Enjoy Cupcake

Another quick card share today, as I'm absolutely swamped with things this week - though I'm hoping it will slow down a little next week. Today's card is a cute birthday card that's gender-neutral and could fit any age.

The adorable hamster stamp is from Stamping Bella - Birthday Hamster by Mo Manning. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted's Say It In Style.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Lulu Thanks

The year has gotten a bit of a rocky start for me here on the blog, hasn't it? I've been meaning to make a blog post since January 1st, but things just kept getting in the way. Between feeling under the weather and lots of work, I've had very little free time. And what free time I've had has been spent organizing.

Yes, I got bit by the organizing bug again... Initially, I had just planned to make things a little easier on myself by pulling out some supplies and goodies to use up over the next few months. But that quickly spiraled into a need to catalog and organize virtually everything. On the bright side, it's made me rediscover a veritable trove of treasures to use with cards and paper crafts. On the not-so-bright side, it's made me realize I need clones or another 6 hours in a day where I can play with papers and ink.

Although I was incredibly tempted to pull everything out of my stash and organize it again (hey, I'm not buying things, so this is the perfect time to do so, right?), I decided to pull myself away and to jump into some card-making. After a rocky start, I'd managed to create a couple of "love" cards I was very happy with. I'll be sharing them very soon as part of my Valentine's series.

Today's card is a winter-themed thank you card featuring a Lulu stamp from Stamping Bella. I happen to have a rubber stamp (which I believe is discontinued now), but you can find a digital stamp right here.

I used bright and feminine colors to color the stamp, keeping the shading simple and minimal. After the coloring was done, I die-cut the image with a stitched circle die. I also die-cut a slightly larger circle out of some grayish brown paper and matted the two together with foam squares.

I grabbed a standard top-folding A2 card base (4¼x5½") and adhered a strip of patterned paper at the bottom. I grabbed a piece of white cardstock and trimmed it to 4¼x5½, then die-cut a decorative scalloped white edge. I adhered it to the top of the card base and added the matted image on top.

To finish off my card, I added 3 enamel dots echoing some of the colors in the card. I used some alphabet stickers to spell out my sentiment, and the card was done!

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Weekly Round-Up (OHC) 2

It is Saturday, and it's time for another weekly round-up of the cards I created for my OHC challenge!

As you may have noticed, I did not post too many cards this week. In part, it was because the majority of my cards were OHC and I wanted to save them for my round-up. The rest was split between having some guest designer projects (really awesome things coming from Some Odd Girl!) and work keeping me very busy. I've managed to (barely) find enough time for my daily creative hour, but not enough to take photos and make fun posts about it.

The next couple of weeks are likely to be the same, but as the OHC to-make list starts to dwindle, I anticipate a lot more cards being shared.

Now, onto the cards~

OHC 17 - Dream

 The Greeting Farm- Cuddly Thanks, Clearly Besotted- Say It In Style, Copics

OHC 85 - Mint

Mama Elephant- Ella and Friends, Mama Elephant- Photobomb (sentiment), My Mind's Eye On Trend 6x6 paper, Copics

Note: The patterned paper is mint, even though it doesn't fully look like it in the picture.

OHC 34 - Summer

Stamping Bella- IDA Lulu (retired), Prismacolor pencils, Papertrey Ink Wet Paint Cuts Die (hello)

OHC 96 - Thanks

Simon Says Stamp- Sailing (July 2015 Card Kit), My Favorite Things Blueprints 1 die, Copics

OHC 14 - Alone

WPlus9- Happy Mail, Copics

OHC 21 - Velocity

Avery Elle- Roll With It (retired?), Lawn Fawn- Let's Polka flair

OHC 80- Country

Dare 2B Artzy- Lemonade, Pink Paisley- Citrus Bliss 6x6, Copics

SB- Follow Your Dreams

Today's card features another Tiny Townies stamp set from Stamping Bella -- Dorothy the Dreamer. Out of all the stamps I got from this line, Dorothy is the one that echoed with me the most. The minute I saw it, I felt that happy feeling. This is how the universe ought to be, with an abundance of book universes we can get lost in, and a dreamy and clever companion to help us navigate it.

I wanted my card to reflect this feeling that seems so simple, yet is impossible to put into words. I stamped out Dorothy in brown hybrid ink and colored her with Copics. I did a bit of messy coloring on her puffy skirt, tying for a loose coloring method I've seen a couple of crafters use with Stamping Bella stamps. I don't know that I was very successful, but I left it as it was. When I was done, I carefully cut the image out, leaving a small white border.

I wanted the image to stand out, so I chose two patterned papers with simple and neutral colors. Going too bright or complicated with the background wold have taken away from the image, so I went with more subdued tones. I layered the two papers together, going for a slightly different layout, then adhered everything onto a white A2 card base (4¼x5½").

For the sentiment, I used Clearly Besotted's Say It In Style stamp set. It had a lovely dream sentiment that seemed just perfect for the card. I stamped it onto a piece of white cardstock, which I cut at an angle and added to the card with foam squares.

I wanted some embellishments on the card, so I adhered 3 wood veneer stars and 3 purple enamel dots.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

SB- Blossom

Today, I'm sharing another card from Stamping Bella's new release. This time, it's Tiny Townie Blossom loves Balloons. Tiny Townies are a new stamp style for Stamping Bella, but I really love how they've turned out. They're a bit like kid versions of the Uptown Girls (and guys), but their smaller size makes them perfect for standard A2 cards. I personally find them to be very sweet and whimsical.

