Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Superheroes!


I have a fun set of cards to show to you today.  Last week it was Administrative Assistants Appreciation.  At our Church Office we honour all of our support staff whether it’s staff in the office, ministry assistants or custodial and facility staff.  As is often the case I usually am the one to head up the event, so this year I chose a Superhero Theme.  

In the office that morning the staff found a fun superhero themed candy bar and banner (which I’m totally bummed that I forgot to take a picture of), then later at lunch we gave each of them these cards and some fun superhero certificates with made-up superhero awards.   Everyone loved it, and best of all I think they felt appreciated.  



I really love MFT’s set You’re Super I can’t wait to order the little boy superhero too, I just couldn’t do it in time for this project.   For all the women on staff I stamped a superhero for each and coloured them up to match each person’s hair colour.  So above you can see the whole ensemble together.  I cut out the sunburst background on my Silhouette machine, and then popped each girl up on the design and then added a banner with her name stamped on it.  I love making things really personalized.  



I thought I’d take a few shots of the different hair colours on the girls to show you.  


Now the men got something a little different. I couldn’t very well go with a girl superhero on their cards, so I just used that superhero shield and comic book theme.  



I cut out some fun comic book superhero “bursts” with my Silhouette and then used elements from the set to stamp all over the background on these as well.  

It was such a fun theme and they loved it.  

I thought I’d add pictures of the different Copics I used.   


All the main Copics I used for the skin and costume.  


For the brunettes hair above.  



For the blondies hair above.  Sorry, this photo is a little blurry :(


and finally another blurry photo for the redheads.  


Hope you enjoyed my little themed party :)  


Aye, Aye Captain Tutorial!



Hello Friends!  Today I’m a Guest Tutorial author over at splitcoaststampers.com with this fun Triple Step PopUp Card.  I have a written tutorial, and also my FIRST video tutorial so I hope you can check it all out HERE.  


Here’s the fun design I’ll be showing you how to do....


The front is all business - clean and simple and then the surprise comes when you open the card!



Here’s the fun inside!  The layers pop up as you open the card.   I also found a fun way to create waves that you might not expect for the front layer.  




Monday, April 27, 2015

You Make My Flowers Bloom



Hello TCP Fans!  Today we’re ushering in another fun challenge that will last the next two weeks.  It’s an Inspiration Challenge with these fun photos above to get your creative juices flowing.  I love the colours!  

I thought it would be fun to do a Triple Step Pop-Up Card for today’s challenge.  


On the outside of the card it has a nice CAS feel, with the sentiment from TCP’s set Bloom.  I paired the sentiment with the pretty Lacey Posies and Five Petal Posies CutUps Dies, and some pretty paper from MME - On Trend.  



Then all the excitement is on the inside of the card!  I’ve created a very flowerful Triple Step PopUp Design with the Basic PopUp CutUps Die, and then accented with the bunny from the Bloom set and some sweet Banners from the Bitty Banners CutUps.  Sorry - I think the twine tucked behind the banners looks like it made the paper all wonky on the top....it really doesn’t look like that in person :)  


Here’s my favourite bunny close up, he’s just so cute!  



For the curve along the bottom of the design I used the Holiday Toppers CutUps die, and cut the grass along the front step with the Grass CutUps die.  




Here’s the Copics I used for the colouring.  


Check out the Creativity of the rest of the Kitty Cats in the pack today and then please join us on this pretty Inspiration Challenge!  By playing along, you could win Cat’s Cash to spend in the TCP Store, or even win Swanky Stamper of the Month where you can play along with all the goodies in a future release!  



Photo Editing Tutorial


Hello and Happy Monday friends!  Today I have my monthly tutorial over at the Power Poppy Blog and this time it’s Part 2 of my Photography Series, focussing on Photo Editing.  Hope you can check it out because I’ll be showing off how I edited this spring garden themed card.  


Here’s the Copics I used - as I didn’t add it over there.  Enjoy your day!  



Friday, April 24, 2015

Lacy Lady

Hello Friends, I’m here with a new challenge at A Day for Daisies, and it’s Add Lace!


