High Hopes Sunday

Hello everyone, I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I can not believe that I am still sick and not any better! I am starting to wonder if my cold has turned into an infection so if it is not improved within the next couple of days it looks like I will be paying the doctor a visit. I have to admit that it is starting to get me down. I have not been out of my house in about 5 days now and have been living in my jammies and my family has been eating take out for nearly a week. So, if you would keep me in your prayers I would appreciate it.

I have managed to make some cards this week. They take me even longer than normal because I take breaks to rest in between. I also have some images colored because I have been doing some coloring while resting on the couch. Those images are colored mainly with copics because they are easier to use and less messy in my living room LOL. Today's card is one of the images I colored this way. Believe it or not copics are not my preferred method to color. I like watercoloring and pencils better. I just feel like the shading is more dramatic with those methods. I am happy with this card and the way it is colored for the most part though.



The first card is for the high hopes weekly challenge which is posted on the high hopes blog each Sunday. This week's theme is brought to us by diva Anna and it is sparklemania. Oh my, was I in my glory! I mean me and sparkle- woo hoo!! I hope you will play along with us because you have a chance to win a prize if you participate. You can see the other divas' creations and find out the deets on how to win HERE.


The image was colored with copics and cut out- I even cut along the wings so I could curl them up for dimension. Then for the sparkle- I used a 2 way glue pen and glitter on the wings, clear spica glitter pen on the collar and fur of the boots, gold stickles on the bell and belt buckle, red stickles on the holly berries and shimmerz on the snowflake and branches. If that was not enough sparkle for you, I added rhinestones in various places. My layout is Julee's mojo59 sketch

Here are a couple of closeups for you:



Supplies:
stamps- high hopes holly the Christmas fairy
CS- mellow moss, white, basic grey wassail
accessories- shimmerz in rustic red and olive, stickles-gold and red, glitter, 2 way glue pen, spica glitter pen, rhinestones, nesties, martha stewart snowflake and branch punches, copics (G21, BG, R27, E00, RV11, blender), prismamarkers (tuscan red, crimson red, black, yellow ochre, 40% cool grey

I did make another card yesterday which came together pretty quickly for me which means basically in under an hour. I used Julee's holiday sketch 5 for the layout.



I stamped the snowflakes, die cut them with my square nesties and then sponged them while still in the die. I did the same for the ribbon tag. I added a square rhinestone to the center of the snowflakes and stickles to them as well.

Supplies:
stamps- SU snow swirled
CS- ski slope dp, white, real red
ink- real red, baja breeze
accessories- stardust stickles, rhinestones, square nesties, ribbon tag trio, white satin ribbon, corner rounder punch

There are many blog candy giveaways going on this month with a couple of the companies I design for so I am going to have a reminder at the end of my posts. I personally have 2 blog candy give aways coming before the end of the month too.

Blog Candy update:

Sweet N Sassy- Michelle and Faith have 2 different sets to give away. Enter till Saturday Nov 15th.

High Hopes Hop- one ending today (Sunday) and a new hop starting tomorrow (monday). Divas' blogs are listed on my sidebar so you need to find who has the candy first.

Have a blessed Lord's day Sunday!

Warm and Cozy

Well, I am sad to say that I am still sick. I can't stop coughing and it is starting to get to me. I did manage to finish a card today but it did indeed take me all day because I would work on it for awhile then have to stop and rest. Anyway here is my finished card- not too bad esp for a sicko. I did this for the limited supplies challenge today. The design had to have a rectangle and circle and the only embellishment allowed was ribbon.



Isn't this bird image absolutely adorable? It is one of 6 new released stamp set from sweet n sassy stamps on November 1st. There is an absolutely HUGE sale going on there now too. There are many sets that are 15%- 25% off and FREE stamps with purchase of $50 or more. So be sure to check it out!

I colored the bird with prismacolor pencils, shimmerz and twinkling H2Os. I then cut it out and set it aside. I then stamped my image again on white paper. I masked off the bottom and then sponged the top with bashful blue ink to create sky and snow. I then adhered the bird with pop dots. I used the verve holiday sketch for my layout.

Here is a close up of the image. It does not show the shading as well as the other photo but it does show the shimmer well.


Supplies:
stamps- Sweet N Sassy stamps Cozy Feathered Friends
CS- old olive, not quite navy, bashful blue, white, pebbles inc dp
accessories- organdy ribbon, snowdots cb folder, prismacolor pencils, twinkling H2Os, angel wings shimmerz

Before you go, here is a blog candy update for you:
Michelle and Faith will have sweet n sassy blog candy for you starting Sat Nov 8th
Another high hope hop started yesterday so find out which diva has the candy for your chance to win. The links to the divas' blogs are on my sidebar to the right.