I started the card by stamping out Blossom onto some Copic Marker paper. I stamped her in black hybrid ink, then colored her in with Copics.To make the balloons a bit more interesting, I added stripes and polkadots with my white gel pen.

Since the stamp has some very delicate and thin parts (ex. Blossom's hand, the balloon strings, etc), I decided against fussy-cutting. But I still wanted that part of the card to look interesting, so I cut the panel at an angle and went around the edges with a mini ink blender and Faded Jeans distress ink.

I cut a piece of wide-striped neutral paper to 4 x 5¼" and adhered it to a standard top-folding A2 base. I added the stamp panel with foam squares. For the sentiment, I grabbed Lawn Fawn's Flying By stamp set and stamped onto a thin cardstock strip. I snipped off an angled edge on one side and adhered it to the card with foam squares.

For decorations, I went with something a little different. I had a pack of very large enamel dots from Webster's Pages that I've held off using for a while due to their size. But they seemed to fit here perfectly. I also added a few smaller enamel dots and some wood veneer stars.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Retro Kitchen Lulu

Whenever I'm buying a new stamp, I always have a person or an occasion in the back of my mind. That person is almost never me. Out of all the supplies I've bought, there's maybe 3 or 4 things that I got because they appealed to me and me alone. So, during my last big shopping splurge (yes, it was pretty huge trip - but in my defense, there were some major sales going on!), I bought a few stamps for just me. And I'm really glad I did, because at least one of the stamps seems to be gone. The adorable stamp in this card is from Stamping Bella and it's called Lulu's Two Pies. I wanted to link to it, but I couldn't find it anymore. I apologize for that!

I started this card by stamping Lulu on some Copic Marker Paper and coloring her in with Copic markers. She has a fantastic retro look, so I tried to go for retro colors - red, blue and a touch of yellow. After she was colored, I fussy-cut the image, leaving a small white border. Since the white of the marker paper was so much brighter than the cream color of the base and patterned paper, I went around the edges with E53 to soften the transition.

The rest of the card came together very easily.

I cut a piece of MFT's Primitive Cream cardstock in half, and scored it for a top-folding A2 card (4 1/4 by 5 1/2"). I also cut out a panel for the sentiment from the same cardstock, using EK Success Real Estate Sign paper punch. I used the mini round blending tool and Ranger Distress ink in Tea Dye around the edges of the sentiment panel, then stamped the sentiment in brown ink.

I cut a panel from Bazzill Peppermint cardstock to measure 4 by 5 1/4". The patterned paper is from Carta Bella's Homemade With Love collection. I chose the paper with pies, which was just perfectly matched with the stamp. After adhering two strips of paper together, I added a red polkadot ribbon to the top of the panel.

Lastly, I adhered the sentiment panel and Lulu to the card with foam squares. Since the card was rich in color and pattern, I didn't add any other embellishments.

Supplies:
Stamping Bella - Lulu's Two Pies
MFT Hybrid Ink in Black Licorice
Ranger Archival Ink in Coffee
Ranger Distress Ink in Tea Dye
Copic Marker Paper 70lbs
Copics (E00, E11, E13, C2, R05, R29, R59, Y21, B000, B00, B01, B45, YR27, E53, E23, 100 - Black)
MFT Heavyweight Cardstock in Primitive Cream
Carta Bella Homemade With Love 
EK Success Real Estate Sign paper punch
Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D foam squares

Birthday cake Ava

Confession time! My favorite color is brown... When I say it out loud, it sounds a bit boring. I mean, it's not a bright or exotic color like turquoise or amethyst. And it doesn't really inspire exciting traits. It's dependable, solid, subdued. But it's still my very favorite color. It's a neutral that's not as harsh as black, and it has a warmth you don't get with gray. It goes with - and this is my favorite part - anything! Any other color you can think of looks great when matched with brown.

So, when I saw Stamping Bella's Uptown Girl Ava Loves to Celebrate stamp, I knew I wanted to use brown. And aquamarine - which, when paired with brown, really pops!

I started by stamping Ava with MFT Hybrid ink in Black Licorice on some Copic marker paper. I colored her in with Copic markers, and added a few highlights with a white gel pen. I trimmed it into a small rectangle.

For the base, I cut a piece of 8 1/2 x 11" Neenah Desert Storm cardstock in half to create a standard top-folding A2 card (4 1/4 x 5 1/2") card.

I cut two panels of paper from Simple Stories Sn@p Color Vibe paper pad, making sure they were 1/4" and 1/2" smaller than the card base. I layered them together, and adhered the stamp panel to the left side. I also stamped a Happy Birthday sentiment on the inside of the card, as there was no room to put it on the card front.

As a last touch, I scattered a few 4mm aquamarine sequins from Pretty Pink Posh to the right side of the card. This tied in the colors and shaped together just perfectly.

Supplies:
Stamping Bella Uptown Girl Ava Loves to Celebrate
MFT Hybrid Ink in Black Licorice
Copic Marker Paper 70lb
Neenah Desert Storm 100lb cardstock
Simple Stories Sn@p Color Vibe 6x6
Pretty Pink Posh 4mm sequins in Aquamarine
Copics: 0 (colorless blender), B00, BG01, BG07, C2, C4, E00, E11, E13, E15, E33, E37, E47, G14, R20, R32, R81, Y21, Y35, YR14
Sakura Gellyroll white gel pen
Ranger Studio Multi-matte