The Eiffel Tower with RAM Stamps

In the fall of 2024 my husband and I took a wonderful trip to celebrate our 30th Anniversary to Europe, and one of our stops was Paris.  One of our first nights there we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up, so we took the subway to the area, and walked in the pouring rain to the site.  It was truly magical when the lights came on!  So, when I saw this adorable image from Rachelle Anne Miller called Paris, and it depicted the tower when it was raining, I knew I had to create with it!  

I coloured up the image with Copics, adding in some extra iron work into the tower with a multiliner, and coloured it up as if the lights had just come on.  To keep with the travel theme, I added in some coordinating postal stamps I had in my stash, and stamped the background with a map stamp.  It gives that perfect world traveller style I was going for.  I also coloured in the rain drops with a white Sharpie to define them.  

Here is a picture of us in Paris that night in the rain with the glow of the lights.  Isn’t it magical!?  It was such a delight!  We also went to see it in the day, in the sunshine, and took the elevator to the top (combining that with the stairs part of the way down).  It is so much more magestic and enormous than I ever imagined.  

Isn’t she the cutest? I brought back some wonderful memories too!  

 

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The Eiffel Tower with RAM Stamps

Peachy Poinsettias with Pinkfresh

 Hello!  Today I’m bringing you some fresh poinsettias from Pinkfresh Studios with a suite of products including the Poinsettia Frame stamp , coordinating stencils and dies.  They are the perfect framing element for the Christmas season.  Fair warning - I have a lot of poinsettias ahead this month from different companies to show you.  For some reason, I seem to have them on the brain.  They are the perfect quintisential Christmas flower.  

For this design, I stamped the image in a very light Toffee Crunch Memento Ink, then stenciled and ink blended the colours, finishing up the detailing in the flowers with coloured pencils, die cutting the fram out.  

As a perfect foil for the peach poinsettias, I layered the frame on a Seaglass card base with Pinkfresh’s Twist Pattern die, also using the negative image from the die as the place for the sentiment (a long ago stamp from Stampin’ Up!)

A little glitz and glam is added some iridescent holeless sequins, and another Christmas card is in the books!  Appreciate your visit!  

 

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Peachy Poinsettias with Pinkfresh

Retirement Florals with Pink Fresh Studios

Hello!  Today I’m bringing a second Retirement card for a friend’s workplace.  This one is all about fresh colour and beautiful colour!  I'm using Pink Fresh Studio’s Artsy Florals Stamp set and the coordainting dies.  They have a fun loosly drawn style which was fun to colour with Copics because you have the freedom to decide the depth of colour in the petals.  I’m also playing along with the May 2024 Monthly Challenge at Pink Fresh,  which is about Flower Power!  

Once I had coloured the flowers and die cut them, I created a pretty rainbow style ink blended background to coordinate with the colours of the flowers, and then ran this panel through the Ornate Medallions Coverplate die, perfect for a touch of delicate texture.  I also added a framing layer using Pink Fresh Studio’s Essentials:  Mini Slimline Dies.  

To help accent the design I embossed a few of the flowers from the set onto vellum and tucked them into the design, perfect for allowing the background colour to still shine through.  I few sequins add that touch of sparkle.  The sentiment is embossed and from a retired Stampin’ Up! set.  It feels so cheerful!  Which is what I hope retirement is like :)  

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Retirement Florals with Pink Fresh Studios

Baby Week - Bunny Hatching with SU!

 

In what feels like a lifetime ago, I was a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator, doing this for many years.  And along the way I collected a few sets that I just can’t part with.  This cutie is one of them - Everybunny, long since retired, but still with the most adorable images that work for both Easter and babies. 

I used the cute little bunny hatched out of his egg and did a little Copic colouring on him.  Then I used some pretty dies from PinkFresh Studios called Essentials:  Mini Slimline Bundle to showcase him. 

The pretty plaid in the background is layered dies from Concord and 9th, both the Thick Plaid and the coordinating Thin Pad dies.  They combine so nicely together.  A faux grossgrain die is from a retired TCP die.  

A little baker’s twine bow, sentiment from another retired SU! sentiment set, and an enamel heart keep it simple and oh so sweet!  Baby cards are just the best to make.    Thanks for joining me today!  

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Baby Week - Bunny Hatching with SU!

