Fly Away

 I love rediscovering treasures in my crafty stash. Sometimes it's a supply that I bought a while ago and forgot about. Other times it's an old card that I saved. But last week I found a stack of notes I'd taken when I first started making cards.

For some unexplained reason, I had initially tackled card-making with a kind of rigorous academic approach. I'd written down "things to never do" and "things to always do" and pages-worth of supplies I just had to have... I think I stopped taking notes when I branched into looking up different card-making styles and the advice got conflicting.

Reading those notes now was such fun. There were a few good tidbits in there, of course, but the majority of advice were rules I was just itching to break. And, thus inspired by my rebellious streak, I decided to make a card.

I chose Tiddly Inks' Chloe and Peeps stamp set. Now, Chloe the black-winged fairy has a sweet story, but I always see her as a rebellious mischief-maker -- and that seemed just perfect for this card. I stamped her out onto some cardstock with black ink and then colored her in with my Prismacolor pencils. That broke rule #1 - do not use colored pencils to color the stamp (don't ask why this was a rule, but it was in there!).

I trimmed the panel a bit and matted it with a piece of warm grey cardstock. Then I broke another rule and used a background color that wasn't in the image -- I grabbed a striped patterned paper. I adhered it to a top-folding card base. I added Chloe's panel with foam squares (dimension was another rule-breaker!).

Lastly, I skipped stamping a sentiment (yep, another big no-no) and added a piece of flair. A scattering of sequins later, the card was done. And I must say, not bad for a card that broke every rule. ;)

Thanks for reading
~Elle~

P.S. This fits OHC theme 81 - Birds.

TI - Birthday Ellie

Birthdays and thank you cards are my most-created cards, so it's with no big surprise that I have a huge collection of birthday stamps. I love having a stamp for every lucky birthday guy and girl, and I love even more that I can color them to look like the recipient.

Today's card features a Tiddly Inks stamp called Ellie Says Happy Birthday. Aside from being a super cute stamp, this is also a special stamp because we have an Ellie in the family and I could totally color the girl to look like her! How cool is that?!

I stamped Ellie in black hybrid ink and colored her in with Copics. I went for bright and happy colors, and I used a slightly different combo for the pink dress. I combined RV11, RV42, R85 and RV66 for a peachy-pink look. I then used my white gel pen to add some highlights and polkadots.

I die-cut a circle out of a festive birthday paper and matted it to a warm grey circle. For the rest of the background, I used a cool gray paper that was die-cut into a stitched rectangle. And I added all of it to a warm grey card base (standard A2 4¼ by 5½").

After adhering everything together, I added a sentiment strip. Since the card had a lot of circular elements, I added a piece of flair, a couple enamel dots and clear sequins as a final touch.

Thanks so much for reading!
~Elle~

Retro Thursday - Tiddly Inks

Today's card is using a stamp set from Tiddly Inks called Ellie Says Hi. I have had this stamp for over a year now, and just did not get around to making anything with it. It's a super sweet stamp, though, and it definitely deserved to be used. So, I decided to make a cute card with it.

I started by stamping Ellie in brown ink, then coloring her in with my Copics. I wanted to go with a palette I seldom use, so I chose green and yellow. After she was colored in, I carefully cut her out, leaving a small white border. The stamp set comes with a cute sentiment, so I stamped out the speech bubble and the "Hi" in brown ink. Then I used a pink ink to stamp the little hearts in the background. I also cut out the speech bubble with a small white border.

The rest of the card came together really quickly. I grabbed a few pieces of patterned paper from my scraps stash and layered them together on a neutral card base. I added some liquid pearls and two pieces of wood veneer that I colored in with Copics.

And that's all there was to it! I really like how the card turned out, and I'm definitely going to use this stamp again. I have another idea on how to color her cute dress, and some other cute patterned paper I've been meaning to use with cards.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Tiddly Inks: Adventure

Today's card features a lovely stamp by Tiddly Inks called Ellie Says Bye. I loved the air balloon so much that I just had to color it in. And, I gave it my own little spin by adding a few details. I wanted the balloon to look home-made, so I chose fun colors and patterns.

I started by stamping the balloon and Ellie onto some Copic marker paper, using MFT's Chocolate Brown hybrid ink. I wanted a softer, story-book like look and the brown ink was perfect. After cleaning up my stamp, I colored the image in with my Copics. I started with the basket and Ellie, then moved onto the balloon itself.

I saved a little spot for a patchwork piece, and colored the rest in simply. Then, I used my Copic drawing pen in Sepia to add some stitching lines around each square. I then added some patterns using a white gel pen.

After the image was dry, I carefully cut around it with scissors, leaving a small white border. I stamped a sentiment from the stamp set onto some white cardstock with the same chocolate brown ink. I cut it down to size and cut out a flag shape on one end.

The rest of the card came together very quickly. I created a standard A2 card base from white cardstock. Then I looked through my patterned papers and found the perfect one in Chickaniddy's Date Night 6x6 paper pad. I trimmed it to measure 4 by 5 1/4" and adhered it straight to the card.

I adhered the balloon and the sentiment to the card using thin foam squares. As a last touch, I added a couple of pink enamel dots to the sentiment panel.

Supplies:
Tiddly Inks Ellie Says Bye stamp set
MFT Hybrid Ink in Chocolate Brown
Copic Mini Marker Pad 70lbs
Copic Drawing pen in Sepia
Copics: Basket (E33, E37, E29, E50, E53, E33, YG23, YG25, YG17), Ellie (E00, E11, E13, E35, E57, E59, R11, RV42, R32, C4, C6, R20,0), Balloon (Y21, Y35, Y38, B00, B91, B95, YG13, YG23, YG67, R11, RV42, RV55)
Sakura Gellyroll White Gel Pen
Neenah Solar White cardstock in 110#lbs
Chickaniddy Date Night 6x6 patterned paper pad
Freckled Fawn Pinks enamel dots

Tiddly Inks- Beachy

Can you believe it's already August?!? I feel like summer just started, and here we are almost at its end... And looking through my cards, I've come to realize that I have not made very many summer-inspired cards - despite the fact that I've bought copious amounts of nautical patterned paper, stamps and decorations. So, I decided to remedy this by creating something summery.

For this card, I used Tiddly Inks' Beach Babe stamp set. After stamping Wryn and the bucket in MFT's Chocolate Brown ink (yes, I'm a bit obsessed with it at the moment...), I colored them in with Copics and carefully cut them out.

I created a standard A2 card base by cutting and scoring a sheet of Simon Says Stamp Fog cardstock. I also cut a piece of Slate cardstock to measure 4 by 5 1/4". For the patterned paper, I used Carta Bella's Ahoy There paper pad (which is probably one of my favorites this summer). I cut a piece of anchor paper to measure 3 3/4 by 5" and matted it onto the dark gray panel. I adhered it to the card front.

I created a faux snapshot panel by cutting a rectangle inside a 3 by 4" white rectangle. I used foam squares to adhere it to a piece of seashell paper, which added a touch of dimension. I stamped the sentiment from the stamp set in the bottom left corner. After adding the bucket and Wryn to the panel, I adhered it to the card front, tilting it a little so it's not completely straight.

Since the anchor pattern is fairly busy, I didn't want to add too many decorations. So, I added a few enamel dots in blue and brown, and a few flowers in the top left corner. Voila! Card is done.

Supplies:
Tiddly Inks Beach Babe stamp
MFT Hybrid Inkpad in Chocolate Brown
Stampin' Up inkpad in Baked Brown Sugar
Simon Says Stamp Heavy Cardstock in Fog and Slate
Neenah Solar White 80lbs cardstock
Carta Bella Ahoy There 6x6 paper pad
Prima sugar dots in Vintage
Prima Flowers
Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares
Copics: Skin (E00, E11, E13, E15, R20, R22, 0), Hair (E23, E25, E27, E29), Swimsuit/Towel/Crab (R05, R46, R89, B000), Bag (E42, E44), Starfish (RV42, RV95), Bucket (C2, C4, C6), Flower (B000, Y21, Y35, YR14)
Sakura Gellyroll White Gel pen

Tiddly Inks - Spring

Tiddly Inks challenge blog currently has a spring-themed challenge, and I thought I'd enter. I've got a growing collection of Tiddly Inks stamps, and I wanted to create something fun and pretty with them.

I chose to go with Fairy Tenderhearted, as she just looks like a personification of spring: time for growth and caring. I stamped her in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored the image in with my Copics.

I cut the stamped image into a circle using the Sizzix circle dies. Then, I cut a scalloped circle from Bazzill's Tahitian Princess cardstock. This cardstock is fantastic because it comes already embossed, so it added a great texture to the card.

For the paper, I chose a flowered pattern paper that had both pink and aqua hues. I glued it to the cardstock, then added the stamped image and a strip of cardstock on the bottom for the sentiment.I stamped the word "Spring" on a piece of vellum cardstock and embossed it with Liquid Platinum embossing powder.

The last touch was a pink polkadot button, glued to the velum.

Supplies:
Stamp: Tiddly Inks Fairy Tenderhearted, Sweet Stamp Shop Monogram Alpha (sentiment)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark Watermark embossing ink
Base: Simon Says Stamp 100# in Doll Pink
Paper: Bazzill Tahitian Princess, Pebbles Garden Party 6x6
Ranger Platinum Embossing Powder
Copics: Hair (Y15, Y35, E23, E35, E18), Skin (E00, E11, E15), Wings (B00, BG01, BG07, V12, V04), Dress (B000, B91, B95), Tree (E23, E35, E57, E59, G21, G46, BG01, BG07), Bird (Y15, YR15), Flowers (R22, R35, G21, G46)
White Gel Pen
Zig Wink of Stella

Happy Bee Day~!

It's been so very cold and snowy here that I wanted to make a card that's bright and cheerful. Maybe it will magically bring us some warmer spring weather...

The biggest challenge in this card was the placement. I'd cut out all the elements individually and glued some of the backgrounds before I realized that the sketch I envisioned in my head just wasn't going to work.

A little bit of playing around and I got a card I'm happy with.

This week's Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp is anything with Twine/string, so I'm entering this card.

 

-Supplies-
Cardstock: Bazzill Atlantic (base), Neenah Tuscan Gold (scalloped oval), Bazzill Marshmallow (sentiment)
Paper: Project Life - Seafoam designer paper (orange), Basic Grey: RSVP (green)
Stamp: Tiddly Inks Happy Bee Day
Twine: Lawn Fawn Lemon single cord trimmings