It's a Jungle Out There

Hey there. Here is a card I have been meaning to make for quite a while, but hadn't gotten around to it, but when I saw this gorgeous card by Lee, I finally had the inspiration I needed to sit down and do it.

One of the first things I saw when I first looked at the lily stamp in Elegant Flowers (from the Floral Frenzy stampTV kit) was a palm tree. That is the stamp I used to make the trees in the card above. All the cute little critters are from Asela Hopkins' stamp set, Zoo Animals.

Here are the details on how to make this card...

I started by inking up the outer line and the very inside lines with a marker. I used a black Memento marker, since I wanted to color using Copics.

Before I stamped, I "huffed" on the stamp to moisten the ink. The first one, I stamped at a bit of an angle so it would lean in toward the center of the card.

I used a mask over the first image and stamped a second just above.

Stamped a third on the other side of the card stock and added some foliage using one of the leaf stamps from Elegant Flowers. I used the stamped technique of inking the stamp just on the outer lines with my Memento marker. Then I drew in a little bit of grass and penciled in the tree trunks. I made the trunks about 1/8 inch wide, which seemed in proportion to the size of the tree top.

Went over my pencil lines with my black Memento marker and added a few little segment lines to give the trunk some texture.

Colored all the greenery with Copic markers YG03, YG05 and G05.

Used E33, E35 and E37 for the tree trunks. Then I went over all the colored areas with a Versa Mark pen and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.


Used a few post-it notes to mask off the top and sponged in the forground using So Saffron, Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip inks.

Turned the mask around and sponged in the sky using Bashful Blue and Ballet Blue inks.

I colored all the animals from Zoo Animals with Copics, cut them out and then adhered them to the background. The giraffe and lion are popped up with dimensionals.

That Paperlicious is too funny. Check out her latest.

My sister helped my mom set up a blog this past weekend. Way to go, Mom!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a terrific day!

Ostentatious Thanks

Hello! Here is a card I made using one of my new Flourishes sets, Strut Your Stuff. Sorry for the erratic posting the past several days. I've got a cold and am a bit off my game. I seem to be on the mend now, so hopefully I'll be back to normal posting soon.

I only snapped a couple detail photos with this card, but here are the few I have...

To color the peacock, I used Copic markers B00, B02, B04, B26 and Y15.

Then I went over the entire image with my Versa Mark pen and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

I sponged the background with So Saffron, Gable Green, Green Galore and Tempting Turquoise. Then I used the feather stamp, inked with Tempting Turquoise, stamped off once, and stamped around the edges. I layered with Temping Turquoise and Basic Black. The card base is Green Galore.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a fantastic day!

Moth at Sunrise

Hello and happy Sunday. I pulled out Take Flight and colored the butterfly like a moth again. Melanie Muenchinger is hosting the Friday Potluck challenge at stampTV this week and she challenged us to "stamp with something that's not a stamp." I used tissue paper and a scoring tool (the kind with a little ball on the end) and inked 'em up and stamped them on my background.

It's fun to look around and find things you can use to add texture and pattern to your stamping. I've seen people use bubble wrap before and that looks great. Be sure to play along in the challenge for a chance to win a free stamp set from Gina K Designs.

I started by coloring the entire image with Copic marker, Y21.

Then I added E31 and blended with Y21.

Added E35 and Y23.

Finally, I added E37 and blended with Y23. Then I used my colorless blender to push more color away from the lightest areas. After coloring, I cut out the image.

To make the background I sponged So Saffron all over a piece of Pure Luxury White cardstock. then I added Apricot Appeal and More Mustard to the upper edges and Creamy Caramel with Chocolate Chip to the lower edges.

Next, I used a piece of wadded up tissue paper and inked it up with Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip, then dabbed around the edges.

To finish the background, I stamped some images from Tropical Flowers with Bravo Burgundy ink. Then I added some more texture to the background around the edges by inking up the tip of my score tool and dotting it around here and there.

I sponged the top layer with the same colors as the background and backed each with Pure Luxury Black Onyx cardstock. The card base is So Saffron.

I wanted to give a shout out to Cathy Edgar, Melanie's special guest designer for this month. She is offering a wonderful framed art piece featuring A Charmed Life as blog candy. Be sure to stop by her blog for a chance to win.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

Friend to Friend

Happy Friday! I just received an order from Flourishes that I split with my mom. She ordered Home Tweet Home, so I got to play with it real quick before she came for her goodies.

Here is how I made the card...

I stamped my image with Memento Tuxedo black ink, on Pure Luxury White cardstock from Gina K. Then I colored all the leaves with Copic marker YG03.

Then I used YG93 to go over the center and lower part of each leaf.


Finally, I used YG95 to add shadow to the very center of each leaf, then used GY03 to blend the colors.

For the birdhouse, I used B00, B02, B04 and C3. Then I used a Versa Mark pen to go over the entire image so I could heat emboss with clear embossing powder. When I do this technique with Copics, I am very careful to go over the lightest colors first and work darker with my pen, because I have found that the Versa Mark ink can smear the colors slightly.

To color the bird, I used Y21, Y23 and YR12 for the belly.

For the wings and head I used B00, B02 and B04. Then I cut out the bird and embossed it with clear embossing powder.