Baby Week with Waffle Flower

 

Hello!  I recently had a card sale and realized that I was lacking in the baby card department, so I went to work on a few cards for baby boys and girls.  Today I’m kicking off my baby week with this pretty design from Waffle Flower.  I used the basic postal stencils and A2 postal dies and then added some feminine flowers with the Wild Flowers Stencil.   It’s a fun feminine combination!  

To make the pattern work in the postage stamp areas, all you need to do is layer the basic postage stencil over your die cut cardstock first, and then add the floral layers of the stencil overtop, so the petals and leaves stay in the stamp areas.  These perfectly peach and pink colours are a nice combination.  

Then to finish it off I stamped some cute typeset style sentiments from some old Stampin’ Up! Stamps and die cut the sentiments.  A bit postage stamp marks are stamped, and a few enamel hearts finish it off.  

Hope to see you back as the week goes on for more baby themed cards!

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Baby Week with Waffle Flower

Blossoms for Mother’s Day with Waffle Flower

 

Hello!  I just had a card sale for local friends and realized I didn’t have a lot of Mother's Day or Father’s Day cards, so I decided to add a few to the stash and started with these beautiful die cute blooms from Waffle Flower called  Painted Flowers Layering Die.  These have a really expressive beauty to them with lots of texture and layers.  I added some ink blending details on each petal, and then after I had glued/or put foam dots between the layers, I also added in some details with coloured pencil.  

I layered them on cardstock that I had ink blended with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink, splattered with water, with a little die cut circle as the “wreath” anchor.  I cut an extra blossom with the dies and chose to make a coordinating tag to go with the card.  It’s always nice when you can add something extra like that for gift packaging. 

It has a really fresh look with the pretty colour combination.  The sentiments are actually really old wood ones I had in my stash from Stampin’ Up!  I thought their simple fonts were a lovely touch for the designs.    Thanks for joining me today!  

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Blossoms for Mother’s Day with Waffle Flower

Baby Week: Baby Onesies

Having just done laundry, I remembered the scent of our baby’s clothes as they came out of the wash.  Such tiny little pieces of endless laundry that was so cute!  This adorable onesie is from an old Flourishes set that Marcy retired, (the same set that has the cute booties from the other day).  I’ve had it coloured up in my stash forever!  It’s coloured with Prismacolor Pencils in soft greens the turquoises, trimmed out an popped up on this cute little tag.  

The tag behind the main tag is stamped with cute little hearts from another polymer set I have, and laid on a lovely plaid background using dies from Concord & 9th, the Thick Front Plaid and the Thin Front Plaid.  Cutting it out of three different colours allows you to fill in your desired parts of the pattern with different colours.  

A few sentiments from retired SU! sets complement the design and a little button and twine finish it off!  I love sweet details like this for a baby card.  Hope you’ve enjoyed the sweet cards this week!  

 

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Baby Week: Baby Onesies

Masculine and Pencil Work

 

Getting down to those dog days of summer in the Northern Hemisphere!  We were driving this weekend through Alberta and the fields are looking ready for harvest, and some farmers are already at work.  All of our kids start school this fall, (teaching or University) and I’m longing for some temperatures that are just a bit cooler.  I picked up a new Stampin’ Up! set over Sale A Bration called Stylish Sketches.  It has a nice loosely drawn feel that is perfect for a more masculine style, and since I’m starting to lean a little more to Autumn, I pulled out my Prismacolor Pencils and some Kraft cardstock and coloured up a couple of cards using this set.  

These two ducks are a lovely pair and white pencil pops so well on Kraft cardstock.  I first laid down a layer of white pencil and then added in the greys, browns and almost iridescent blue/greens that comprise the ducks.  

The layout uses some patterned paper I had in my stash and a woodcut die from The Greetery.  

The sentiment is from a retired SU set, little friends.  I love that typewriter font.  

For this design I went decidely more fall with warm shades for the fox from the set.  I just saw a fox traipsing across our pathway when we were on the motorcycle last weekend in a National Park.  He tucked right into the woods, so I mostly saw his body and tail escaping.  Red Fox have such a nice combination of rust, grey and white that I tried to convey in the colouring, again laying down white pencil first and then adding colour over top.  The mustard cardstock has a basketweave stencil to pull in a bit more rich colour.  

The patterned paper is from Craft Consortium and I’ve added die cut leaves with some distress ink sponging to really capture that autumn feel.  

