Elisbeth Bell Design Team Call

Elisabeth Bell is having a design team call for her digital stamps!  Ever since I saw a card using this Willow stamp sold by Whiff of Joy, I completely fell in love with her designs.  Her images are the perfect combination of whimsy and charm.  So, when a coworker requested a birthday card using none other than THE hot chocolate Willow AND the design team call came out, I got down to work to create this card.

I colored Willow using copics and added "glazing" to her cup with my clear glaze pen.  The flowers on her pants are also glazed over.  Gracie wanted her to be a dark brunette, so I used a super dark grey copic in the darkest areas of the hair to get some good shading in.  Some bling in the form of pearls and crystal swirls and a velvet flower complete the look for this card.

Be sure to stop by Elizabeth Bell's blog to see the new digital images she recently released.  Thanks for stopping by!

Whiff of Joy

Happy Saturday!  Aldo and I are neck deep in remodeling projects for our living room.  What started out as a goal to install new flooring has turned into a painting, lighting, flooring, and redecorating project.  But, boy, are we having fun doing it ourselves!!  Call me crazy, but we're really enjoying the entire process. 

Well, onto the Whiff of Joy.  Katharina is holding another design team call and this time she provided a sketch for as a guide.  Here's my entry:

Willow was colored with Copics during our vacation last December.  I used an oversized Heidi Swapp flower as the circle portion of the card.  The papers are Basic Grey and the grey cardstock has a very pretty shimmer to it.  I like using shimmery cardstock for matting, it gives the card just the right touch of sparkle.  The ribbon is from MFT's chocolate kiss ribbon nest and the glittered drops are also MFT.

Off to help with the remodeling.  Have a great weekend!

Double Dutch Challenge and Whiff of Joy

Double Dutch has a fabulous sketch for this week’s challenge. Since I had some time last night, I decided to make another card for Whiff of Joy’s design team challenge and combine it with Double Dutch’s sketch. Here’s the resulting card. I’m very pleased with the way this card came out! I used my brand spankin’ new Prismacolor pencils and gamsol to color in Willow. Since the sketch has a lot going on and I was planning on using several bling elements, I decided to keep the coloring soft. Her mug is coated with Diamond Glaze for a shiny finish. I also decided to add a rhinestone flourish to one of the corners and a clear button threaded with pink and brown floss for a finishing touch. All the panels are edged with Rich Cocoa ink and the smaller brown panel is distressed and edged with Angel Pink chalk ink. The shaker card was made using my classic circle nestabilities, acetate, pop dots and chunky glitter. Gina K has a great tutorial on making shaker cards here and here. If you’re interested in participating in Whiff of Joy’s design team call, please visit Katharina’s page for more details. You can also see the other two cards I’ve submitted here and here.

Supplies:

Paper: Bazill - chocolate brown; Basic Grey; pink cardstock

Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Rich Cocoa; Versamagic - Angel Pink

Embellishments: pink rhinestone flourish; brown/pink embroidery floss; clear button; white chunky glitter

Misc: acetate; Diamond Glaze; classic circle nestabilities; Cuttlebug

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Whiff of Joy

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. Although I did do some papercrafting related stuff this weekend, I didn’t actually create much. I did, however, take one of the Whiff of Joy colored images and make it into a card for their design team challenge. If you’re interested in joining, please read Katharina’s post HERE.

I sized this card to 5 ½ x 5 ½ to keep the image proportional to the card. The yellows on this picture are a bit off. In real life, they’re much softer and muted. The light yellow background panel was stamped with the flourish in the Baroque Motifs set from SU in Memento Paris Dusk. The main image panel was softly sponged with a soft yellow ink to give it a glow, at least that’s what it looks like in real life! The sentiment is from the Michael’s dollar bin; it’s stamped in green ink then edged and sponged in blue and yellow inks. With such a beautiful image, I decided to keep the card clean and simple.

Supplies:
Paper: white, yellow cardstock; K&Co paper
Inks: Memento: paris dusk, tuxedo black, willow green; yellow ink
Stamps: Willow with Baby – Whiff of Joy; Baroque Motifs – Stampin Up; Once Upon A Time – Michael’s dollar bin
Misc: green sheer ribbon; pop dots

Thanks for stopping by!

Prickley Pear Submissions - Long Post

I finally had time to edit and upload my pictures for the Prickley Pear Design Team call. The deadline is tomorrow evening and I just hit SEND on my email to them! Since this and the Whiff of Joy design team are my first submissions ever, I'm not sure that I'll be picked. However, I think the experience is worth it. With so many experienced and talented papercrafters out there, the competition is bound to be tough! The rules asked for three samples and here's what I came up with.