After embossing, I sponged the background with So Saffron all over, then added Creamy Caramel all around the edges, and just a touch of Chocolate Chip on the very edges.

I added a sentiment from Pocket Silhouettes (Stampin' Up) and scored on either side of it. Then I added some piercing under the sentiment and on the upper left corner, using the Mat Pack from Stampin' Up.

**Just a reminder about Donna's 3-D challenge on stampTV. There are still a few days to play and a great chance to win a free stamp set from Gina K. **

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great weekend.

Night Blooming Iris

Hi everyone! Did you see the new videos Gina posted on stampTV? She showed some great ways to use bleach in your paper crafting. She also posted a new technique challenge to use one of the techniques she showed in the videos. You could be the random winner of a GKD stamp set, just by playing along, so check it out!

I was inspired to pull out my bleach to add some accents to the card I made this morning. I used one of the stamp sets from the stampTV Floral Frenzy kit, called Elegant Flowers, for the main focal image.

Here are a few of the details from making this card...

To start, I stamped my image on Pure Luxury white cardstock, using black Stazon in. Then I colored the flowers with Lulu Lavender, Grape Jelly and Sweet Plum Memento markers. I am loving these markers for when I emboss with clear, because the color really stays put when I go over it with my Versa Mark pen. Sorry about the poor photo quality on this one. I didn't realize it was out of focus.

For the leaves and stems I used New Sprout, Pear Tart and Bamboo Leaves. I also used New Sprout to add a little green around the bottom of the image to "ground" it just a bit.

Next I went over the whole image with Versa Mark, then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I sponged around the image with So Saffron, Almost Amethyst and Lavender Lace.

On a piece of Almost Amethyst cardstock, I sponged Lavender Lace and Perfect Plum around the edges.

Then I stamped the branches from Tropical Flowers, using Lavender Lace and Perfect Plum.

To add some hightlights in the background, I put a little bleach on a paper towel, then touched a blending stump to it, then dotted it around on my cardstock. I re-dipped after dotting 5 or 6 times. I could have dipped my stump directly into bleach, instead of using a paper towel, but I wanted to control the amount of bleach on my blending stump. A little bleach goes a long way.

Then I just layered my image panels with some Pure Luxury Black Onyx cardstock and Lavender Lace cardstock.

Thanks so much for visiting. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Easter Lily

I don't have anything new today, but here is a card I hadn't shared on the blog yet, from the last Gina K release. I used the lily from Easter Blessings as the main focal image and some of Emily's yummy digital paper, Rich and Shabby.

I colored the flowers with Copic markers, RV21, RV23, RV25 and my colorless blender.


For the greenery, I used YG03, YG05 and my colorless blender.

Sponged in the background with Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery and Old Olive.

I also stamped the ivy vine around the sides of the image panel, with Certainly Celery ink, then on the digi paper background panel with Brilliance White ink. The card base is Regal Rose.

Thanks for popping in. I hope you day is filled with sunshine!

Wings and Wreath

Hello and happy Monday! It's my turn to host this week's color challenge on stampTV. This is my sample for the challenge. The colors I chose are Lavender Lace and Old Olive. I would love to have you play along.

Here are some of the details from making this card...

I started by stamping my image from Wreath of Wishes, with black Stazon ink. Then I colored it using Memento markers.

I planned to do some sponging, so I embossed the image to resist the ink from sponging. First I went over the image with my Versa Mark pen, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I added a butterfly from Take Flight, stamping it with Versa Mark and embossing with clear also. It's a little hard to see the butterfly in this photo, but if you click on the photo, you can see it enlarged for a better view.

Next, I sponged over the entire cardstock, using Almost Amethyst and Lavender Lace, going darker toward the edges. I used the crackle background stamp from Bold Flowers around the edges also. I wanted to have the crackles fade out a bit toward the center, so I tore a piece of post it note to act as a mask and inked up the stamp with Perfect Plum, stamped off on scratch paper, then stamped on the cardstock.

Then I moved the post-it closer to the edge, inked up again with Perfect Plum, this time stamping with it fully inked.

I layered the image panel with Black Onyx and Old Olive, then added brads and piercing.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

All Peached Out

I hope the weekend is treating you well! The card I have to share with you today is for the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge to use ribbon in a different way, as well as Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply challenge on Friday to use a ribbon tab. I think I have only done one of these ribbon tabs once before and that was months ago.

Here are a few details of how I made this card.

I stamped the iris from Siberian Iris with Memento ink and colored the flower petals with Copic markers. I started by using R24 in the centers of the petals. Then I blended that out with R22, to about mid way on the petals. Then I used YR02 to blend that out all across the petals. I used the colorless blender to push some of the color back toward the center, so the petals would have some highlights.

For the leaves and stem, I used YG03, YG93 and YG95.

I cut out the image, then using my rectangle nestabilities, I cut an panel on Pure Luxury White cardstock and sponged it, with Apricot Appeal ink, while it was still in the frame.

I assembled the card, using a piece of designer paper from K&Company and some adhesive pearls from Michaels. The little ribbon tab is at the bottom of the top panel. Card base is Apricot Appeal.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you are having a happy weekend!

P.S. My friend, Carolina, is having a birthday celebration today. Happy Birthday, Carolina!!!