Freshly Made Sketches #284: Happy Birthday

Hello!  Happy Monday!  I really do despise Mondays, but when you can make something with images as cute and sweet as these little bumbles, it makes it oh so much better!! :D  My card today was created for Freshly Made Sketches #284.  Those ladies always have a great sketch up on the blog!  Let's take a look at the original sketch:

And here is my take:

This was my first time using the Pretty Pink Posh 'Bee Friends' stamp set.  If you haven't seen it then "Bee" on the lookout for it because it will be released in May!  Ha!  The papers are from Doodlebug's Spring Things paper pad, and the sequins are the Easter Mix by Pretty Pink Posh also.  I'm completely over the moon for these Ric Rac border dies from Memory Box!  They add just the right amount of detail without overwhelming a design.  Here's one more look at these sweet bees...

  

I am certain that this set will be a well loved, often used set it my stash...Thanks for stopping by today! 

Hugs,



**This card will also be entered in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Showers/Flowers**

Color Throwdown #439: Magical Birthday

Hi there!  Today I'm sharing a card that I created with a few challenges in mind.  The Color Throwdown Challenge this week is full of gorgeous colors!  They are some of my favorites. 

This is also a special post dedicated to my daughter, Madeline Belle!  We call her Maddie.  Yesterday was her 9th birthday!  If anyone had told me how fast time flies when you have children, I'd have never believed them.  Let me tell you folks, I'm a believer now!  With each year, the time seems to pass more quickly than the year before.  They grow in so many ways...Maddie is our second born, although at times you'd swear she is the oldest.  She is wise beyond her years, and one of the most compassionate and patient little ladies I've ever known.  I am so lucky to be her mother!  I made this card because it reminds me of her...she is definitely magical!  So, Maddie Belle, this one is for you sweet girl! :D

For this card, I used the Once Upon A Time stamp set by My Favorite Things...its a favorite!  Papers are by My Favorite Things and Doodlebug.  A little close up of the sparkle in the images...why is glitter so hard to capture in photos??

Maddie, you will forever be our magical little princess...grow in grace and beauty my love! 

It just so happens that the My Favorite Things Color Challenge and the Wednesday Sketch Challenge were a perfect fit for this card!  If you'd like to check them out, and I highly suggest that you do, just follow these links!

My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch Challenge #329

My Favorite Things Color Challenge 67

Thanks so much for stopping by today! 

Hugs, 

Supplies used: My Favorite Things Blueprints 1, My Favorite Things Tag Builder Blueprints 5, MFT Once Upon a Time clear stamps and dies, MFT Radiating Rays stencil, Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders, MFT Dots & Stripes Confection 6x6 paper pad, Doodlebug Kraft in Color 6x6 paper pad, Copic markers, WOW! Opaque white embossing powder, Simon Says Stamp A2 Side Folding card base, Distress Ink in Mustard Seed, Wink of Stella clear glitter pen, Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins, ribbon

Love From Lizi April Kit

Hi there!  It's the week following Easter, so ironically, many of the cards featured in today's post are Easter cards!  I suppose that's the draw-back of having an international kit subscription, but Lizi's April kit was so cute that I just had to make Easter cards, even knowing that this would not go up on the blog until after Easter!  Story of my life!  Luckily, many of them are Spring cards as well. 

This month, I stuck to the traditional 10 cards, but you could easily make so many more from this kit!  I had an abundance of supplies left over.  Let's have a look, shall we??

For this first card, I suppose I was still in the googly-eye mood because I thought that the little eye glasses from the stamp set would look awfully cute with googly-eyes!  What do you think?

For this next card, I really wanted to be able to color some of those eggs!  I used a very fine line pen by Maped to do my coloring, so my eggs turned out pretty bright and bold.  Not exactly the look I was going for to match this pretty pastel paper.  So, when you need to tone down some color, vellum is your friend!

This next card is most definitely one of the brightest and most colorful of the lot!  And, can I just say that the raffia Lizi put in the kit this month is fabulous?!  I just love the way it looks when tied into a bow with long loose tails!

