With Sympathy

A while back I was browsing one of the magazine blogs and saw that they had a call out for cards made using masking techniques. This made me pull out my copics together with the airbrush system for them, and get to work coming up with this card. When I was done I put it in my pile of things on my desk and proceeded to completely forget to submit it. I was going through some things on my desk the other day, straightening up when, to my surprise, I found said card. Yes, I thought to myself, that's great, I am loosing my mind. So, since I don't have to wait to hear back from them, I can post for all to see.

I really love to airbrush with copics. They blend so seamlessly. Every time I do this technique I am surprised at how beautiful it looks considering how easy it is to do.

After masking off the area to be airbrushed it was time to decide what colors to use. I finally decided on the following: Y21, Y23, Y17, Y38, YR07 and R08. You want to start with the lightest color at the top and go a little bit further than where you want the color to end then go over that last little bit with the next color. Keep repeating this process until you get to the last color. This is what will give you that great blending of the colors.

When finished the silhouette flower stamp was inked up with memento ink and stamped. The left hand side of the card looked as if it needed something so I used some of my scraps and put a thin piece of matching cardstock along the edge of the airbrushing. To finish off the card I used some really pretty taffeta ribbon and pop dotted the sentiment onto the card.

I am very happy with the way this card turned out. As much as I like the card I truly hope that I won't have a use for it anytime soon. Hope you all enjoy this technique and, if you can, give it a try using your copics.

Have a great Christmas and a safe New Year!!!

Happy Stamping and Scraping,

Ronda

Tri-fold Shutter Christmas Card

Well, I know I mentioned a while back that I had made a card to submit at work for a contest. It took a little bit to find out if anyone from our store had won and sadly, no one did. There were two other ladies who submitted entries and their cards were both beautiful. If you like Tim Holtz you need to check out Ruby's entry here: http://rubycraft.blogspot.com/2011/10/collectors-edition.html. Her work is just beautiful, so don't miss out, go check it out!!! Ruby is a huge Tim Holtz fan and is participating in his 12 Tags. Her work is stunning, just saying!

Now onto the card that I submitted. I really wanted to do something a little different, not just a regular A2 card and I had been wanting to make a tri-fold shutter card for a long time and just never got around to it. This was the perfect opportunity to give it a try. If you have not seen a tri-fold card, they are really beautiful and very easy to make.



If you would like to give it a try you will need a piece of card stock cut to 5 1/2 x 12. On my card I used Cloverleaf Bazzill paper, which is such a pretty color and really went well with the My Mind's Eye 6 x 6 Lost and Found Christmas paper I planned to use. You will take your paper and put it in your Martha Stewart scoreboard horizontally and score the paper at 2, 4, 8 and 10 inches. You will then take your paper and turn cardstock a 1/4 turn. Along the long edge, measure in 1 1/2 inches and make a slit with your craft knife between the score marks at 2 inches and 10 inches. You will repeat this step along the other side of the card.



You will want to fold the card to look like this. You will then decorate as you like. There are lots of great ways these cards can be decorated, just use your imagination and go wild, lol! On my card as mentioned above, I used the paper from My Mind's Eye, Lost and Found Christmas. The moment I saw this cardstock, I fell in love. It is just gorgeous with the colors they used in it and the glitter that is on the 12 x 12 cardstock. I used Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist over the designer paper to give it some sparkle. It turned out very pretty, and wasn't to overwhelming on the card.



The front of the card I did contemplate what should go on there for some time and then decided that the Martha Stewart's scoreboard needed to come out again so I could make a rosette to decorate the front of the card. The tip to making these rosettes, I have found is to cut your cardstock, staple it together and the start scoring and folding. Helps so the ends will meed up correctly. You will also need a good glue gun and depending on how big you want the rosette to be, make the circles on's on ether end bigger than shown on the instructions. I then used the accessory pack and picked up a beautiful sticker for the middle of the rosette.

I really love this card and think that it came out rather beautiful


Well I hope you enjoyed today's post, I know it has been a long time comeing. This tine of year leaves little for crafting, sigh... I would love to be doing this all. Oh well, a girl cane dream right, lol. Hope you all enjoyed this card and give it a shot. If you do, let me know what you think, if it was easy or hard.