The first one is a birthday card I made for my sister. I haven't sent it to her yet, but I will! Sorry Jess. I used The Poppies stamp set from MFT and combined it with a PPRS sentiment to complete the look. I finished out the inside and used Veramark to make a tone on tone pattern on the black paper using the larger nautical star from PPRS. The cute little 3-D star on the outside was made by cutting a silver star out with the cricut and making straight line scores from each tip all the way down. Once your star is completely scored, the star is folded in an alternating pattern: tips are folded up, sides are folded down. I used a pop dot to attach it to the card.

Stamps: MFT - The Poppies; PPRS - Rock & Roll sentiment, nautical stars
Paper: black, white, silver cardstock; DCWV - All Dressed Up
Ink: Memento - tuxedo black, angel pink; Versamark
Other: pop dots, copics, silver and rose glitter markers

The second item I made is a layout showcasing Aldo playing his new guitar. He's very proud of this new guitar. I really enjoyed making this page. I started out with one concept, but my project moved in a different direction and I just ran with it. I made a charm using polyshrink and the same stamp as the background. It was my first time using the polyshrink in the oven and it worked great; it just takes a few seconds and it’s done. I plan on displaying this at work.

Stamps: PPRS – Flourished Guitar
Paper: cream, copper, navy blue cardstock
Ink: Memento – rich cocoa, paris dusk; Brilliance – coffee bean
Other: chocolate suede leather lace, jewelry wire, K & Co rub on, polyshrink, chipboard embellishment, UTEE, Mod Podge

The last item I made came together very quickly once I knew what I wanted the project to be. Aldo suggested I alter a cigar box I had a home, but I found this box at Michaels and it was already white and ready for altering so I went ahead and picked it up. I painted it with thinned green acrylic paint using a wet sponge for a see through effect and lightly sanded it once it was dry. Using black ink, I stamped the imaged around the four sides of the box and the inside of the lid. I sanded the box again to take away some of the ink. I tore a piece of 8x8 designer paper at an angle and attached it to the lid of the box using Mod Podge. The finishing touch was the Happiness embellishment that sits across the front of the box.

Stamps: PPRS – Funky Floral
Paper: DCWV – Once Upon A Time
Ink: Memento – Tuxedo Black
Other: white keepsake box, acrylic paint, Mod Podge, sanding block, Me and My Big Ideas – Happiness embellishment

Creating the projects for this design team call has been a fun learning experience. I had the opportunity to try new techniques, use new stamps, and create items that are outside of my comfort zone with pleasing results. And, as a bonus, I now have a handy gift ready for future use! Thank you for reading my long post. :)

Whiff of Joy Designer Call

Whiff of Joy is holding a Guest Designer Call!! I just received two stamps that I purchased from them and they are amazing!! I purchased them from Stamper's Dream and received them within 2 days!! I just had to pull them out and start playing with them right away. The images stamp so crisp and clean and they are so much fun to color. The first stamp I played with is Willow with Hot Chocolate. I stamped two images side by side and colored one in with Copics and the other one with color pencils and odorless mineral spirits. It was such joy to use these stamps that I've decided to submit some samples for their Designer call. Keep watching this post for more samples as they become available. If you're interested in submitting as well, click on THIS link to go to Katharina's blog for instructions.
This is the first sample I'm submitting for the designer call. It's a matchbook style coffee packet holder. It was so easy to make that I'm thinking this will make great little gifties for RAK's and those random occasions that pop up. Here's some details on the card front before I start talking about the inside: I stamped the image on white cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored the image in with Copic markers. The panel was edged in orange ink and attached to my favorite My Mind's Eye paper. The small flowers are from My Favorite Things, they come in white and I painted them with brown and orange ink and layered them using a mini brad in copper. The wrapper was made using chocolate colored Bazzill cardstock from the Preppy paper pad.

I purchased a box of these individual coffee packs from Wal-Mart for about $1. In order to attach them, I first stapled them onto a small strip of cardstock. I then glued the cardstock along the bottom score mark, folded the score mark up and stapled the packet once along the bottom. Since the packets are so long, I used a little bit of double sided tape to hold them against the cardstock so they don't flop around so much. I'm thinking that with assembly line style production, these cute little gifts can be done in no time at all!!

I plan on adding a few more entries before the deadline, so please check back often for more Whiff of Joy creations. Thanks!

ETA: Please check out this and this post for another Whiff of Joy entry. Thanks!