Trio of pigs

I was recently commissioned to make a set of cards using this pig stamp/sentiment from SU's Very Punny set. It is my first commission, and it was a tricky one! I made two each of three designs and packaged them in a Papertrey Ink clear card box. Those boxes are awesome! The client had received a card I made similar to the flower one below, but I couldn't remember exactly what it looked like, so I kind of redesigned it.
I used a Heidi Swapp daisy, my scallop punch and circle cutter, and the Cuttlebug for embossing. I stuck to shades of pink, black and white for the color combo on all three cards, to give them a somewhat unifying look.
I didn't take a new picture of the third card in the set, because I made that one awhile back and showed it here already! It was the simplest of the three, anyway. Overall, I thought the set turned out pretty cute, and the recipient loved them, which is a great thing. Maybe I'll get a few more commissions out of the deal!
Supplies:
Stamps: Very Punny - SU
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copic markers
Paper: pink pirhouette, pretty in pink, pink passion, basic black, neenah classic crest white
Accessories: scallop punches, circle cutter, Cuttlebug, ribbon, ticket punch

Belated winter wishes!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends. I'm very sorry I've been absent the last couple of weeks. The frenzy of Christmas caught up to me, I guess! First I was busy finishing gifts that couldn't be shared on the blog until the recipients had received them. I hope to share those over the next few days! Then, three days before Christmas, I was all caught up and had great plans to write blog posts in advance to appear over the holidays while I was on vacation visiting my family in Oregon. As some of you may have heard, the weather in Oregon turned very wintery just before Christmas.
That threw off my travel (and blog posting) plans! My flight home, along with thousands of others, was canceled. I was devastated, since I haven't been home in a year, and I have missed only one Christmas with my family in my entire life. This was not going to be the year. Fortunately, I found out the night before the flight that it had been canceled. So I scrambled to find an alternative, because I knew I had a short window of time because there was a break in the weather that wasn't expected to last long. I ended up throwing my clothes in a carry-on and rushing to the airport - leaving dishes in the sink, presents on the bed and blog posts unwritten. But I got to the airport and managed to squeeze on the only flight that night to Portland. We landed at 2 a.m. - the skies were clear but the roads were a mess! Thank goodness for good friends - one of mine sent her husband to pick me up at the airport in the middle of the night.
The pictures here are a few that I took after my arrival. I only saw a bit of snow falling from the sky. It was mostly done by the time I got there, but it took several days for the snow and ice to melt and the roads to become clear. None of that mattered though, because I was home with my family! We had a great Christmas together. And Santa brought me a few new crafting goodies to play with, so as soon as I get some time I will be stamping up a storm! Happy holidays to all!

In the spotlight

I needed to make some quick RAKs to get in the mail a few days ago, so I pulled out this fabulous Hero Arts image and made some spotlights using the image and my Copic markers. This is an elegant effect but it's also a quick one, since you only have to color a small piece of the image!
This is the finished group. The card bases were inspired by my Copic markers; each card uses a pair of Copics - light and dark - to color the flower. They were finished with some bits of ribbon and large We R Memory Keepers eyelets.
Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Memento, Copic markers
Paper: basic black, neenah classic crest white, blush blossom, tangerine tango, lovely lilac, cool caribbean, tempting turquoise
Accessories: CM circle cutters, ribbon, eyelets

Elvis in the snow

There are a few people on my Christmas card list who are Elvis fans, so I needed a couple more cards using this fabulous stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. I love blue snow cards, and since Elvis sang "Blue Christmas," this seemed like the perfect color combination! I cuttle-bugged the top half of the white piece and added some felt snowflakes from Hero Arts for some additional texture. I can't believe Christmas is just two weeks away!!! I don't know about all of you, but I'm not ready!
Supplies:
Stamps: CHF Elvis, sentiment from Paper Salon
Ink: Night of Navy
Paper: Night of navy, bashful blue, neenah classic crest white
Accessories: cuttlebug, hero arts felt snowflakes, snowflake brad

Quick and simple

I've been following Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply celebration the last few days on her blog, but I have been too busy to really participate. Until now! I had been itching to take a break from my holiday projects and just stamp something for me when I saw Jennifer Buck's challenge to make a quick card. So that's what I did. I pulled out this Unity sentiment, which had never seen ink - grabbed some of my current favorite patterned paper and my Labels One nesties, and whipped up this simple and quick card! I love how Sharon always uses those pretty - and wide! - ribbons, so I selected the chocolate satin with her in mind. Thanks Sharon and Jennifer for inspiring me!
Supplies:
Stamps: Unity
Ink: regal rose
Paper: regal rose, pink pirhouette, pumpkin pie, neenah classic crest white, Sweet Always DP
Accessories: satin ribbon, nestabilities, corner rounder, rhinestones from MAMBI

Our Craft Lounge and Copics

I had a chance over the weekend to take a class at a somewhat local craft store, Tall Mouse in Yorba Linda. The class was taught by Marianne, the Copic Guru who blogs at I Like Markers. She was teaching some basic Copic coloring skills and introducing us all to the new stamp company, Our Craft Lounge. Marianne is the designer of the stamps from the new company. It was a fun class, and great to get some one-on-one coloring tips and advice from Marianne! We made two cards and a box/bag in the class, and we were able to color to our heart's content. We also got to choose which images we used from the three stamp sets featured in the class. The first card features the adorable elephant from the Dr. Peanut set.
Isn't this the cutest puppy? Sadly, I cannot remember the name of the set he came from! But I love this little treat package, and that pup is so cute! He was a fun one to color, too.
The last card features this cute little girl from the Anna Mae set. I paper-pieced her dress and colored the rest. The stamps we used were clear, which was helpful in placing her legs, the balloon and the sentiment. But OCL also offers stamps unmounted on red rubber for those of you who prefer rubber.
Supplies:
Stamps: Our Craft Lounge
Ink: Memento black, Copic markers
Paper: unknown
Accessories: unknown

Finally finished!!!

Here they are! All 48 of them! My assembly line of Christmas cards is finally complete! Now I just need to address all the envelopes, sign them and get them in the mail! I stayed up Saturday night to get them all done. I ran out of mellow moss taffeta ribbon early on, but fortunately I found enough other ribbons that matched my color combo that I could make do without a run to the store. I used up four rolls plus five yards from a ribbon share. I also went through a lot of rhinestones and pop dots - I did have to make one more run for those!
Here's a close-up of the final card. It's basically the same card as one I made a couple of months ago for World Cardmaking Day, though I did make a couple of changes, including using both colors for the snowflakes on the background and using the smaller sentiment on the front, with the longer one inside. I am just glad they are done! Woohoo!
Supplies:
Stamps: Snow Swirled
Ink: Mellow moss, always artichoke
Paper: mellow moss, always artichoke, neenah classic crest white
Accessories: ribbon, Cuttlebug, rhinestones

Bling and flowers

I am STILL working on my Christmas card assembly line! I actually took a break the last couple of nights, but hope to finish up this weekend so I can move on to other holiday projects. I stopped at JoAnn's today to pick up more supplies; I have lots of crafts planned, now I just hope I'll get to them all! In the meantime, I found this card I made a few weeks ago. It was a card for my VSN secret sister, so I couldn't share it at the time. I made it when I was in my Sweet Always phase; I love that designer paper and couldn't get enough of it a few weeks ago!
Supplies:
Stamps: Fabulous Flowers
Ink: Pink pirhouette, regal rose, pumpkin pie
Paper: Sweet Always, pink pirhouette, regal rose, pumpkin pie
Accessories: crimper, corner rounder, bling from Me and My Big Ideas

La Vie en Rose

I think this is it - the last of my VSN challenge cards! Good think I had so many to share, as I'm still elbow-deep in my Christmas card assembly line! I have a few other things to share later in the week, then hopefully this weekend I can get busy on some other cards so I have new creations for you.
This card was for Suzy's challenge, to make a pink floral card inspired by La Vie en Rose! I struggled with this one, but I am happy with how it turned out. I started with the pink crushed velvet ribbon; I found it at a funky craft store in Pasadena and had to put it right to use! I added a scrap of patterned paper from my scrap pile, a couple of Primas, and some bling, and voila!
Supplies:
Stamps: For a friend
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copic Markers
Paper: pink pirhouette, regal rose, neenah classic crest white, unknown DP
Accessories: Primas, bling, scallop edge punch, crushed velvet ribbon