You all have a wonderful weekend and, if I don't post again for Christmas, I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Years and please be safe!!!!

Happy Stampin and Scrappin
Come back again soon!!!

Ronda

My Mind's Eye Christmas

My last post with the cute little snowballs mentioned that we had a contest at work for Christmas cards. This is another one that I made that the girls liked but was not the one that they liked best. The upside to making more than the one card we were allowed to submit is I now have a couple of cards already to send out for Christmas, lol.

This card was very simple to put together which is one of the things I liked best about it. The little squares were punched with a 1 1/4 inch punch with My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Christmas paper. I just love this this paper. The little 6 x 6 pad doesn't have the glitter that the 12 x 12 paper has but that's okay with me, it is still beautiful. I used iridescent gold Glimmer Mist on each of the squares to give it some shimmer then I used cinnamon and candy cane stickles around the edges of the squares. The background paper is from Graphic 45. I used chestnut roan ink around the edges of this and also on the Tim Holtz embossing folder before embossing the paper. This gave the paper a very pretty look which I hope you can see in the photo. Be Merry is from the My Mind's Eye embellishment pack. The glitter ribbon finishes this card of nicely, don't you think. I think next time I am at work I may have to pick up some more of this ribbon, maybe in some of the other colors.

Now I can't post pics of the card I submitted but I think I will try to make one that is similar tonight and post pics of that one tomorrow or Monday so check back soon.

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Happy Stamping and Scrapping,

Ronda

Jingleball Christmas Contest Reject

The past couple of nights I have been staying up late trying to get some cards done for a contest at work. I ended up making three cards and then brought them into work and asked the girls which one I should submit. Unfortunately we were only allowed to submit one card, such a bummer since I liked all of the cards I made. Well the votes were unanimous, they loved all of the cards but this one was not the one they chose so I thought I would share it with you all. I don't think I will be able to share the one that they picked but I do plan to make another one, very similar in nature but not exact since I don't know if it would be okay to share it. Couldn't find that info anywhere in the rules but though it best to be safe rather than sorry. The winner gets a $50 gift card to Archivers so I really hope that I win!! There is so much at work that I would love to purchase, lol.

Well on to the card details. Isn't this the cutest little snowman stamp. It is by WhipperSnapper and is called Snowballs. Makes me smile every time I see these little guys. As a lot of you know, I just love coloring with copic markers and this card is no exception. After coloring them I used Smooch paint on the top hat to give the snow a shimmer, I also outlined the little snowballs with it as well. Using a glue pen I added some shaved ice under these cute little guys. Boy does this stuff sparkle so pretty in the light, reds, pinks, blues and purples, oh so gorgeous!!! My next step was to add flower soft to the santa hat. I have found that a glue pen really isn't strong enough to hold this on the card well so I use liquid tombo glue. You could also use glossy accents or the Ultimate glue.

The designer paper is from Graphic 45 and sprayed with Glimmer Mist Pearl and was also sprayed on the red layer for more shimmer. Remember, you can't have enough sparkle on your cards and pages, even if you have boys, lol, they will get over it. The cute little crystal snowflakes started off clear but I decided that they would look better if I used my copics and airbrushed them blue and they look so pretty that way! Give it a try if you haven't already! To finish off this gate card I used some red rhinestones and some new American Crafts Glitter Ribbon (omgosh is this ribbon beautiful). Oh, I also colored the jingle bells and the notes with a gold Spica pen, another way to add some great sparkle to your project.

I can tell you I took a lot of time making this card and maybe it should have been the one that I submitted but what's done is done and hopefully I stand a chance, no matter how slight of winning. So please send along some good luck, I would appreciate it!!!

Ok some of you may be wondering which copics I used for this cuties so I thought I would end this with a list of one ones I used. Here is is: C1, C2, C3, C4, C6, R27, R29, and R39, YG93, YG95 and YG97, B34 and B37 for the scarf and hat band as well as the snowflakes and E25 for the arms. Last but not lease I used BG000 to outline the snowballs to give them a little shadow.

Hope you enjoyed all of the work that went into this little guy. Should you have any questions, please fell free to ask me and I will try to get back to you quickly,.

