Victoria Case is offering a brand-new sheet of her newest stamp release for Susana’s Custom Art and Card Design! These stamps won’t be released until October 6th5.  Victoria will give one set away on the 15th.  Check our her blog for more details.

It seems I’ve been on a card-making roll lately – though several of them have been Sympathy related.  I didn’t want to post a couple of the cards until I knew they’d been delivered as the recipients visit my little home here in blogosphere.

For both of these cards I used my Lovely as a Tree set stamped in Basic Brown on Naturals Vanilla CS (all Stampin’ Up). The trees on the first card are trimmed with my Long Rectangle nestabilites, distressed/inked with Chocolate Chip dye ink, and matted with Baroque Burgundy (yes the retired one – that’s  the paper I had) CS.  The ribbon is sheer copper organdy and the dew drops (the glue dried clear) are from my friend Suzanne at Crafting-Connection. The sentiment is stamped with Basic Black Craft ink (also SU) directly onto the card from DCWV Indian Summer Fall Box of Cards, sprinkled with clear detail powder and heat embossed. The inside sentiment was computer generated – I used The Serenity Prayer as it holds special meaning for the people I sent this card to.  For the second card, I used my labels nestabilities to trim and mat the image onto Really Rust CS.  I added texture with my own blend of Flower Soft colors since I didn’t have any of the new Autumn Blend.  The ribbon and bow are sheer copper organdy. I followed a fabulous tutorial from Diana Gibbs’ blog to tie the bow using a dinner fork! The case base is also from DCWV Indian Summer Fall Box of Cards – I just love that set – it’s so easy to use; everything is precut, folded, and envelopes are included.  I’m so glad I grabbed them when they were on-sale! The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip and is also heat embossed.

This card is for a little guy who just turned 2! The stamp is the Cowboy Billy digi-stamp from Pink Cat Studios. I colored him using my Copic markers (I had to work on the skin tone and hair a bit since most of the time I’m coloring blondes!). The card base and DP are both from a fabulous “new to me” local store – Creative Stamp Impressions. They cut and package their own card sets (5 included per package), complete with envelopes. When I saw this set, I knew it would be perfect for this little guy or the Cowgirl from Victoria Case!

For the inside, I created the cupcake paper in Photoshop using an Overlay from Megadoodle Inspired and printing on white CS.  The sentiment (SU retired) is stamped in Real Red on White CS and both panels are matted with Real Red CS.  The card was well-received (I’m always a little hesitant with handmade – some people think it’s cheap and tacky), but the little boy’s Mom is having it framed and displayed in his bedroom. Hooray!

Oh oh and lookie what I got:

The little Fairy birthday card made the top three! Hooray!

It’s time for me to pack – my Mom and I are taking Nadya to visit my Nana.  Her birthday is Saturday and is the first one since my Papa died.  Unfortunately, Sunday is the 1 year anniversary of his passing.  He is in a far better place, but we didn’t want her to be alone – plus we wanted to visit her because she’s fabulous!  Add to the mix that today is our weekly swimming lesson and tonight is the final gathering of the local Mustang Club – well let’s just say we’ll be busy!  Have a fabulous weekend!!!

Good morning and Happy Thursday! I can’t believe another week has flown by…time certainly doesn’t slow down for anyone.

Since today is Thursday, you know that means it’s Release Day for Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff.  This week Lindsay has put together a fabulous set called Funky Forest – it’s really cute!  I’m torn between the little deer and the owl tree for my favorites (the preview is clickable).

Be sure to stop by Lindsay’s blog – she’s offering another fabulous freebie, a tutorial on creating a scene with digi-stamps, and the links to the DT blogs for your viewing pleasure.

My project is inspired by this week’s sketch at Inspirational Card Sketches. I had another Sympathy card I needed to make so I used Lindsay’s Iris with Bud digital stamp printed on white Georgia Pacific CS.  I wanted a soft look for the flowers, so I colored the image with my Prismacolor pencils and blended with my Prismacolor blender marker.  I used an out-of-bounds technique along with my oval and scallop oval nestabilities to trim and mat the image onto patterned CS from DCWV Nana’s Nursery Mat Stack.  The white shimmer paper is the backside of a scrap from Fiskars that I embossed with my Cuttlebug Swirls folder (using my Big Shot).  The ribbon is sheer light purple organdy and the fabulous dew drops are from Suzanne at Crafting-Connection. The sentiment is stamped on another shimmer scrap with Elegant Eggplant ink – both are SU. The card base and mat are both textured CS from Bazzill and the glitter CS is DCWV – The Glitter Stack.  The same purple.white theme is continued on the inside. 

  For my 2nd project, I created a scene (no, I didn’t know Lindsay was doing a tutorial) based on this week’s sketch at the Papertake Weekly Challenge by layering images from Lindsay’s Cute Halloween digital stamp set in Photoshop and the printing on Georgia Pacific CS. The main image is colored with my Copic markers and my Spica pens. I added the background with my chalks.  The moon was easy – I punched a 1 3/4 inch circle with my whale of a punch on scrap CS, then used the outline as a stencil and the cut-out as a mask when adding the rest of the sky. I used scrap purple Bazzill CS as a mat.  The card base is black textures CS (Bazzill).  The foiled web DP is from the Paper Studio as are the Halloween ribbons. The sentiment is computer-generated in Photoshop using Scrap Rhapsody font, Bent Metal styles by Jodiann Cates, and a cobweb brush from Obsidian Dawn.  Instead of matting the sentiment, I inked the edges my using Elegant Eggplant marker.

Have a fabulous Thursday!