New Digs

I have a problem. My problem is collecting stamps. There are so many great stamp companies out there, and I love all the cute little stamps they make. I buy way too many stamps. I am in need of getting rid of some of my stamps to make home for my new stamps. One of my newest sets, that I was super excited to get, and to use is from Taylored Expressions, Cozy Cottages

I have seem to have a tonne of friends moving this month, so this was the perfect stamp set. The first card I made with this set I decided to use the Sweet Sunday Sketch for my inspiration




I'm usually not a big user of flashy, lots of print paper. But because when I saw the sketch, and I knew that I would use pretty simple plain paper as the foreground paper, I went with a little flash in the back. I had decided that I wanted to make a little scene using one of the houses from the stamp set, with a nice little lawn. I had no idea how I was going to do that since I own no dies, and don't have a "grass" stamp, but then on a whim I decided to check out my cricut cartridges (they get lonely I don't use them often), and I found grass. Awesome.

So here's what I came up with.

Now that its done, there are a few things i would change about it, but all in all I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out (although I'm not happy with my picture, my camera is crapping out on me, and not focusing, the flash is working only sometimes blah blah blah - need a new camera)

Happy Hula Birthday

I haven't posted anything to my blog for a long time. Not sure if I'm really going to start posting regularly again or not. I post most of my cards on splitcoaststampers now, and really I don't have much interesting to say about the cards that I post anyway.

Anyway, my niece, who lives in Hawaii is having a birthday in a couple of weeks, which means I Had to get a card done pronto as it takes forever to get anything shipped over there.

I decided to use the Sweet Sunday Sketch as my inspiration

I had recently bought some small stamps from Lizzie Ann Designs that had a "hawaiian" theme, so I decided to use the Hula Girl to make a little likeness of my niece. I needed some kind of background for the little Hula Dancer so I decided to set her on the beach in front of the waves. The only thing that you can't really see in the photo is the chalking that I did for the sky.

Instead of doing a traditional banner that said Happy Birthday on it, I decided to go with a row of Hibiscus flowers, since anyone who has been to Hawaii knows these things are everywhere.

I'm still practicing a lot with my copics, and I'm not all that great at it yet, but I'll get there in time. Hopefully my niece will like the card.

The Evolution of a Card

I haven't made any cards for almost a month so I thought I should get off my lazy butt and get to work.

I needed a little inspiration this time around, so I decided that I was going to try out my first Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge. I ended up going through a bit of a card evolution with this sketch. I had to try three different times to get it right :). Here is this week's sketch



I have hope that someday, in the cold frozen tundra that is Canada, that there will be spring, and in turn some flowers. We haven't had much of a spring yet, and its almost May. We've had snow and rain, and sleet and driving winds, and not much sun. So I decided that I was going to go with flowers for my theme just to bring a little bit of light to a rather dreary month.


So my first attempt at the sketch I decided I would go bright and cheery to drown out the dreary, and use yellow. I wanted to use my copics and I find yellow one of the easiest colours to use and to blend. I also wanted the smaller piece of patterned paper to be a bit monochromatic and not too crazy. So here's what I came up with:

Its alright but I knew I could do better. I didn't like the boringness of the one colour thing going on, and I didn't like the way the stems and the leaves of the flowers turned out at all. So back to the drawing board. The one thing I knew I would keep was the embroidery thread and the button.

Second attempt resulted in me trying out a two tone card. I decided once again to use bright cheery colours, and went with pink and orange. These were the colours that I used in my garden with all my annuals last year and I really love the look. I also decided to go with a bit more of a dramatic flare for the side piece of patterned paper and found the perfect paisley pattern with the colours I was looking for. I also decided to colour in the leaves with my copics.

Again it was alright. The leaves and stems were much better this time around, and the brighter more dramatic paper looked much better. I screwed up the stamping a bit though and there was too much white space at the top of the flowers and I didn't like the way the patterned paper looked a little boring and blank on the one side.

So off to try my hand at the sketch for a third time. This time I decided to stick to the two tone colours, but went with more of a contrast. I decided to use a light pink and a springy green. Again I found another version of the paisley paper, because I really loved the pattern. I fixed the problem with my stamping and leaving too much white space at the top of the flowers, and I decided to add a little bit more to the patterned paper I would do a zig zag stitch around the whole thing just to make it stand out a bit more. And of course I stuck with my original button and embroidery thread.

And you know what I really think the third time was in fact the charm. I'm really happy with the way the last card turned out. Now i just have to come up with a reason to send it to someone :)

Stamps: SU In Full Bloom

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics (YR15, RV14, RV29, YG17, RV13, RV02)

Paper: I have no idea because I accidently threw out the stickers, or cut off the label a while ago :)

Gift Bags

I made todays card a while ago, almost two weeks ago in anticipation of my youngest sisters birthday. I kind of got sick of doing the whole cupcake birthday card thing, so I decided to use another stamped image. I had just recently purchased a set from There She Goes and decided that I wanted to use the gift bag that was part of the set. Initially I had stamped and coloured about 7 images and thought I would have a crazy gift bag frenzy on the card, but try as I might I just couldn't figure out a layout that would showcase them all and not have it looked like a jumbled mess. So I went with three. I picked the three brightest colours (thought you wouldn't know it from this picture since the lighting was total crap). I added some tissue paper to each of the bags. I wanted to add a little twine detail on the handles, but I couldn't get the twine to sit right and curve properly so I just left it as the stamped image.

