July ATC: Turtles!

Well, I've been busy as a bee with my new graphic design class and haven't had time to stamp much lately. Can you believe that even though it's called graphic design, I have to draw all of my designs by hand??? Crazy! I haven't actually drawn anything for a school assignment for at least 10 years, so it's been a rough learning curve. Nonetheless, I'm enjoying the challenge.



Enough about me, and on to my ATC. Thank goodness for Tracy and her monthly ATC group to motivate and inspire me! I did this turtle-themed one for July using a Denami Designs turtle and a Wordsworth sentiment. I really tried to do some shadowing on the turtles with my Copics, and I used a clear Glaze pen on their shells. Cute and simple, just the way I like it!

See you soon!

Denami Blog Hop!

Hi there, and welcome to my stop on the Denami Blog Hop! You should've just arrived here from Virginia Larsen's blog. If so, welcome! If you're just joining the hop, you may want to start at the Denami Design blog.

The theme of today's hop is Cuddly Critters, and I've got a darling one to share with you. Have you met their cute little mouse? I'll admit, a mouse isn't usually the first critter I want to cuddle with, but once you see Denami's, you'll understand why I just fell in love with the little guy. Wanna see?



I love how easy it is to have him and his friends peeking out from the holes in my hunk of homemade Swiss cheese. Fun!

Be sure to comment to be eligible to win one of those two $20 Denami gift certificates (given to people who comment along the hop), and thanks for stopping by!

Next stop: Laurel Beard's blog.

Pink and Navy

Well, I don't have a lot to show for four days off. Somehow, the weekend whipped by in a flurry of activities away from home: a doggie playdate, a museum visit, a trip up to Sacramento to celebrate the four year anniversary of Paper Garden, and the movies "Bucket List," and "Machete." I did manage to make this simple card though.

My card stash is seriously lacking in birthday and thank you cards, so I'm making it my mission to make some in a variety of themes. Here's the first quickie. Last week, my boss came in wearing a navy dress and a pink sweater, and I loved it as a color scheme. I added gray and light blue, and voila! a card was born.

Have a great day!

The Dog Days of Summer

Holy cow! Can you believe that it's September already? August just whipped by me. Every weekend we had something going on, from a visit to our county fair to a wedding to a trip to Reno to a comedy show. I'm looking forward to September being the dog days of summer and a little mellower.

Speaking of dogs, today's cards were quickies that I made up using strictly scraps from another project I was working on. The coordinating scraps were all sitting together so I figured I'd try and use them up.

The patterned paper is by Heidi Swapp. From a cardmaker's perspective, it's often hard to find smaller patterns on 12x12 paper for making cards, but this one fits the bill nicely. The blue paper is by Coredinations, and the yellow is by Bazzill. The stamps are from a mini set from Basic Grey that I picked up at my LSS.



Have a great day!

Have a Rockin' Birthday!

Hello, and happy hump day! This week is flying by for me. I recently signed up for a graphic design course at the local community college, and between that and my volunteering, I am becoming one busy girl!

Nonetheless, birthdays must be celebrated! This card is for an uber-hip friend that's really into music. She travels all over the country to see bands play and writes articles about it so naturally, I had to make her a rock star card.

The cardstock is all by Bazzill. I drew the star shape in Illustrator and cut them out with my Cricut and the Sure Cuts a Lot software (which is living up to its name!). I love being able to draw my own shapes and cut them out. The starry foiled patterned paper is by Die Cuts with a View. The purple striped paper is by Echo Park and it's actually Halloween-themed on the back. I love it when I can use holiday papers for non-holiday purposes!

The rock star image is by A Muse, and he's one of my favorite stamps. I couldn't find an appropriate sentiment in my collection, so I actually printed this one onto the cardstock using my printer. I was amazed at how well the paper took the printer ink, and I'll be doing that more in the future.

The finished card measures 3 5/8 inches by 8 1/2 inches and fits nicely in a #10 business envelope.

Have a great day!

Simon Sees, Part 2

Happy Monday! Did everyone have a good weekend?

Hubby and I spent the weekend in the biggest little city in the world, taking in the bright lights and the clink-clink-clink of slot machines. Despite all of the distractions though, all I could think about was coming home and stamping!

I whipped up this cutie using leftovers from another card. I always make a few focal images at a time and pick my favorite for the card I'm working on, and occasionally, the extras are cute enough to be made into cards themselves. That's what happened with this little guy.

I used this sketch for inspiration:



All of the deets can be found here, except for the ribbon, which is from Michael's.

Have a great week!

Happy "Bee" Day!

Today is my mom's birthday, so of course I had to do something to commemorate the occasion. She HATES celebrating her day with a passion, but I think I managed to find a safe solution to let her know I care.

I got her a dozen roses, and then made a custom flower pick to go with it. I freehanded the bee on black cardstock, then added the yellow stripes over the top. The wings are punched circles that I drew outlines on in black pen, and then glittered with baby blue Stickles. I wrote my note with a white Uniball Signo pen (love that pen!), so it would stand out on the black cardstock.

I'm hoping that she'll be able to show off the flowers at work while secretly knowing the occasion.

Have a bee-utiful weekend!