I knew I wanted to do some water coloring with "Easter" image in the stamp set.  I decided to use Distress Inks for two reasons: 1. the colors are bright and oh so pretty, and 2. they are soooo easy to water color with!  These colors seem to coordinate best with the kit: Wild Honey, Fired Brick, Peacock Feathers, Mustard Seed, Broken China, Dusty Concord, and Spun Sugar.

I also stamped the image using the same ink color so that I could use the no-line coloring technique. Some glossy accents over the stickers in the kit gives a nice shine too!  

Since the Distress Inks were already on my table, I thought it would be pretty to do some ink blending to color the eggs.  On a piece of Bristol smooth cardstock, I blended Peacock Feathers, Broken China, Dusty Concord, Mustard Seed and Spun Sugar.  I then distressed it using a Distress Sprayer and blotted with a paper towel.  Next, I heat embossed my egg images in white and fussy cut them out.  I pulled out a few of the wood veneer shapes from the kit, and used my last scrap of the colored Bristol paper to die cut the "Spring" sentiment, also from the kit.  A nice little geometric pattern gives a very clean look to this card. 

A little sentiment sticker from the kit and an action wobble make the perfect pair for this next one!

Cheater alert!  I so badly wanted to use the "Hoppy Easter" sentiment from this Simon Says Stamp clear stamps set along with the bunny die from the LFL kit...aren't they just darling together?!?!  I think this one just might be my favorite!

Here's another one of the little wood veneer shapes and some more of that fabulous raffia!  No sentiment needed for this one since the paper says it all!  Since Lizi is from the UK, I'd really like to ask her if "Blooming Lovely" has a dual meaning...wink, wink! ;)  Brits have a fantastic sense of humor...

With all of the pretty little flowers in the sticker pack, I just had to make a wreath!

Last, but not least, I thought that the stickers and the bunny would make an adorable little window scene.  Pink plaid cottage anyone??  Yes please! :D

It's so very hard to see on camera, but Wink of Stella clear glitter makes these white die cuts really sparkle!

So that's it for the April LFL kit!  I just saw the May LFL kit release last night, so go check it out!  It looks like a wonderful kit for Father's Day!!

If you're curious as to the April kit contents, click here to view them on the Love From Lizi site.  All additional supplies used are listed below.  Thanks for stopping by and see you next time!

Hugs,

Additional Supplies: Darice Wiggly Eyes, Vellum, Maped Graph pens, Copic markers, Pretty Pink Posh sequins, Memory Box Ric Rac Stitches, Distress Inks, Glossy Accents, WOW! White embossing powder, VersaMark ink, Simon Says Stamp Stitched Squares, Rectangles and Circles, Hero Arts Postage Stamp Infinity Dies, Simon Says Stamp floral embossing folder, Reverse Confetti Circles N' Scallops die, Simon Says Stamp Easter Greetings, Sunny Studio Fishtail Banners, MFT Pierced Heart Stax, MFT Classic Window die, MFT Mini Doily Circles, and random pink cardstock

**I will be entering some of the cards featured in this post to the Simon Says Stamp Monday & Wednesday challenges**

Color Throwdown #437: It's Your Special Day

Hi there! Today I'm sharing a card that I created for Color Throwdown #437 featuring a lovely Sunflower image by Stampendous.  So, for the  inspiration this week, Lori chose a pretty vase of tulips.  So perfect for spring don't you think?! 

I don't own any tulip stamps, or I might have chosen to do tulips, but I'm glad I didn't because I'm very pleased with the way that this turned out! 

First of all, I love this stamp!  It's so bright and happy, and that little ladybug is so sweet!  It just puts a smile on my face!  Secondly, sunflowers are my favorite flower.  I've never seen a sunflower that I didn't love!  I started out by heat embossing the image with black embossing powder onto watercolor cardstock.  I colored the image using a water brush and Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.  The background is just a wash of mixed blues and greens from a Koi palette.  I used Simon Says Stamp stitched rectangle dies to cut out the panel and also the red gingham, which is from the My Favorite Things Tiny Check paper pad. 

