Paper Sundae's Challenge#2

It's Paper Sundae time again!  And what does this weeks challenge have in store for us?

Pink, brown, lace and flowers is the theme.

Now if you are planning on joining in and are missing something, like lace or flowers, remember you can always use substitutes.  Here's my take on the theme, substituting since I had no lace handy:

Since I had no lace, I tried to add all kinds of "lacy" type things, like the Martha Stewart lacy doily edge, the lacy ribbon, and the crochet flowers.

The flowers are handmade by my SIL and her daughter, and were given to me at Christmas....I sure do love them!  The image is called Cuddles Kuma Plushie and is a digi stamp from Ildi Co., who just happens to be this weeks sponsor.

I haven't put a sentiment as I think it could be used for a number of things, and will wait till I'm ready to give it to someone to put one on.  Likely a birthday, in a pinch could be used for a baby girl.

Will you join us in this weeks challenge?

Ildi Co Colour Challenge -> Pink Red+White

This month the 2nd Ildi Co challenge is a colour challenge, with the colours Pink Red and White.  Pretty nice and easy challenge with Valentines lurking around the corner!

Aren't these smooching Snowpals (Ildi Co. digi image) sweet!  and so easy to colour {big grin}....  The DP is SU from my stash as is the sentiment and hardware.  Used circle nesties.  Don't need much more!  Got to love these quick and easy cards.

Now, what am I going to do with all these Valentines cards--only one DH!  I've seen a lot of folks here in blog-land making lots of Valentines cards, so my question to you is, what do you do with your Valentines cards?

To the Beach!

At this time of year lots of folks are heading on vacations to sunny destinations....Mexico, the Caribbean...so many great places to visit!  While I sit here staring at grey skies and unending rain, it picks me up a bit to think of the sun, sand and surf, so today I decided to play with this great image by Ildi Co, called Cuddles Kuma at the Beach.

And here's the final product:

There's no sentiment at the moment, but I left the top right hand corner empty so one can be added on there, once I decide who to give this to :-)

The background was made with the Copic air brush system, using just three colours--light blue for the sky, beige for the sand, and a darker blue just at the ocean line.  It's getting easier to create with this toy!  The main image is coloured with copics as usual.  The sea shell was created with a spellbinders die.

So what do you think, is this making you smile thinking of the beach?

Ildi Co Challenge Blog - First Challenge of 2010!

It's the first Ildi Co challenge of 2010, and they've given us a fun challenge, here's the card I made:

Valentines is coming up, and so is my wedding anniversary, so my thoughts were towards hearts and kisses, and I used this Clownkins image from Ildi Co -- isn't it adorable!  The challenge is to use scraps and metal, so I dug through my bin and found some pink paper and red cardstock and a tiny bit of ribbon, and this cute metal heart, and put it all together.

The Clownkins are coloured with copics and the background with the small hearts cuttlebug folder.

New Year Traditions

Welcome to 2010!    ~  And a facelift to my blog!

DH and I are having a quiet evening, making some homemade pizza, killing time trying to stay up till 12:00 midnight LOL!  I'm wracking my brain right now since I did not get all my Christmas cards out on time, and now I want to send out New Years cards instead, but I don't have any New Years stamps!  Hmm.  I thought I'd share with you an adorable card I made recently that was for Christmas--do you think an angel works for New Years Cards?  What about snowflakes?  Hmm.  Will keep thinking.

Anyway, back to this card--don't you love this teddy bear angel, which is one of the newer Ildi Co. digital stamps called Cuddles Kuma Angel.

The angel is coloured with copics, with spica pen for the halo to tie in with the gold ribbon.  The background paper is sprayed with pearl Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, and a sponge with dark blue ink was rubbed across the embossed stars to make them jump out more.

Enough about the card, cards are great to talk about, but tomorrow is January 1st, the start of the New Year!

I love the start of a new year, the chance to stop and reflect on the year past, gear up for the year ahead, and start with a fresh slate.

What are your traditions for New Years?

My better half and I have had a tradition we've done for many years now.  We have a notebook that we use as a diary which we use for our "new years" questions.  This is a list of questions we put together a number of years back, and each year we discuss them, write down our ideas about them, and then review the things we wrote in prior years.  It is fun and interesting to look back on.  What questions do we ask?  Well, here they are.....