Adding lace is perfect for these new images from ADFD,  the one that I used today is called Vintage School Girl Two, I think she’s so Downton Abbey feeling, and it was fun to give her that vintage look with the colouring and overall card design.  

I used a Mojo Monday sketch from a few weeks ago, pairing it with these papers from Carta Bella - Yesterday, and adding several types of lace into the design.  



For accent I added this large vintage brad and the twine bow.  

I think it’s so elegant and lovely!  The sentiment is from Power Poppy’s Dynamic Duos:  Peonies and Tulips.  

Hope you can join us in the Add Lace Challenge!  For more details see the ADFD Blog.  

Friday, April 17, 2015

How May I Direct Your Call?

If you’re looking for my Power Poppy post - just scroll down....

A Day for Daisies is showing off some great images this week....take a look at this one called How May I Direct Your Call? is just so cute :)  I love the vintage look to the operator and desk full of telephone wires.  


Isn’t that dress she’s wearing great?  It was fun to colour too.  I thought some pretty blues would go great with the wood of the desk.  I also mimicked the polka dots on her collar and sleeves in the background layer and then added the woodgrain in the desk with my Copics and onto the brown horizontal piece with a embossing folder.  I thought the little bit of twine would go with the wires for the telephone lines too.  






Here’s the Copics I used.  


Check out the rest of the ADFD team and their fun designs today too!


Christine (you are here)


Flowering Branches



Oh MY...what a delicious new Instant Garden set we have to show off to you today!  

It’s brand new from Power Poppy and it’s called Flowering Branches.  It is a beauty!  One of my favourite things in the spring is to see my trees start to get blossoms.  We have a cheery tree and an apple tree and I also grew up with a crabapple tree at home.  Gorgeous!  Its brings such lightness to the outdoors.  When the blossoms come it’s almost a fluffy-ness that fills the area and those delicate blossoms are so inspiring.  I’m so glad Marcy illustrated this one, with some really meaningful sentiments for Mother’s Day.  



I was very inspired by the photo Marcy took in the Missouri Botanical Gardens and I really wanted to capture the feeling of this photo (below). I just LOVE the depth to the flowers and the soft bokeh in the background really makes the design :)  

So I actually printed out two of the flowering branches and coloured up both of them.  One one of the images I added pointillism in the background as well as some embossing paste in a Tim Holtz Stencil to mimic the bokeh in the photo.  




What I did with the second branch was fussy cut it out and then add it into the design to really give a fuller feel to the branches, and I also popped some up on the design as you can see above.  

I used an A2 Border die to cut out the left pinked edges and then simply added vellum and some silver cording to finish it off.  Because the design is so fussy, I didn’t want to add too much extra.  





Here is the inside of the design with the wonderful sentiment, as well as a little bit of the cut branch I added to it.  



Here’s the Copics I used.  

And here’s the gang showing off more of this beauty today.  







Monday, April 13, 2015

Brave When I Have to Be



Hello friends!  I’m here today with a brand new TCP Tuesday Challenge over at The Cat’s Pajamas.  It’s a fun colour combination perfect for spring.  



I played with the very adorable new set Hear Me Roar from our new TCP artist Tamara Hess.  He’s just so cute.  I wanted to give him some dimension so I stamped his face twice and popped up his nose area, and then gave him a bit of a surprised look with the colouring, which works perfectly with the sentiment.  

In the background of the window I used the Wavy Stitched Border CutUps Die to create rolling hills.  


Just a strip of patterned paper, ScorBug scoring to accent the white layer, some twine and sequins finish it off.  Just so cute!  



Here’s the Copics I used above and here’s the Cat Pack playing along today....





We hope you can play along!  You can win Cat’s Cash, and have the possibility of being the Swanky Stamper of the month - playing along in a future TCP Release! 


Sunday, April 12, 2015

Dreamy Galaxy

 Hello and Happy Monday to you!

Have you seen the gorgeous galaxy cards out and about lately?  I thought I’d try my hand at one after I had seen this AMAZING one by Heather Telford.  That girl knows her way with watercolour, and it’s such a beautiful design.  She has such an elegance about her work.