The sentiment comes from the MFT Jungle Friends stamp set.  I think this one in particular works great for a birthday card!  I heat embossed it with Wow! Opaque Bright White embossing powder onto black cardstock, and then cut it out using one of the stitched label dies, also by My Favorite Things.  To finish it off, I adhered my panel onto a Nina Desert Storm card base, added some twine and popped my sentiment up with a bit of foam tape.  I didn't even need to add sequins!  Lol :D

Since the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is all about Birthdays this week, I'll be entering it there as well.  Now I'm off to work on some Easter cards and goodies for the kiddos!

Hugs!

SSS April Card Kit featuring Lawn Fawn Rainbow Plaid Papers

Hi and Happy Saturday! The moment I opened my April kit from Simon Says Stamp, I was in love! This kit was definitely my favorite so far! I mean, who doesn't love rainbow colors and cute cuddly wild animals?!?! Here is a quick peek at the kit contents:

Doesn't it just look like a bucket full of fun??? The kit sold out VERY quickly, but you can always order the items individually.  That's one thing that I really appreciate about SSS kits.   

It took me a few days to crank out these cards (its Spring Break so the kiddos are all home!), but I had such a great time! Plus, since the kiddos were home, they got to help! I will list all of the additional products used at the end of this post.  Let's get to it!

The little penguin in the stamp set was a sure fire place to start for me.  And what can be better than penguin lovebirds!? I fussy cut the eyes on a third image and pasted them on to my boy penguin so that they could be looking at one another...then of course my girl needed some eyelashes!

This was the trickiest card of the bunch.  I stamped the images on the inside of my card base and then die cut the circles on the outer cover after attaching the plaid panel.  To get the alignment just right, I used a transparency and traced the circles so that I could line it up before running through the big shot.  Here's a look at the inside of the card.

This little guy is the only one on a wobble! I meant to use more wobbles but really, I just forgot!

I found that these patterned papers go perfectly with distress inked backgrounds! This card is made using up some leftovers from all of the papers I'd cut into.  Waste not want not! Lol...  

This one was a total experiment.  I wanted to see how the critters would look if embossed with clear EP and then water colored.  I'm not crazy about the result, but couldn't bear to throw him away!

These penguins really crack me up!  I did the same thing with the eyes on this one...each ones eyes are slightly different, but the look on the one in front is hysterical! :D

I tried to think of different ways to use the tags in the kit, so this one got another Distress Ink application, but with the smooshing and water spritzing technique! Love how this tag turned out.  And, this little elephant is just the sweetest thing ever! He reminds me of Dumbo...one of my Disney favorites to this day! Here's a closer look...

Another great use for scraps! Make balloons! The sentiment comes from a previous SSS card kit - September 2016, I believe. 

Rather than Distress Inks, this tag was blended using the inks that came in the kit. They blend so nicely! The background is also stamped with the inks from the kit.

Last, but not least, I had to try some no line coloring with pencils on this kraft tag.  I found that the pencils don't blend as smoothly on this kraft as they do on Nina's kraft cardstock, but its still a nice effect, don't ya think? I love the feel of the soft colors, and who doesn't love a blue-eyed baby elephant!?

Thank you so very much for stopping by today! I hope you were able to find some inspiration! Now, go get your craft on... :D

Hugs,

Additional Supplies: SSS Scallop Stitches, MFT Pierced Heart Stax, SSS Stitched Rectangles, SSS Stitched Circles, MFT Concentric Circle Grid stencil, SSS Ring Frame, SSS Tiny Dots and Hearts background stamp, MFT Abstract Art stamp set, SSS It's No Secret stamp set, Lawn Fawn Put A Bow On It, Lawn Fawn Stitched Slopes, Hero Arts Birthday background stamp, Distress Inks, SSS Clear Ink, enamel dots, glossy accents, white embossing powder, Copic Markers, Prismacolor pencils, Pretty Pink Posh sequins, twine, ribbon, and some card bases in Fog Gray and Nina Desert Storm

**I will be entering some cards featured in this post to the Simon Says Stamp Monday and Wednesday Challenges**