Have a nice weekend and thanks for coming by.

Hanna November release party

Tonight is the night! Hanna stamps is having their release party tonight in the member forum starting at 9 PM EST. It is a great place to be for fun, prizes and a challenge or two. There is going to be 4 clear sets released and 2 new adorable Rileys. Today's card uses the new B is for Baby set.

I also played the ways to use it challenge on Splitcoast today which was to use your corner punches.



My image was colored with copic markers and the corners were punched with the ticket corner punch. I also used my corner rounder punch for my scallop strip. The layout is from Julee's verve holiday sketch blitz 3.

The reason I chose red and the ballet blue for my colors is that one of the release party challenges was to make a baby card using non- traditional colors. So, there is a prize to be won if you play along with us. You can find out all the details HERE.

I do have a small tip for you all which many of you probably already do but just in case. I always try to get more from my stamps. I knew I wanted to use Julee's sketch today especially since I already had the image stamped and colored from yesterday's sketch challenge which I was too sick to finish. So, anyway I did the omitting trick and only inked up part of my stamp to get the onesie image. See what I mean?



Supplies:
stamps- Hanna stamps B is for Baby
CS- real red, ballet blue, white, prints pack
ink- memento black, real red
accessories- copics (B24, R29), grosgrain ribbon, ticket corner punch, corner rounder punch

Hope to see you at the release party tonight and have a great day!

Color challenge day with Riley and Verve

Hey everyone. Today is my day to post on the DRS designs blog. I shared a butterfly card that I made and I really like how it came out so I hope you will take a minute to go peek at it and let me know what you think. HERE is the link for you to see it.

Well somehow I managed to get this card for today's color challenge done despite how cruddy I feel. It is election day of course and I am just hoping to get out of my jammies to go and vote. Anyway, I did have this image partially colored already just waiting to see what the colors were today so that helped me a bit. This is a sneak peek of one of the Rileys being released on Friday November 7th. I think it is adorable, see what you think:



I colored the image with a combination of copic markers and prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I sponged my cb layers with pink and riding hood red so the hearts would stand out a little more. I actually started by stitching around my Riley but something wacky happened with the stitching, the tension was not right or something so I had to rip it all out and trim down the image more so it did not show. That made this card take quite awhile to complete. The sentiment fit this image perfectly I think.



Supplies:
stamps- couch riley from hanna stamps, sentiment from H&M Stamps
CS- riding hood red, pretty in pink, white
ink- memento black, riding hood red, pink
accessories- olive brads, taffeta ribbon, prismapencils, copics, cb folder

I was able to put together another card today. I have always wanted to do a 3D poinsettia from this verve set so today was THE day LOL. Take a peek:



I stamped the flower 3 times with versamark ink and embossed them. I watercolored them with an aquapainter and ink pads and cut them out- 2 of them are only partial images that are cut. I then curled the edges and layered them on top of one another. I punched out some leaves and adhered them and the flower to a square nestie which I sponged in the die. I used my corner rounder punch to create the scalloped strip and then I added a gold pearl in each. I also pierced a row along the bottom.

here are some close up views:




Supplies:
stamps- verve thankful blossoms, warmest wishes
ink- riding hood red, versamark, pretty in pink
CS- riding hood red, pip, shimmer white, watercolor, SU dp
accessories- victorian gold ep, shimmer brads, taffeta ribbon, aquapainter, ink pads, gold pearls

Thanks for stopping by today!!

November Hanna sneak peek day 1

Hello everyone! It's that time of the month again-hanna stamps sneak peeks. This month hanna stamps is releasing 4 stamp sets and 2 rileys- woo hoo! My peek for you today is of the B is for Baby stamp set. It is so cute and has such adorable images in it- I really like this new set and I am sure you will too. I decided to combine my sneak peek with the challenge of the day on SCS which was to make a circle medallion. I just had to chuckle because I made one of these the other day LOL.



I stamped my 4 bg sections with 2 different images from the set and then sponged the edges. I stamped 2 other images from the set in the center of the circle medallion frame and colored them with my 2 new copic markers and accented them with a spica glitter pen. I added pearls to the circle frame and some organdy ribbon with a baby block charm beneath it.

Supplies:
stamps- hanna stamps B is for baby
CS- soft sky, blue bayou, white
ink- soft sky, blue bayou
accessories- pearls, circle nesties, clear spica glitter pen, organdy ribbon, baby charm

Anybody interested in some blog candy? Well there is some great candy out there that I would like to let you know about.

First, there is another high hopes hop goin on. One of the divas has some blog candy up for grabs so check out the high hopes divas blogs at the right on my side bar to see who it is.