1. Most memorable moment of the past year
2. Best movie seen in the past year
3. Happiest moment or event in the past year
4. News story that most captured your attention in the past year
5. Most difficult moment or event in the past year
6. One life lesson learned during the past year
7. Most memorable meal in the past year
8. Advise to your self for the year ahead
9. Goals for the year ahead


I was thinking of a new tradition, and that's to ask you, my readers, to leave me a comment with your answer to any of these you want to share.  It'll be fun and interesting to see what you have to say :-)

I hope you enjoy whatever traditions you have for New Years, and that the year ahead is a good one for you!

Gifts!

It's that time of year when there are gift exchanges (and last minute shopping!) happening, and this cute Ildi Co. Snopal seems so appropriate right now.  I was proud to make this card entirely (except for white base) from scraps in my bins....got to make a lot more doing that!

I hope you all have your shopping done.  I, of course, had mine done weeks ago (note, you have no way of verifying that).  Is everything wrapped and under the tree?  Are the decorations up?  Remember, Christmas is about fun and family, and if the "bling" isn't all perfect it's not a big deal!  Kind of like a card, the bling is nice, but it's the whole thing and main image that are really the most important.

Snowy Star Gazing

I just love this image, staring at the stars on a winter evening.  The image is an Ildi Co Snopal, and the sentiment is from Sunshine stamps.  I've really been in a mood to use Kraft paper lately, it's just a bit more old fashioned and homey, and that's been suiting me.  Do you use the Kraft paper much?  I've seen very few snowfolk done like this, it seems they are usually on a white background....If you've never tried it, why not take the chance now and see what you think of it?  Let me know how your experiments go!

The snowfolk are coloured using white craft ink applied with an aqua painter.  If you don't have white craft ink you could also use white pencil crayon or white watercolour crayons.  The idea is you need something that will sit on the cardstock and show white, not get sucked in and go translucent.

The capes etc are coloured with copics--this works since we are using darker colours for them.  The white ruffle on the capes is filled in with liquid pearls, which gives texture and a nice pearly finish.

So do you all have lots of crafting plans this weekend, or are you now getting sucked into the Christmas last minute rush vortex, LOL!  I wish you all a safe and productive weekend!

It's a jungle out there

Feel a bit tired of snowflakes and stockings?  Well here's something that's a bit of a change of pace.

I've been thinking about the Ildi Co dinosaurs since the last card I made with them, and started off with a plan to make an "old fosil" card as a birthday card, but once I'd done up the background and layed out the dino, the words jumped out at me, "it's a jungle out there" and I thought that wouldn't be bad for a sentiment.

I decided to pair that up with a birthday wish, so I decorated the inside of the card to match.

What do you think?

Crafty snowman

This cute snowman is yet another of the Ildi Co. Snopals.  I've been having so much fun with these frosty friends since they are all different and interesting.  For this one I printed the image on kraft paper (one of my favourite options with snowfolk) and then coloured it using an aqua pen and white craft ink--just dabbed the pen onto the ink pad and then applied.  The trees and nose etc. are coloured with Copics.  I used a couple of my newer cuttlebug embossing folders, and accented with Primas and Robin's nest dew drops  All in all a simple and yet really sharp card.  I like how homey it feels, and think it'll be a great card for one of my crafty friends.

Are you all done your Christmas cards yet?  For those of you mailing them out, time is slipping away, but remember, late is better than never!

Beary Birthday

Even with Christmas approaching there are still birthdays happening (talk abut a hectic time of year for b'days!), and here's a birthday card I made recently for my SIL.  I thought this bear image was just perfect, since it looks like a very relaxed and happy bear.  My SIL seems to have a hectic life always rushing around taking care of everyone around her, so I wanted to wish her some time for herself to relax, and this image from Ildi Co, Cuddles Kuma Morning, seemed just right, plus it's a nice, easy and quick one to colour (yay!).

The main image is coloured with copics, and the background cardstock is SU paper - you can see the swiss dots cuttlebug folder was used as well as one of the floral edgy ones (can't recall name).