I don’t have the same type of shimmery watercolors as she used,  so I thought I’d try something similar with what I have on hand.


I started with a panel of watercolor paper and then pulled out 3 re-inkers, Memento Summer Sky, Elderberry and SU Night of Navy.  I thought I’d try with the really deep pigments of re-inkers to get the depth to the colouring that I needed.  You really want colours that will blend well together.  

Next, I used a very wet water brush, and the lightest Summer Sky blue and washed in colour around the design in various spots.  Then, I added in the Navy and eventually the Purple letting the colour bleed, pool and generally have it’s own way.  For this technique you want to have both light areas and then deep dark areas of colour.  It give it that overall depth of a galaxy.  

I heat dried the initial colouring with my heat tool, and then went back to and add more pigment into some of the areas I wanted deep colour;  layer by layer until I got the effect I liked.  

Then, because I don’t have metallic watercolor paints (which would be SO cool), I thought I’d try to add in the gold with a VersaPen and gold embossing powder.  I used a pretty light hand so it wouldn’t get too thick.  After it was all done I spritzed some Glimmer Mist over top so it would have the feel of stars twinkling.  




The adorable little penguin is from the new TCP set - Space Cadet, I just LOVE these stamps!   Isn't  he cute looking out into the galaxy?  


For the sentiment I cut out three “dream” phrases on my Silhouette Machine, glued them together and then pressed them into a VersaMark inkpad and embossed with the gold EP again.  It turned out great.  The only embellishing I did was the gold sparkly ribbon on the top.  

Dreamy right?  

Don’t forget, today is your last day to enter the Anything Goes Challenge at TCP.  Tomorrow we start a new challenge....stay tuned!  


NOW...for the winner of the CardMaker Magazine and card.....drumroll please....


Who is .....

905lovestostamp  - Joanne Lowe

Joanne - drop me an email (see my contact info at the top right) and I’ll get this out to you!  


Friday, April 10, 2015

Birthday Bunny

 I’m back today with a brand new challenge at A Day for Daisies!   It’s one that anyone can play with, because it’s Anything Goes!

Today I’m play with the adorable Bunnies in Blossom - Bunny in a Rose.



There’s just something about this image that’s so sweet and delicate, so I kept the tones soft on the colouring, and I love the look of peach roses.  Then, because of the delicate feel to the bunny in the rose I decided to add some embossing paste through the Tim Holtz Gothic stencil on this peach paper.   Boy it looks pretty in person.  That texture comes out beautifully.    Behind the bunny is a vellum layer cut through a die and then a touch of lace along the edge and some green seambinding along the bottom to sort of fill in with the sense of greenery in the rose. 




Because bunnies don’t just have to be for Easter, the embossed birthday sentiment is from Power Poppy’s Dynamic Duos - Tulips and Peonies.  To finish it off I added a few white pearls.  



Here’s the Copics I used for colouring.  


And now....the ADFD Team in action!



Christine (you are here)


Pretty Pink Lilacs


Have you played along yet in our Power Poppy Power & Spark Challenge yet this month?  It’s a fun one with the theme “Pop of Pastel”.  If you play along you’re in the running for a Power Poppy stamp set!  

If you know me, and have followed my blog for a while, you know that I’m more of a vibrant colour girl....but I really admire people who can do pastels well.  So, I thought I’d give it another go with this soft Lilac Time design.  



Oy, I love this litlte scene that Marcy created.  I love that pitcher and the lemons and the book and, ok well I pretty much love it all.  It’s easy to colour and it’s such an inviting little vignette.  After colouring with Copics, I kept the card pretty simple and created a window design with a Spellbinders die in the light pink cardstock.  

The accents are a pretty strip of vellum for the silver embossed sentiment and then some buttons and twine to finish it off.  


Can you see the little dry-embossed lines I added as a simple detail?  It frames it up a little bit and almost gives you the feel of another layer.  I added a hue of the soft pink into the book too and I love how it turned out, sort of ties it all together with the other pinks.  




Here’s the girls bringing you beautiful inspiration today....




Christine Okken (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker