Room Service

Nope, I'm not offering any! LOL! That is the name of the website Steff chose for the Inspiration Challenge on SCS today (actually it's Room Service Home). She always chooses the greatest inspirations and this one is no different! After looking at the entire website, I actually came up with three of my own to choose from. I settled on this one from the bath accessories category because of the background...look at it! I just got my Papertrey Ink order the other day and one of the stamp sets I purchased was Background Basics: Retro. I immediately recognized the background in the picture as one of the stamps from the set, so I had to go with this one! Here's the picture I chose. It was a dead ringer for PTI's Aqua Mist cardstock and SU's Close to Cocoa ink. That's where my colors came from. I looked at the flower vase and immediately thought of this vase of flowers from SU's Bloomin' Beautiful. Couldn't be more perfect!

I wanted to keep the stainless feel to the card, so I colored the vase with a Creative Memories silver marker I've had forever. It was even dried up and I had to really shake it to wake it up! I wanted to keep the flowers white, but had a hard time with that, so I used copic markers in different shades of the "E" line. I started with the lightest one and worked my way up for shading. I then took a white gel pen and inked up the centers of the flowers. I also popped up four of the flowers. I think if you click on the picture you'll be able to see that better. When all that was done, the flowers still looked dull. So I pulled out my Shimmerz paint and painted the leaves in celery and the shading on the flowers in sunflower. Still not enough, so out came the Sakura clear glittery pen and that livened things up! I wasn't sure what to do with the layout, but I knew I didn't want to clutter up the background seeing as that was my inspiration. So, in keeping with the shiny stainless feel, I went for a silver ribbon. What do you think about that? I was a little hesitant, but I think it looks fine. I went with a little sentiment from PTI's Mixed Messages.

On the inside I stamped the background stamp again in Close to Cocoa. The sentiment is from Crafty Secrets Sweet Kids and it's stamped in the same ink. I also used a small leaf from the set and stamped it inside the opening of the background in Aqua Mist. I'm sending this to my Aunt Vi who will be 89 on Monday. She's currently in a nursing home and my mom is ordering flowers to be sent to her. She'll love it, I'm sure!

On another note, I can't wait to see what Joanne (aka sleepyinseattle on SCS) chooses as her inspiration today. For the past three weeks, we have chosen the same inspiration! And there have been many pieces to choose from! I haven't looked yet, but she's in Seattle so she's a bit behind me in hours and she is probably just waking up and having her coffee! Well, thanks for looking today and have a great weekend!
Recipe
Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful (SU), Mixed Messages and Background Basics: Retro (PTI), Sweet Kids (Crafty Secrets)
Paper: Aqua Mist and Vintage Cream (PTI), Close to Cocoa (SU)
Ink: Adirondack black, aqua mist, copic markers
Accessories: Ticket corner and circle punches, ribbon, white gel pen, Sakura glittery gel pen, Creative Memories silver marker, Shimmerz paint, dimensionals

Have You Heard the News?

I was chosen to be on the Copics Colour Challenge Design Team! Can you see me grinning from ear to ear? : ) I just found out last night and am over the moon! This is a new blog challenge that will have weekly challenges on Wednesdays. They just posted their second challenge yesterday. I hope you can play each week! Watch for my samples! Please stop by the Copics Colour Challenge and check it out!

Lisa

New Challenge on the Block!

I stumbled upon a new blog when I was surfing a couple of weeks back and it's a copic color challenge blog. I love to color with copic markers and thought this blog was so interesting. It's called the Copics Colour Challenge, and they'll be posting copic color challenges weekly on Wednesdays! If you love to color with your copics, hop on over and check it out!

