Christmas in July, Vintage style

Hi folks! 

There have been so many Christmas challenges that I've seen this week that I figured I should ink up some of my new CHF stamps and play along.  

Here is a card I made tonight using one of my new Thomas Kinkaid images.

I've done a lot of "research", looking at tutorials and reading about techniques here in blogland, and also at the CHF gallery forum (which I hope they keep active!).  I also got that book on how to colour TK images (as of today still some at the CHF store...).  So here what I did was instead of colouring the windows just all one yellow, I used orange/red on the outside edges and worked to a ligher colour on the interior.  Below you can see the range of colours I used:

After colouring the windows, I trimmed the image to make it a bit smaller, and used metalic rub on paste all along the edges. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - Christmas in July
Tuesday Throwdown - Christmas in July

OCC - Christmas in July
Little Red Wagon - Christmas in July

Paper:  SU Glossy cardstock, Coordinations cardstock, SU regular cardstock

Ink:  Staz on (warning, do not recommend this with your copics!)

Other:  Copics, metalic rub on paste, snowflake stickers, cuttlebug folder

Stamps:  all CHF




**Blog candy alert:  Oh yes, and folks, I wanted to share a heads up with you about some fabulous blog candy posted right now at Papercraftsbyrach.  She has a neat blog, gorgeous cards to feel envy over, and some generous goodies, you might want to check it out!

Old romance novel

Good morning all!  

Today I've got a card made for you using a Sweet Pea image from Paper Jewels, called Come Softly.

My goal was to come up with something dramatic and with a bit of Victorian flavour--perhaps what might have been the cover of one of those ancient romance novels.  I dug out lace and pearls and tissue paper and satin ribbon, and this is the outcome.

I coloured the main image more dramatically than normal, with lots of blusher and silver eye shadow, and the butterfly and swirls are coloured with glittery Spica pens, though you can't see that well in the pic.

Used my new Bow-Easy, sure do love it!

Hope you are having a great week--and remember, the weekend is almost here!

Weathered lovely day

Hi folks,

Today's card is one of my favorite Bildmalarna images, called Lovely Day.

As I've made a few cards now with this same image I felt challenged to do something different with it, so decided to go with a weathered, shabby chic style.

After colouring the image I decided I wanted it to look weathered, so tried an experiment.  I took my SU Weathered background stamp and sprayed it with Tattered Angels Glimmer mist, and then stamped over top of the coloured image, and then heat set--it looks really neat in real life!

I've used bronze finger paint from the Gina K store to decorate the border of the main image.

The pearls on the left are fancy ribbon from the fabric store--the most expensive stuff I've bought to date at five bucks a yard--eek!  but I thought it looked just right so had to use a little bit here.

Hope you are all having a great week!

Back to School

Happy Sunday!

This week at Paper Sundaes our challenge is to create a back to school card.  Our sponsor this week is Simon Says and I decided to use one of the Gruffies images that they carry called Bedtime Story.  I have to tell you I've spent a lot of homework hours just like this LOL!



The image is stamped on velum with Staz on, and then I coloured the underside with copics.  This is a new technique I've been playing with and I think with this image it might not have been the best choice, but it still came out ok.

The country crinkle ribbon is from Sugar Creek Hollow, and the sanded paper in the background is Co-ordinations.  The buckle thing that the ribbon is tied around came from a local button store I recently discovered--did you know there are stores that sell nothing but buttons and buckles?!

I hope you'll play along with us this week at Paper Sundaes--one participant will have a chance to win a prize from Simon Says!

Summer days

Summer Saturdays are my favorite days--I usually have no commitments, and the day starts with me and my kitty cat going out in the garden with the laptop and a cup of tea and watching the birds fly around our bird bath ad bird feeders.

This card was made using another couple of my new CHF stamps.

The backgroudn is coordinations paper that has been embossed.  The lace is from the local sewing store, and the ribbon is from Sugar Creek Hollow.

The image is coloured with Copics and the background of the image is coloured with my airgun.

I hope your weekends are all going well and that you are finding some time to enjoy the summer weather and nature too :-)

The good life

Today I have a card to share with you that I'm particularly proud of, featuring the Thomas Kinkaid image "The Good Life".  

I was sure sad to find out that Cornish Heritage Farms was shutting down, and as a result I HAD to go and buy all those items that have been sitting on my wish list forever, LOL!  You'll be seeing a lot of CHF stuff on my blog here in the next few months as I try to ink up each stamp...