I really like both the simplicity of the card, and the cuteness factor. I'll probably end up making one again in the future

A Card fit for a Fairy Pirate

My lovely little baby turned 3 years old yesterday. The time has certainly flown by. When we started talking about her birthday a few months ago she told me she loved fairies and wanted a fairy cake. So I went with the fairy theme. Made the invites, had the cake all planned, then the silly little goose changed her mind and wanted to go with pirates. We went whole hog on the pirate theme when it came to her actual party, but she was out of luck when it came to her birthday card. I had a one track mind and that was for fairies.


I haven't done a mojo challenge for a while, so I thought I would do last week's sketch.


Seemed simple enough. A circle, a square and some ribbon. Not so simple. The fairy stamp I had in mind was huge in comparison to the dimensions of the actual card, so my sizing had to be a little off from the sketch, which was fine by me. I also had to change the orientation from the card to landscape in order to accomodate my Pink Cat Studios Enchanted Lily stamp


My daughter is not exactly the girliest of kids (you would never guess from the pirate request Ha). So I decided to go against her nature and make her a pink girly card (she'll probably hate me for this when she's a teenager). I thought since Lily was swinging from a tree and covered in flowery vines I would try to find a paper that had the same sort of theme. I managed to do just that, and it was pink to boot.

I also decided that since fairies aren't real (sorry to burst anyone's bubble out there) that I would make her a little whimsical and give her pink hair. I love the way her hair turned out. I'm also pretty impressed with myself and my colouring and shading of her dress. I added a little heart brad and tag with the make a wish on it just to make it a little more special for a birthday.


I'm pretty pleased overall with the way this turned out, considering I've been on a bit of a CAS kick lately and this card has a little bit more going on than a bunch of white space.

Stamps: PCS Enchanted Lily
Ink: Memento, Copics
Paper: Gina K, Recollections Itsy Bitsy Ditsy Cherry Pie
Other: Ribbon, Heart Brad.

Cupcakes Galore

I'm almost there in the birthday card making marathon. This is number 3 of 5 that I have to get done by the end of next week. This one is going to my friend who is turning 35 but whose husband dropped the ball and now she isn't getting the birthday that she expected.


I wanted to do something fun with this card. I wanted to use a colour that I don't use very often and I wanted to try something that I don't think that I have tried before. I also knew I was kind of limited once again by my birthday stamps, and that I was going to have to likely go with cupcakes again. So I decided to use a cute polka dotted paper that I recently purchased. I figured it kind of looked sort of kitsch, which is kind of what cupcakes are. So I went with it, and just found a matching red to add a bit more umph


Recently I had noticed a few cards online that had used layers of scalloped punched paper. I thought that it would be perfect for this card since the edges of the punch went with the polka dots, mimicking the shape. I originally thought about doing the entire card background in the punched papers but then decided to just go halfway. I also wanted something to break up the solid red and the polka dots (and to hide an edge) and I found this cute little gingham ribbon so I went with it.

I had a really hard time trying to decide what colours to make the cupcakes. In the end I went with orange, pink and blue. I thought about doing yellow and maybe a red icing, and doing brown cupcakes papers, but decided against it. Because the card was already kind of busy I didn't have much space to put the sentiment, so I made a little tag with a birthday wish.

Stamps: TSG Make a Wish

Paper: Recollections Small Red Dots, Canson Red, Gina K Pure Luxury White Cardstock

Ink: Memento, Copics

Other: Ribbon, Jewelled Brad

Have your cake and eat it too !

2 birthday cards down, 2 to go (well in the next week anyway). I have yet to decide who is getting this one, its either a friend or my sister. Not sure which. Really depends maybe on how the other cards I make turn out.

So I had a few goals with this one. I usually make cupcake birthday cards, only because those are really the only stamps that I have that sort of relate to birthdays, unless I'm making something for a little kid. I finally purchased a new birthday set, and although it is heavily laced with cupcakes, I decided to use one of the cakes.

I also knew that I wanted to use embroidery thread and a button somehow as accents. And finally I wanted it to be sort of spring like since the first day of spring is this weekend, and everyone's birthdays coming up are all within a few days of this day, so I went with green.


I stuck with my simple is best thing that I've been going with the last little while. Decided to just do one simple cake image, and a simple greeting at the top of the card. I didn't want to use all kinds of elaborate papers. I had the cross hatched paper in a stash of scraps that I've been holding onto. I think its a Martha Stewart paper, but I can't be sure. I thought it lent itself to the understated look I was going for and well I had thread and a button that would match perfectly.

I decided to make the cake a little whimisical with the colour choices just to add a little pop to the card. I had initially coloured in where the pearls are located on the card, but it just didn't seem right, so I decided to go ahead and add another little 3D element to it.

Stamps: There She Goes Make a Wish

Ink: Memento, Copics