He does look ready for adventure doesn’t he?  

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Masculine and Pencil Work

SU Little Friends - Layered and CAS

Bringing some sweetness today with some cute Stampin’ Up! images called Little Friends. I’m pretty sure these are retired, but the storybook like images are darling, and part of my coloured images in my Colouring Catch-up Challenge.

What do you lean more toward? Layered up or Clean and Simple? Though I appreciate both styles, I am probably more of a medium layered person. I like patterned paper, and lots of colour. Today I have two designs, this first one layered and the next clean and simple.

I’ve gussied up these sweet girls with lots of colouring (Copics), stamped and patterned layers, with the use of some fun dies for the layers.

 I love how the patterns and colours accent the image.  Just a touch of baker’s twine and felt flower as accent. 

Next up, the Clean and Simple version.  

This adorable little one is working hard to keep that puppy out of her present!  The image is coloured with Copics and trimmed out.  I sponged Distress Oxide Broken China ink on the card base and then added some framing with a scalloped frame, a die-cut grass die (TCP), and the type-set happy birthday in a pop of red to coordinate with the border of her sleeves and hem.   

Something so sweet about the simplicity of the design.  Layered or CAS, totally precious images to work with.  Thanks for joining me today!  

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SU Little Friends - Layered and CAS

Welcome, Little Chick!

A good friend of mine had a brand new baby girl last week.  She is just so precious and tiny and velvety!  My friend's firsborn was a boy, so now she has someone to be girly with too.  One of the gifts I often get for friend’s babies is to get them Robeez shoes (they are my favourite).  I found an adorable pair that is girly pink with gold hearts and gold bows on the backs.  I paired the shoes with a cute little flowery hair bow, so now she’s set for showing off her girlyness.  We’re so grateful for her little life.  

To go along with the little gift I made a pretty in pink spring card using a cute set from SU called Everybunny.  That little spring chick is so cute!  I pulled out the prismacolor pencils for a change and gave her some soft colour, and tried to make her extra fluffy.  

For the sentiment I used a set from PaperTrey Ink called Simple Sentiments.  For fun I added some pink pom pom ribbon, some fun washi tape, and a heart veneer that I pressed into white craft ink.  Cute cute cute!  

And here she is!  What a blessing!

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Welcome, Little Chick!

Simple Cards with Kids

This Spring, our daughter had her first student-teacher placement in a first grade classroom, she had an amazing experience.  Her mentor-teacher found out that I am a card maker and as a result they asked me to be Artist in Residence for the classroom three times over a month.  I was so delighted not only show first graders how to make cards, but also to see my daughter in action with her classroom.  It was such a fun month!  It cracked me up to see them try and figure out who was Mrs. Okken and who was Miss Okken, and at first they couldn’t wrap their heads around their student-teacher actually having a mom just like them!

I thought I’d show you three of the cards I did with the kids.  All of them are very simple because I was teaching 5 and 6 year olds how to stamp, and we had a limited time period to work with each day.  The feeling of awe children get when they create is sheer wonder to watch.  It’s like the first time you or I stamped all over again, just in a little person with such great enthusiasm. I love seeing kids succeed and they’re so easy to love.  

First up is a Spring card they created.  Inspiration for this one came from Nichole Heady’s card HERE (scroll to the bottom it’s a long post). I used Stampin’ Up  and Power Poppy stamps I had on hand to give it the same style.  It included some geometry with the card as everything is stamped in a triangle behind the sentiment circle.  

This next design was an idea I found on Pinterest.  It was used as a cute Spring Art frame with fabric, but I  revamped it to be a card with designer paper strips.  The kids could choose what paper, colours and patterns they used, and the silhouette cut out of the bunny is done with TCP’s Easter Bunny CutUps die.  The sentiment is a cute one from an older Stampin’ Up set as well.  

The last card was what the kids used for their moms on Mother’s Day.  I found a couple of similar ideas on Pinterest and adapted them into a design to work for kids.  The jar is from PTI’s set Friendship Jar.  The hearts inside the jar are stamped from various sets I had on hand that had hearts in them, then all the hearts bursting out the top are cut from patterned paper.  The sentiment is from The Cat’s Pajamas.  

Thanks for popping by today!  Be back tomorrow with something fun from The Cat’s Pajamas!

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Simple Cards with Kids