This is the first TK image that I have ever successfully coloured.  Since I colour with copics, Versafine was not a good choice, but the memento didn't give the image enough definition.  I've been told that Adirondak die ink in Esspresso is a good choice, but none of the LSS had it in stock (I tried seven of them, 7!).  So for this one I stamped in black Staz-on on Velum, then coloured on the other side.  It was way easier than I expected and is really vibrant.  I adhered the velum after colouring onto a piece of white cardstock and trimmed, then mounted onto the card.

The background was inspired by a GinaK tutorial here.  I didn't have the supplies she used so had to modify it a bit.  It was made using old newspaper that I dipped in coffee, dried, crumpled, then brushed some creamy caramel ink across using a sponge.  The hardest part about this was finding a newspaper article large enough without pictures and without containing words related to crime, murder, or politics LOL!  This was a restaurant review, which seemed pretty safe :-)

So what do you think?

I'm entering this into a couple of challenges:

LLWWC#48 Upcycle it - for the newspaper recycling

Fab N Funky # 32 Reuse/recycle - for the newspaper recycling

Vintage Baby

For the third Tuesday in a row I'm happy to share with you another Baby card, using the Bildmalarna Baby image I got from Paper Jewels.

This card incorporated a "fancy border", which I think really dressed it up.  The Paper Jewels Blog has a challenge on right now to make a card with a fancy border, with one lucky participant to win a prize.  I hope you'll play along with us.

This is a special baby card, made for a friend of mine to celebrate her new baby.

For this card I went with a vintage style and a square card.  The image is coloured with copics, and I used the pen tip to pen tip technique for a lot of the colouring around the baby and basket, as well as the rabbit, since I find it is a nice blending technique on light colours.

The background is made using co-ordinations paper, run through the cuttlebug, then sanded, then I used my airbrush and copic E70 to add a bit of darkness to the edges.  Finally, went to the sewing machine and added some stitching to it, then added the safety pin.

Since this is a special card, hopefully a keepsake for the little one, I also decorated the inside, using DP, stitching, and a digi sentiment from Raindrop Echo Designs:

Homemade flower challenge

Happy Sunday!

Today I have a fun card made for this weeks Paper Sundae "Make your own flowers" challenge, using an image from Lily of the Valley.

I have to thank Ina my sister in law for making the flower, and another Ina who is Yellowrose46 on Splitcoast for providing the pattern (pasted below).

Here is the pattern for the single flower, and I think Ina doubled it somehow.....I'm hoping she'll have time to show me how to make more of these myself soon!

Small crocheted flowers 
for use on cards, or decorations. use a size 1.5 mm. hook (I think that is an American size 7) with number 10 crochet cotton.
Chain 4, slip stitch in 4th chain from hook (first chain made) now you have a circle. single crochet inside the circle. *chain 3, single crochet in circle* repeat between stars 4 times, chain three, slip stitch in first single crochet, fasten off, and weave the ends in at the back. You can tweek this by making only 5 petals or 7, and also to make it a bit bigger, you can do a chain 4 instead of chain three for each petal.

Dramatic Red Hearts

We're past "hump day" and the weekend is almost in sight.  To celebrate I've got a dramatic and feminine card for you today, using another image from Paper Jewels, a Sweet Pea one called  Red Hearts.

Oh yes, and if you are in a shopping mood, (as I seem to have been lately) there is a sale right now at Paper Jewels--perfect time to stock up on Sweet Pea and Bildmalarna images.

She's coloured with copics, and then I used my sewing machine to add detail around the image and then around the outside.  Accented with some ribbon and brads, and that was it, quick and easy and so fun to make!

For her hair, I started off with the lightest colours, and left some parts white where I wanted the "sun to glint" when I started, then added the darker ones, then came back and added the lighter ones.  The technique is described at Sherrie's website, Card Creme.

I hope you are having a great week, and I'll be back here Sunday with a fun summery card for you :-)

Girly baby

Tuesday's rolled around again and I'm pleased to get a chance to share with you another Baby card.  Last week I used this image, Baby, by Bildmalarna, to make a boy card.  This week it's a girly version :-)

As usual, the image is coloured with copics.  I made a big oopsie when trying to stamp a word in the banner area (which you can't see, but that black "shelf" is actually supposed to be a banner).  But the good thing about cardmaking is most things are fixable (and is that also a truth about life too LOL!).  So I coloured in the banner and turned it into a table.