Today is their second color challenge and the colors they chose are: B02 Robin's Egg Blue, R05 Salmon Red, and YG23 New Leaf. These colors paired up nicely with SU's Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, and Ruby Red. I started with this week's Mojo Monday sketch. As I was pulling all these layers together, I wasn't sure how I was going to make this work, but when it was all finished I really liked it! I colored the watering can with the B02 marker, the frog with YG23 and the flowers with the R05. I did add a couple of other shades of the green and blue to get some shading. The centers were also colored with a copic, but then I added yellow stickles because I LOVE bling! I even added bling instead of brads! The vertical ruby red piece and the turquoise layer under the image were run through the swiss dots folder. The dp is from SU's retired Ginger Blossom, and the ribbon is a $1 find from AC Moore. The sentiment on the outside is from PTI's Pond Life. I thought that sentiment sounded like "Hippity Hop...Get Well", so that's the sentiment I went for on the inside with another piece of the dp. Another one done and it's time for bed! Don't forget to try out this new challenge! It's a different spin on the color challenges! Thanks for stopping by!
Recipe:
Stamps: A Flower for All Seasons (SU), Pond Life (outside sentiment), Lizzie Anne Designs (inside sentiment)
Paper: PTI white, green galore, tempting turquoise, ruby red, Ginger Blossom dp (retired SU)
Ink: Adirondack black
Copic Markers: B02, R05, YG23, B00, YG11, W-1, W-3, Y17
Accessories: Swiss dots folder, bling, ribbon, scallop border punch, dimensionals, stickles, circle punches

Art is the Tree of Life

I got some new stamps from Paper Makeup Stamps yesterday, and I had some time to pull another one together. This one used Taylor's Cupcake Sketch Challenge. The layout was perfect for this stamp.

I started with trying to find some paper that had a tree of some sort on it (because of the sentiment), but no such luck. So I went with the Basic Grey Ambrosia paper. This pack has to be my favorite of them all so far. I just love the colors in the papers. This butterfly one is especially pretty. I cut two strips of it and then one in the off-white that comes in the back of the pack. I stamped the branch (my "tree") from PTI's Out on a Limb in Adirondack Espresso right on this paper. To do the leaves, I first colored them with a More Mustard marker, then "thumped" Really Rust and Garden Green over it. Gina K just did a tutorial on this on her first Stamp TV segment, but I've done this a few times before. It gives a nice mottled look. The sentiment is stamped in Espresso on the same off-white paper as the branch. I cut and embossed it with an oval nestie and sponged Sahara Sand on it while it was still in the die. I wanted it to match the "dirtied up" look of the off-white paper. It was mounted on another piece from the pack, a sort of orangey-red, that was cut and embossed in a scalloped oval nestie. The ribbon is a jute ribbon I got at JoAnn's eons ago. Once it was done, I felt it needed something. So I cut out two butterflies from another piece of the dp and layered them on with dimensionals. I then put diamond stickles on them and the leaves to sparkle it up. I love sparkle! Here' a closeup of the card so you can see the dimension.

You can see the red one pretty clearly in the foreground, and there's a blue one on the other side near the sentiment. As I'm sitting here typing this, I'm looking at the card and wished I'd cut out another butterfly and added it onto the sentiment! Oh well, hindsight and all!

For the inside of this card, I cut and embossed another piece of the off-white paper and the orangey-red paper with the Labels Two die. The sentiment is also from PTI's Out on a Limb. I thought it went nicely with the outside sentiment. I punched a butterfly from the paper and layered in on. I also took the largest Labels Two die and embossed the inside of the card so that the sentiment could lay inside of it. That's it for this card. Simple card, long post, huh? Sorry about that and thanks for sticking with me! Stop by again soon!

Recipe

Stamps: Paper Makeup Stamps (outside sentiment); Out on a Limb (PTI)

Paper: Kraft, Ambrosia (Basic Grey)

Ink: Adirondack espresso, sahara sand; more mustard, really rust and garden green markers

Accessories: Nesties: Oval and scallop oval, labels two; jute ribbon, diamond stickles, dimensionals

Chelly with Clover

I just got my order from Paper Makeup Stamps today, and I had to ink one of them up! PMS is a fairly new company with really cute stamps! I love the fairy stamps. There are four out and I think four more which I've ordered on a preorder sale. I love coloring with my copic markers, and these are perfect for them! This is Chelly with her clover, so I made a St. Patty's Day card with her. The sketch is from PMS and it is their first one. I was going to use another sketch, then saw this one and it was so much better for this stamp. I started by pulling out all the green dp I had in my stash and came up with these two (both retired SU). The top one is from Bali Breeze and the bottom is from Brocade Background. I thought they should have some separation, so I used Vintage Cream and punched it with a Martha Stewart scallop border punch. Chelly was stamped on Vintage Cream with Adirondack black. I used about 15 different copic markers on this! I was even surprised by how many I put back into the container! I added glitter to her wings, the clover, her clothing and even her hair. She sparkles like a fairy should! The ribbon is actually a Christmas ribbon from AC Moore and is gold but looks green with these papers. The sentiment (inside and out and the shamrocks inside) are all those $1 Studio G stamps I got at AC Moore last year. (I really like the inside..."lucky to have you!" I'll save this for Kevin. He's mostly Italian, but a small part of him is Irish, and of course he's all Irish on St. Patty's Day!) I used a circle punch on the outside sentiment and layered it on the label punch (which is Old Olive). The shamrock bling is from JoAnn's and the butterfly bling is from Michael's (all purchased last year). It looks to me like the clover she is holding is a butterfly net and she's running after the butterfly! I'm really pleased with this card, considering I almost scrapped her because I didn't like the way she was looking as I was coloring her! But if you keep on coloring, you usually get a good result! What do you think? I have no business making a card when I have some papers to correct! Yikes! Thanks for stopping by!
Recipe
Stamps: Chelly with Clover (Paper Makeup Stamps); Studio G $1 stamps
Paper: Old olive, vintage cream, Brocade Background, Bali Breeze dp (both SU retired)
Ink: Adirondack black, old olive, copic markers
Accessories: Martha Stewart scallop border punch, label punch, 1" circle punch, ribbon (AC Moore), glitter, butterfly bling (Michael's), shamrock bling (JoAnn's), dimensionals

I Can't Believe I Forgot!

This is going to be a short post because I have to go back to work tomorrow (let's have a pity party for me now!), and it's already after 9:30! I'm sending this to my girlfriend, Eileen, who purchased tickets for myself and my other friend, Maria, for a fundraiser for the zoo called Polar Bites. It was lots of fun, only Eileen couldn't go because she had to work later than expected. Maria and I kept forgetting to pay her for the tickets, so I thought this card would be appropriate. An elephant saying "Aww...nuts! I can't believe I forgot!" Perfect, huh? Don't you just love when you have the perfect stamp for a certain situation? That's what happens when you have every possible stamp imaginable! Anyway, Ellie is stamped on PTI white in Adirondack black and colored with copic markers. The dp is PTI's Polka Dot Parade and it paired nicely with pumpkin pie and mellow moss. I added candy dots (not the real candy ones!) in the corners and pierced the corners of the pumpkin pie paper. That's it! I hope you have a good week. I don't know how much posting I'll be doing this week now that I'm back to the old grind! Stop by again and TFL!
Recipe
Stamps: Ellie Oops (High Hopes)
Paper: PTI white and Polka Dot Parade dp; SU mellow moss and pumpkin pie
Ink: Adirondack black, copic markers
Accessories: Candy dots, paper piercer, dimensionals

Sweet Blue Bird

Hi everyone! This card was made for the SCS Inspiration Challenge (one of my favs next to the sketch challenges!). The website chosen as the inspiration is called Flutter and I chose this Sweet Blue Bird pillow as my inspiration.

It's a pretty literal translation, isn't it?

I started by stamping the damask from Inkadinkadoo's Bold Damask in So Saffron on Very Vanilla. I then overstamped it with the Canvas bg stamp in Creamy Caramel to get some texture like the pillow. Now the bird gave me trouble! It's also from a set by Inkadinkadoo called Winter Birds. I stamped it in Pacific Point, but since this stamp has so much surface area and is an acrylic stamp, it stamped very "splotchy". Does anyone know how to prevent this from happening? I stamped it about six times with the same results. Ugghh! After I stamped it, I colored in the flowers and stems with So Saffron and Really Rust markers. The bird in the inspiration had some of these colors in him as well. I tried to do something to mimic the sort of rope border around the pillow, but was hurrying, so I used SU's Sale-a-bration ribbon and made a formal bow. The sentiment is from PTI's Out on a Limb stamped in Pacific Point and punched with the large and small ovals. Done! I forgot to put some stickles on the bird. I wanted to do that to give him some pizazz, but forgot. He'll get them later! Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Recipe

Stamps: Bold Damask, Winter Birds (Inkadinkadoo); Out on a Limb (PTI); Canvas (SU)

Paper: Very vanilla, so saffron

Ink: So saffron, creamy caramel, pacific point, so saffron and really rust markers

Accessories: So saffron grosgrain ribbon, large and small oval punches, dimensionals