The sentiment is a retired SU one from my cupboard, for a set that I paid way too much for on ebay and then never use since it's too intricate to colour easily (argh!) so I'm happy to at least be using the sentiment!  Does this happen to you?  I try to make sure now that not only do I like the images I buy, but that they'll be easy enough to use that I don't avoid them. 

I doodled around the sentiment with the fine tip of an SU marker (boy, wished my copics had those fine tips!).  To make it stand out more, I popped up the greeting with dimensionals and accented the border of the main image with  little Basic Grey pearls.

My DH also has his coming up, and it seems to me to be a tough time for birthday's since everyone is distracted with Christmas.  I guess it depends how you look at it--is it a festive time of year for a birthay, or a time of year when your birthday may fall second to the festive season.  Guess it's like asking if the cup is half full or half empty LOL!  So tell me,  do any of you have birthday's coming up in the next little while, and what is your perspective on this?

Snowflake challenge

Today's card was inspired by a Snowflake challenge (including tutorial) at KL Stampin N Scrappin Blog. 

In person, the snowflake is amazing, and it was made following the tutorial at the KL Stampin site.  The image is an Ildi Co Snowpal, one of my favorites since it's so sweet and mushy, and how often to you find a stamp of two snowfolk kissing?!  I meant to save this card for my husband for Christmas and then wound up showing it to him, so guess I need to make another.  Maybe if I save it for valentines (it's often snowy then!) he won't remember it anymore.

CPS Card Sketch 142

Here's a second card using the CPS Card Sketch 142.  I made one card this sketch last weekend, and since then it's been lurking on my mind.  This just came together when I sat at my craft table using some scraps and stamped images that were on the surface.  Sure do love it when the creative bug is so easy!

The image is an Ildi Co one called Cuddles Kuma Morning and it's coloured with copics.  Ildi Co. has a sale on right now where if you buy two images you get the third free.  They are digi images, so you don't have to wait days for delivery and there are no shipping charges either.

The paper is miscellaneous from my scraps (so trying to use those up instead of creating more!).  The ribbon is some really pretty lacy designer SU ribbon I've been hoarding, and I was happy to be able to use it, but use so little of it LOL!

Christmas Carols are here!

I love Christmas music!  I listen to it through most of the year, and have my own favorites.  When I was told that the Ildi Co challenge for the next round was going to be based inspiration from a Christmas song, I was really happy.  This is the first card for this challenge that I've made:

The inspiration is the song Frosty the Snowman, and how he came to life one day.  These Snopals are so lifelike -- not just clumps of snow, but skiing and shoveling snow, and this one, giving a gift.  I wanted to add the words Believe in magic, but it was too busy on the exterior, so my plan is to decorate the inside using that.

You can play in this challenge too, check out the Ildi Co Inspiration Challenge at this link:  http://ildicochallenges.blogspot.com/2009/11/ildi-co-challenge-5-inspiration.html

The light blue background was sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer mist and run through the Cuttlebug.  I stamped the acetate top sheet with some snowflakes using white staz on ink and added a couple of snowflake stickers to hide the pop up dots adhering it.  For the main image it's an Ildi Co. Snopal.  I drew the snowy hills underneath and applied stickles, and used liquid aplique on the hat.  The small amount of colouring is done with Copics.

Sneak Peak: Free digi!

Well, here's a sneak peak of a new free digi being offered by Ildi Co at their SNR party on Thursday:

Isn't it cute?!  I was so thrilled when I saw it, since I love teddies and I love snowmen.  If you haven't used digi's before, don't be scared--they are really easy to work with.  Myself, I use Word to size and print the image, though some people use other programs, whatever word processing or picture software you are comfortable with should be able to be used.

For this card the snowman was "coloured" with stickles, and the teddy was coloured with Copics, and the snow at the bottom is white flowersoft.