Then how would you like some sweet n sassy stamps? Sandy has the snow friends set up for grabs and Kathy is giving away penguin hugs. If that is not enough, there are 3 more chances to win some sweet n sassy stamps. Check out the SNSS forum for the 3 challenges from the release party on Friday night. If you participate in the challenges you will have your chance to win one of 3 sets. So, there are a total of 5 sets up for grabs this week.

Ok, I need to head off to bed. I am still battling a cold and I am now starting to cough so I think it might be getting worse. Have a nice day!

Featured High Hopes (with candy involved)

My card today incorporates a few different challenges. I chose my basic layout and embellishments from Becca Feeken who was the featured stamper on Splitcoast today. I did the Our creative corner challenge for this week which was to use your favorite coloring method (watercoloring and gamsol magic are a tie for me for favorite). Most importantly I did the high hopes weekly challenge which was use non-traditional Christmas colors for your project. Tina, the owner of high hopes stamps, has decided to offer a BLOG CANDY drawing for anyone who decides to play along with us for this week's challenge. You can get the details of what you need to do to win on the high hopes blog. Plus, you can see what the other divas have come up with.



I watercolored my image with ink pads and SU markers using an aquapainter. I added a snowflake w/button and some brown twill to embellish my card. I also used my white gel pen to accent it my image.

Here you can see a closer look:


Here is the inside of the card:


I also have a little tip for you today. I try whenever possible to conserve my paper/CS whenever possible so many times there are "holes" in my cards that you can't see. So today I thought I would take a quick photo of what I mean. Here you can see that I used my craft knife to cut out a matte for my image (to be further trimmed) from the chocolate layer underneath my olive dp layer. I also punched my snowflake out of the olive layer which would also be covered and not seen.



Supplies:
stamps- High hopes woodland Santa, DRS designs sentiment
CS- choc chip, watercolor, very vanilla, pebbles inc. dp
ink- palette noir
accessories- brown twill, ink pads (tangerine tango, olive, artichoke, cocoa, grey, caramel, choc chip), markers in the same, twinkling H2Os (pumpkin spice, chestnut brown, forest green), martha stewart snowflake punch, button

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you will get a chance to play along with the high hopes challenge this week, I would love to see what you do.

Have a blessed day!

H&M blog hop- Festive Favorites

Hi everyone! The H&M stamps DT members have some awesome projects to show you for this month's blog hop. The theme this month is festive favorites. I made 2 candle and card sets to show you.



For the candles I stamped the images onto tissue paper and adhered them to my candle with wax paper and a heat tool. I then added stickles to them for some sparkle




For this card I stamped the holly leaves with my essential glue pad and sprinkled it with green glitter. I stamped the berries and painted royal red shimmerz over them.


I thought I would just show you how I made the snowflake wreath. First, I drew a circle in pencil using my CM circle cutter as a template.



Next, I started stamping my solid snowflakes around the circle lining up the notches on the snowflakes with the circle. I also started toward the bottom of the wreath so if it overlapped on the bottom the ribbon would cover it. I love these stamps for this because they are clear you see through them for perfect placement. I am sorry but this photo is a bit blurry but I hope you get the idea.



I then used my line snowflake stamp and stamped them in between the solid snowflakes using the line on the snowflakes to fit on the circle. This photo shows it a little better.



Continue stamping so the entire circle is filled then erase your pencil line. I also did one using only the line snowflake.


I like the combination of the solid and line snowflake images together though. I accented the snowflakes with stickles and a rhinestone in the center. I added my bow at the bottom and used my Marvy scallop corner punch on the top corners of the card. Here is a closer view of the finished card.





All of my projects use the H&M Stamps Create a bulb stamp set. If you have any questions please just let me know.

Be sure to check out the other DT members projects and see what terrific ideas they have. There is going to be an awesome prize given if you would like to play along with us. Here are the deets:

Here's what you need to do to "hop" along -

There will be one winner chosen for each category from all the DT's blogs combined.

1. Post a comment with the link to your project here on this post using H&M Stamps for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to H&M Stamps

2. Post a comment with the link to your project here on this post using other companies stamps for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to H&M Stamps

3. Leave a comment here explaining your favorite Christmas Treat/Memory/Gift, etc. for a chance to win 10 yards of ribbon from H&M Stamps.

All entries/comments due by Friday 11/7/08

Are you ready to start hoppin' along? Here's the list of participants -

1. Julie
2. Carolina
3. Debbie
4. Kim
5. Emma
6. Nancy
7. Julia
8. Neva
9. Shannon
10. Heather
11. Tracy

One last thing before you hop away...H&M Stamps is offering 40% off of all Fall Sets and FREE SHIPPING until Christmas...not to mention Heather has already slashed prices by 20%! H&M Stamps is here to help you through the holiday hustle and bustle!