Happy Stamping and Scrapping,

Ronda

Sharing in Your Sorrow

This year has not been a very good one for my family. Not long after the loss of my dad my uncle passed away. Sympathy cards are not a favorite card of mine to make, as a matter of fact, they are very difficult. I never know what to say inside, not sure what to put on the outside either.

My aunt and uncle spent a lot of time in Maine, it was one of their favorite places. I can actually remember going camping up there with them when I was little. So this made my choice in images for these cards very easy. I used one of my favorite old stamp sets, Coast to Coast. It was perfect because one of the lighthouses in this set is from Maine.

I didn't want to do a lot of coloring with these, it just didn't seem right to make it bright and cheery so I only used one copic marker, B000 on the sky. I stamped with Memento brown ink and used kraft cardstock as the base with brown cardstock and soft sky as the layers. I had a 6 x 6 pad of designer paper from My Mind's Eye (one of my favorite companies as I love all of the papers they have put out this past year). This one is called Stella Rose - Hattie. The papers in this pack went with the colors I wanted to used just perfectly. To finish these off I used brown satin ribbon and a scalloped punch.

I really like the way these cards came together. I hadn't planned to share these cards tonight but the ones that I did plan to share may have to wait since I can't find the cord for my camera that I need to download my photos, sigh. Hopefully I can find it soon. Not sure where my memory is lately.

Hope you enjoy.

Happy Stamping and Scrapping,

Ronda

My Little Lion King

It has been a long time since I have had a chance to post. The page I am going to share with you tonight I actually made about a month ago, maybe a little longer but haven't had a chance to actually take pictures and post here for you all to see. As you can see from the photos, this are really old since my cute little boy is in high school now. Yes, I am a bit behind in my scrapbooking. I know, I know, I really need to get it in gear and get scrapping.

Well I was inspired by the cute zoo line by Bo Bunny and the fact that Lion King was being re-released in theaters since Jacob is dressed as Simba. I just love this paper line and all of the accessories that came along with it. Super, super cute. The layout came from Page Maps book. What a great resource if you are stuck or just don't feel like coming up with a layout yourself (actually me being lazy that night and just wanted to get something done, lol).

Enjoy and don't follow my example, get scrapping!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happpy Scrapping and Stamping,

Ronda

Congrats to You

Just this past week a friend of mine got herself a much deserved promotion, way to go Joyce. So to celebrate I wanted to make her a special card and I just love this little dragon stamp with his balloon. He is made by Stampavie, Lelo Designs and is called Party Dragon. Isn't he just the cutest little thing.

The copics used on this card are:

Wings, horns, patch on shirt and one balloon: V0000, V000, V01 and V12
Shirt toenails and one balloon: YR0000, YR000, YR01 and YR02
Last Balloon: BG10, BG11 and BG13
Dragon: YG93, YG95, YG97 and YG13

I spent some time trying to decide what papers to use and found some from My Mind's Eye Lime Twist called Happy Go Lucky that went with the colors I used just perfectly. The cloud paper is also My Mind's Eye but from the paper pack called Fly a Kite. This piece of course needed so sparkle so out came the Pearl Glimmer Mist. This adds just the right amount of sparkle and gets used quite often in my house. Everything must have a little sparkle.

It may be hard to tell from the pictures but did you notice how the balloons look wet? Crystal effect was used on these to give it a latex look. It was also used on the Congratulations banner. The little dragon is pop-dotted off the cloud layer. To get the layered shape I used my nestablities, gotta love these. Tho I always have to search youtube to remember what platform to use when cutting and embossing with these on my Big Shot.

After putting the card all together I decided it really needed a little something else to finish it off so I used my handy dandy Bow-Easy, which by the way makes the most perfect bows ever, to make a cute triple bow with some gingham ribbon and then added a cute little corduroy button.

Hope you have enjoyed this card.

Have a great Sunday. Happy stamping,

Ronda

Hello

Today's card post is something that I colored a long time ago and found on my table today just begging me to make a card out of it. I absolutely adore this stamp. The little girl is just adorable, isn't she. I got her last year from this wonderful stamp company in Scotland, Sugar Nellie. I believe that it was designed by Elizabeth Bell back when she was designing for them.