In case you want a chance to try out digi's, in case you haven't used them before, or if like me you are addicted to them and simply excited to get a free one, here's the details of when and where to get it:

         WHERE:  SNR Ildi Co Party  (click on coloured text)

        DATE:   Thursday November 19, 2009

        TIME:   6-8 pm Pacific time

Dino Birthday

Having dinner with a friend recently, I mentioned how stumped I was on what theme to use Dinosaur images for.  She (who is NOT a card maker) looked at me like I was missing something pretty obvious, and said they'd be great for milestone birthdays.  In fact, I then realized, I probably should have made one for her since she just had one of those milestones {big grin and wink if she is reading}.

It just so happened I needed another birthday card this week for a male family member, and I decided to do some teasing with this idea.  Searching online for just the right sentiment resulted in some great results.



It's main image is an Ildi Co. Dino digi stamp called Dino's Rex.  They have about 6 different dinosaur images to choose from, and I had a hard time picking.  I coloured with my copics as usual.  Not a lot of bling, after all this is a "man" card.

What do you think?  Any other ideas to share with me of sentiments you would use with this image?

Snowpals - New Ildi Co. Winter Digi Stamps

When I saw these new Snopal digi stamps released by Ildi Co. I was so excited!  I adore snowmen, but a lot of times the snowman images are all the same.  That can't be said for these.  Here's the first one I decided to play with, called Snopal Flowers:

This was the first one I used since I definitely know of how I will use it.  At this time of year we start getting lots of dinner invites, and I usually bring a pot of Poinsettias as a gift to the hostess, with a thank you card.  What better card to go with the Poinsettias than one with a picture of a snowman holding them :-)

I printed the digi image on kraft paper, and then coloured in the snowgirl in white with my watercolour crayons.  I used my copics to colour the other stuff, except for the gold foil around the poinsettia's which was coloured with my gold Spica pen.

For the poinsettia embossed background, I sprayed the cardstock with Walnut Gold Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist first, and then used red ink on the embossing folder, so that there is shimmer and definition.

I used more of the fabulous ribbon I got in a gift exchange from Laurie, and a bit of cord to balance it out and tie to the Kraft paper.

**BLOG HOP TODAY**

The other Snopals are equally interesting--there are some skating, skiing, kissing (!), shoveling snow....you can see more if you check out today's blog hop, which is a combination of three companies  (Ildi Co., Sunshine Stamps, and the Stamping Boutique) with new releases today.  You can get to the first post of the blog hop following this link (click on the image below):

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween all!  I hope you all have fun plans for today, whether it is getting your kids dressed up, greeting the cutie pies at the door, or going out for some fun festivities this evening.  I'm off to a Halloween party tonight, and this will be my thank you card for the hostess.  I used this adorable image form Ildi Co, of Cuddles Kuma and sketch from Our Creative Corner (SASSC38).

Leaves are falling

I made a few cards this weekend and this was DH's favourite.  I used this cute bear from Ildi Co, and combined it with the sentiment and leaves image from Paper Maniac (Raindrop Echo Designs).  I thought they coordinated so well!  Coloured with copics and on a cream rather than white base.  I thought the fuzzy felt ribbon went perfectly with a teddy bear :-)

Fall days

The last week or so I've been in awe looking out the window of the house/car/office at the glorious fall trees.  It is such a beautiful time of year, and I love to savour the beauty that is so short.  This is a digi image from Ildi Co that I enjoyed colouring and working with.  I chose the cardstock first - trying to use up scraps.  And then I coloured using my copics trying to tie in colours in the image to the cardstock and DP I'd already set aside.  It worked pretty good! (usually I do it the opposite way....).

I've been in a mood to make fall cards, so expect more of these in the next couple of weeks.

Reach for the stars

Working in a corporate office environment for a large company, I need lots of work related cards for recognition, congratulations on milestones and promotions and jobs well done.  When I saw this new digi image from Ildico's Emotibots line, I immediately knew how I would use it.

It was a super easy and quick card to make, and those for me are always the best!  I sized the digi image and printed the words on the printer, and then cut the main image out with my nesties, and the sentiment and background for it with a punch.

The gold stars are stamped with Encore gold, and the background to the sentiment is white card stock with lots of gold Encore ink smeared onto it.  I coloured the image with my copics, and presto!  it was done :-)

I've got a bunch of ideas for this image and sentiment, so watch my blog over the next couple weeks for more of these.