds for interest.

I may enter this in the Burtonesque Challenge which I found out about from my blogging friend Amy. Could she be a character in a Tim Burton movie? I hope so!


Stamps: Tiddly Inks digital image, Hero Arts Raindrop Background
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Versamark, Crushed Olive Distress ink
Other: Copic markers, Nestabilities Labels Eight,
clear embossing powder, pop dots, sheer ribbon, paper flower

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Meet Cookie Bugg!



Here's the newest Bugg to join the Tiddly Inks family--Cookie Bugg! Christy gave us a sneak peek during the blog hop and Cookie is now officially in the online store.


And since today is Tiddly Tuesday, that means there's a freebie on the Tiddly Inks page over at Paper Craft Planet....and it's a great one!

It matches perfectly with Cookie and even comes with a glass of milk digi. Too cute!




There's also some new digital papers in the store that match some of the Bugg images. Go check them out...and have a Chocolate Chip day!
* * *

Also, if you left a comment during the recent blog hop, check here to see if you're a winner! Congrats!


Stamps: Tiddly Inks digital images, Hero Arts Dots cling
Ink: Memento, Colorbox
Cardstock; Papertrey Ink, Bazzill
Other: Copics, Nestabilities, pop dots, sheer ribbon

Monday, May 10, 2010

Farm Fresh Friday



Sketches scare me. They have to be super easy for me to even attempt and I have to follow them to the T. Exactly.
No flipping, no rotating. How do people do that?




Here is the Farm Fresh Friday sketch which looked pretty friendly and since I had Fleur Anya cut and colored, I just had to find some matching papers for the sketch.




I chose the new Turning a New Leaf paper pad from Papertrey Ink and the colors matched Anya's dress. A few punched leaves and the card came together pretty quickly.



And here it is, followed to the T.
Isn't Fleur Anya the cutest? I'll be making more cards with her and the next time, I'm hoping to try some
rotating or flipping. Maybe.

Hope you're all off to a great week!

Stamps: The Greeting Farm
Cardstock: Stampin Up
Paper: Papertrey Ink
Other: Copics, Nestabilities, leaf punch

Sunday, May 9, 2010

{punctuation marks challenge}


While visiting Agata's wonderful blog, I read about a challenge using punctuation mark stamps and creating one layer cards. See Agata's wonderful cards here.





I wanted to try this and gathered all my alpha sets and I even found a set of oversized punctuation marks that have never touched ink.











Here are the cards that I created with different sentiments and punctuation marks. It took a lot of willpower not to put a button or some bling on it and keep the cards completely one layer.











I love the simplicity of a one layer card, and how a bold graphic can make a statement. These weren't as simple as I thought it would be, and turned out to be quite challenging.


Try it for yourself and see...I challenge you!







And a Happy Mother's Day to all moms, stepmoms, grandmoms, aunts, and anyone who is like a mom to someone.....Here's a photo of some flowers that my daughter and her boyfriend sent me and I'd like to share it with all Moms! Have a great day.....




* * *

Thanks to all of you for stopping by and if you hopped the Tiddly Inks blog hop, I will be choosing a random commenter and forwarding her name to Christy. She'll do a random drawing of three names to win gift certificates to the online store, or an awesome scrap pack. Good luck to all! Check the Tiddly Inks challenge blog on Monday to see if you're a winner!


Saturday, May 8, 2010

A Buggy Blog Hop!


Welcome to Tiddly Inks' first ever blog hop! And it's a Buggy one! I hope you arrived from Kiara's fabulous blog! If not, start at Christy's blog to begin the hop.

All of the hoppers used Tiddly Inks' Bugg digis that are available in the online store. I have two cards to share
with you today.





The first uses this cute Send Me a Sign Bugg that I think is genius! You can add any sentiment within the little sign that she's holding. And since this is a digi, you can resize the image and add a bigger sentiment, or even handwrite your own! Too cute!








The second card uses the Spring HuggaBugg digi. I shrank her to fit a small card that can be used for any occasion. I paired her with a Hero Arts sentiment and added some pearls for a subtle bling.




Your next stop on the hop is Anita's blog. Make sure that you start at the beginning here and visit all the blogs on the hop and leave some love.



On May 10th, Christy will choose the names of three random commenters who will win some great prizes, and announce the winners on the Tiddly Inks challenge blog.
Happy Hopping!

Stamps: Tiddly Inks digital images, Hero Arts sentiments
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Martha Stewart kraft
Patterned paper: Basic Grey Kioshi
Ink: Versafine Black, Colorbox
Other: Copics, Nestabilities, ribbon, pearls, pop dots,
Sharpie poster paint pen

Friday, May 7, 2010

Not the destination...


A quick post to share a card that I made using all Distress inks. Yep, I gave my Copics another rest!

I'm planning to enter this in Hero Arts' latest challenge which is to use punches on your card. And because of the sentiment, I guess this could be a graduation card.
You think?

Stamps: Hero Arts, Inkadinkado
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics
Ink: Scattered Straw, Tea Dye, Walnut Stain, Black Soot Distress inks
Other: Martha Stewart butterfly punches

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Sweet!



Tiddly Inks' online store is having a 10 hour 50% off sale on all orders $25 and over today only! Sale runs on May 5th, from 12pm to 10pm CST.

Christy has added so many new digis, you can scoop up twice the amount you would normally buy because of the sweet deal!










I just love this sign holding Bugg. You can stamp or print your own message, and adjust her size.

And I tried paper piecing for the first time.
 Ran the Basic Grey paper through the printer and cut out her dress and cap. Easy peasy. And cute!




And Tiddly Inks is having a Buggy Blog Hop on Saturday, May 8th. Get some Bugg digis and join the fun! Sign up your blog here to be a stop on the hop!
Happy shoppin' and hoppin'....

Lastly, voting has begun in Vicky's Around the World
Challenge #1. Go here to vote only once for your
favorite card!


Stamps: Tiddly Inks digital, Hero Arts sentiment
Ink: Colorbox
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Bazzill
Patterned paper: Basic Grey Eva
Other: Copics, Nestabilities, Sizzix embossing folder, ribbon, pop dots

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Hello, Gorjuss!




Just a quick post to share a card that I made with the Up, Up and Away Gorjuss girl image from Sugar Nellie. When I saw Amy's card here, and Emma's giveaway of the stamp here, I thought, "I think I have that stamp..." and went hunting for it...and found it!



I colored her with Copics and used the Nestabilities Label 8 die to cut around her, then colored an extra balloon and mounted it so it goes beyond the edge of the card. After masking her, I stamped the cloud background and added another cloud shape with the "hello".



Now I have another card to send to Jennifer's ongoing Cards for Kids card drive. Thanks to Amy and Emma for reminding me that I had the stamp all along.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!




Stamps: Sugar Nellie, Hero Arts
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Memento, Hero Arts shadow ink
Other: Copics, Nestabilities, Sizzix embossing folder,
pop dots, sheer ribbon