Because it was colored a long, and I mean long, time ago I am not sure what color copics I used on her. I did use BOOOO and BOO to airbrush the sky and G82 for the grass. If you haven't started airbrushing with your copics you are missing out on all of the things you can do including airbrushing your ribbons, buttons, rhinestones and pearls to match what you are working on. It is also great to airbrush with stencils, love this look!!! If you decide to start airbrushing I highly recommend going to your local Northern Tools and getting yourself a little compressor rather than buying the canned air they sell for the airbrush kit. If you look further back in this blog you will find a picture of the compressor my hubby bought me.

Hope you enjoy the card. I will be posting another card tomorrow that I made for a sweet friend who just got a promotion, way to go Joyce!!! You are going to be great!!!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy Stamping,

Ronda

Fun with Swaps!

I have been having lots of fun lately with images I received in some swaps I hosted on Splitcoaststampers.com a while back. It is great getting lots of cute images that you don't have so you can play and decide what you just need to add to your collection. I am hosting a new swap if you all are interested check it out here and come join the fun!!! http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/products-images-f112/new-open-copic-image-swap-10-2-due-sept-10th-t532043.html




Today's card uses this super cute image called Miss Anya - Rain which comes in a set of three adorable images, Rain, Snow and Shine. Just adorable. They are on my list of must haves, along with a lot of other little cuties I will be playing with later this week.



Now on to the lowdown of which copics I used on this little cutie. I think it may be easier to make a list so here it is:

Skin: E50, E51 and E53 and R20 for her cheeks
Hair: YR24, E55, E57 and E59
Jacket and Socks: YG21, YG23 and YG25
Umbrella: RV63 and RV66
Skirt: BG70, BG72 and BG75
Buttons: R85



I choose these colors to work with because they go so well with my new packet of My Minds Eye Lime Twist paper which I love, love, love. It has all of my favorite colors in it, just gorgeous!!! Check it out for yourselves, you won't be disappointed. I just wish I had a little girl so I could use it in my scrapbooking as well. Guess I will have to borrow my niece and take some pics of her so I can use it, lol! This card uses an older sketch of my, Get Inspired Sketch #26. This sketch is one of my favorites and it looks great with this image.

To finish off the card I added some Smooch to the umbrella and her barrette. Some polka dotted ribbon and Out of the Blue twine from the Lime Twist line look great with these papers and layout along with a bunch of rhinestones.

Hope you all enjoy and come back and visit real soon.

Happy Stamping and Scrapping,

Ronda

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Hope every one had a wonderful and safe 4th with friends and family. We had a great block party, getting to know our neighbors which was great! The kids got to set off some fireworks and had a ball doing it. Good food and great conversation! Today I decided to be a little crafty and really wanted to do something patriotic to commemorate the day. I don't have any military stamps or ones with eagles so I had to improvise. I was looking through the images I had left from my last swap and came across the cutest most perfect little girl stamp for what I wanted to do. Talk about luck!!! Because I got this stamp from a swap I am not positive of its name but I think it is called Boat Tilda. Isn't she just adorable.

I first colored here jeans using B91-97 getting the shading just right. I then used some of the colorless blender on an old patch of jeans and laid it over where I colored for just a minute. Look at how great the design showed up on her jeans. Love this technique! Her scarf was colored with R24-29. Also the stripes on her shirt. To add some shadow to her white top I used C-1 to add some shadowing in on the shirt. Her hair was colored with Y21, Y26 and YR24. Her skin was done with E50, E51 and E53 with R20 for her cheeks. Her shows were colored with C1, C2, C4, and C6.

I used Basic Gray cardstock and my nest-abilities to cut out the porthole and then pierced with and added brads to complete the look. The white piece that was added behind the porthole was airbrushed with B41. I remembered that I had a cute little flag in an old boyscout stamp set so I pulled that out and used it so she could be holding the flag. I just love the Bo Bunny paper I used on the card, super cute!!! Finished off the card by adding a sentiment and some ribbon and we are good to go!!!

Well hope you are inspired by what I have shared today. Any questions, let me know. Hope you all had a wonderful and safe 4th of July!!! Happy Birthday America, 235 years young!!!!

Happy Stampin and Scrappin,

Ronda