Added some lace, pearls and a button, and Voila!

I hope this gives you some inspiration, especially if you have any baby showers or new baby celebrations coming up this summer.

Lots of layers with Sugar Nellie

It's Sunday again, and with it a challenge from Paper Sundeas to make a card with lots of layers.

This is my first Christmas card this year, and I'm starting to have that Christmas card itch!  Had fun colouring this image and working to capture the light.  You can see the light comes from behind the boy, so the back of the bench, the back of the boy and that side of the tree are all lighter.

The weather here has been gorgeous and HOT!  I have a dinner party tonight and am supposed to make a meal without creating any heat in the house...and then DH sounds scandalized when I say I'm making pudding rather than a cake--don't they know that cakes require the oven to be on?!  Wish me luck, I still haven't decided on a menu...eek!

Have a fabulous Sunday, and hope you will play along with us at Paper Sundaes this week!

Blogging from iPhone?

Well, guess it's good to stick with the times so here's a test of
blogging from my new toy. This is a pic of my yard and kitty cat, on
days like this it's hard to leave to go to work!

Cozy anniversary card

Post edited!

Hi folks,

I've been swamped with school and work and summertime fun and see I messed up my automatic posts and this got posted earlier than planned and with no description.  Thank you to all of you for your nice comments!

So, in answer to some queries I've gotten, this was not for my anniversary--that's in January since we eloped to a sun spot LOL!  This card was made for a good friend of mine for her 5th anniversary.  She had a beautiful summer wedding with all the fuss and convention, and it was beautiful and very special, and I wanted to celebrate the day with her and her husband.

Don't you love that background?  It's one of the new Sizzix ones available through SU, and my current favorite.  The lace is from the local sewing supply store--just went there last week and stocked up on a whole bunch of new types of edging and lace, so you'll be seeing a lot of this in the next few weeks :-)

And have you all heard about Cornish Heritage Farms shutting down!  Arg!  Guess I'll have to dig out that wish list and turn it into a shopping list... got a good excuse for hubby ... {grin}

Have a great weekend, and I'll be back Sunday with a fabulous card--my first Christmas card this year!

Red hearts

It's Thursday and the weekend will be here soon!

The card features a Sweet Pea image in the Ching-Chou collection called Red Hearts which is from the Paper Jewels store.  If you've played with any of these images you know how addicting they are to colour, they just seem to come to life under your pen tip.

The image is coloured with copics, and while it looks like there's a lot of detail, it's mainly large spaces so colouring was pretty quick.  I've decorated this one simply not to take away from the image.  For her eye shadow and cheeks I used the pen tip to pen tip technique since it gives a softer blending when there isn't a lot of room for error.  Around the edge of the background you can see the stitching from my sewing machine, and some flowers and brads finished it off.

Baby Blue

Hi Folks,

Today I'm happy to share a card made with a Bildmalarna image called Baby.  I don't have need for many baby cards, but I always want them to be special, since I know many of them become keepsakes, so they are always worth that extra effort.  When I saw this image in the Paper Jewels store I knew it was just what I had been looking for.

The image is coloured with copics, and then I used my sewing machine to add the stitching on, adhered the buttons and pin with blue dots, and added a sentiment--talk about easy!

Monotone card with Fred She Said

Happy Sunday!

Today at Paper Sundaes we have a challenge for you to make a monotone card.  I used an image from this weeks Sponsor, Fred She Said.

I've been enjoying vintagy style cards lately, so decided to use browns in the card so that the image looked a bit like one of those old sepia cards.


It still needed some dressing up, and I thought it would look great with some classifieds ads, but don't have a stamp of that and couldn't find a digi, but I did find some fabulous old car ads at http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/ads/1942/index.html so I printed this one, cut it out, dipped it in old coffee, heat set it, and then distressed it.  Thought it tied in great!

Birthday hot air balloon

Hi folks,

Here's a card I made using a Sugar Creek Hollow image - Vintage Balloon.  I made it for my MIL for her birthday, as she went up on one of these a while bag.

It was coloured with copics, using a new method I was taught at the Copic certification class.  I really did like the look, though it took 3 reds and 3 blues!

On the back of the card it said "Made by Kristina" and DH crossed the Kristina off and put his name, but  his mom wasn't fooled LOL!