this is happiness

hello *yawn*

after having monday off, i feel like it's got to at least be thursday...but alas, it's wednesday! ha ha! sometimes short work weeks are the longest! lol!

well, today i'm sharing a really fun card i made for the most current CAS(E) this sketch challenge! i LOVE the sketches of this challenge, and this one is no exception!

so FUN!!

so here's my take:

i used create a smile stamps for my card! i just LOVE that sleepy kitty from the comfy stamp set!
the images were colored with distress markers and then i popped up the kitty on the blanket to match the dimension from the wood veneers!

the sentiment is actually on the wood veneer and i love it! then i added some circle wood veneers to replicate a sort of bokeh look!

i LOVE the bright happy colors here! oh, and that background...? yeah! i used transluscent embossing paste and two different mists to create that aqua color! swoon - so FUN! love it!

so that's my card!
enjoy!

a little {foxy} christmas in july

hello!!

i have been wanting to play along with the latest CAS(E) this sketch challenge, ever since i saw the sketch!
it's so versitle and can totally be used in a ton of unique ways!! 

see? so cute!

for my card, i used the SUPER adorable woodland creatures stamp set from create a smile stamps!
LOVE the animals on this set...truth time - i had a hard time choosing an animal for this card, because i literally love them all! ha ha!

so, i decided to go a little christmas in july! he he!
the images were all watercolored with distress markers and then i popped the fox (and his santa hat!) up for dimension!

the snowflakes were stamped onto vellum (they are from the lawn fawn set, frosties!), i love vellum snowflakes! especially over the embossing paste snowy background! :)

and for the sentiment, i just did some simple masking for one of the phrases from the same woodland creatures stamp set! easy peasy!

hope it made you smile! 
enjoy!

miles apart don't affect the heart

hey there!

i was just sitting here...thinking, why not share a card i made the other day?
it was for the awesome sketch at the CAS(E) this sketch challenge! i mean, it just BEGS you to play along!

see? it's so cute!
so, for my card, i broke out my new mama elephant stamps! and i used the uber adorable in my heart set! SO sweet!!

that little boy image with the feety pajamas...ack! so adorable! so i had to color him up first! :)
first i used some embossing paste and a US map sencil for the front panel. then i layered some washi behind it for color pops! 

i stamped the sentiment on vellum and then stitched it onto my card, over the embossing paste! texture, texture, texture! lol! 

the little image was colored with copics and then popped up and a little airplane wood veeneer finished it off! :)

so that's my card! i just love it! 
thanks for stopping by!
enjoy!

so happy for you!

hello there!
i'm here with a quick (almost late!) entry for the current CAS(E) this sketch challenge!! i LOVE this challenge! the sketches ALWAYS get my mojo flowing! 

i'm also playing along with the re-vamped CAS-ual Friday's challenge!! shades of grey - done!! LOOOOOOVE grey!!

we just found out my brother is expecting a baby this fall! it's super exciting news! and i in honor of that, i wanted to make a personalized card for the happy couple! 

i used two newton's nook designs stamp sets: newton's antics and winged wishes (for the sentiment!).
i fussy cut out the kitten and then colored her with my white gel pen to look like their super lovable furbaby! then i popped her up onto a vellum die cut heart! what's cuter than a onesie with an animal on it right? :)

the onesie was cut from a template i found online, and then i added some dashed lines around the edges to look like stitching! :)
lastly, the sentiment was heat embossed in white, so it would really pop! :)

so that's it! 
off to get through the rest of the week! ha ha! anyone else ever have one of those weeks, where you're just ready for it to be over? guilty!! :)
see you back on friday with a fun and very CAS birthday card! :)
enjoy!

truly, madly

sundays are bittersweet! it's the last day of the weekend, which means you can still enjoy not working, but it's also the last day of the weekend, which means, work comes tomorrow! (for me at least!) ha ha!

anyway, i made a card for the most current sketch for the CAS(E) this sketch challenge! 

the sketch was created with speech bubbles...hello! i knew i had to play along!

and after going back and forth between actually using speech bubbles or changing things up (clouds? arrows? hearts?) i stuck with the speech bubbles, i just can't get enough! :)

so here's my card:

it's VERY clean and simple. all of the stamps are from the mama elephant stamp set, bling. i stamped and fussy cut out the speech bubbles and hearts. then i popped up a few of each for some dimension. i also added glossy accents to all of the hearts. 

the potty people - my experiment of the day!! i used my dies from my favorite things (boy meets girl) and then used the negative as a stencil for my embossing paste! fun, right? i didn't the girl first, so you can tell she's a little...uneven to say the least. but the i got it all sorted out when it time to use the boy stencil.

so that's it! lots of fun, but still simple! (believe me...i resisted added enamel dots, sequins, more hearts...you name it! it was so hard! what do you think? does it need something else?)

enjoy!

wish you were here

the new sketch for CAS(E) this sketch is fun and unique and i love it! 

i couldn't wait to try my hand at it! i broke out my mama elephant stamps and got to work! i used full house and bling stamp sets.

i paper pieced the little houses into two towns and then added a colored a few of the 'rows' with a grey copic marker and then used one of the single houses (with the yellow heart in the middle) to symbolize the subjects (the miss-ee and the miss-er)! :) two of the rows were also popped up for dimension.

i stamped the sentiment/speech bubble onto vellum (love that!). and then added a sewn border with my sewing machine!

i love that teal background, and not just because i love teal, yellow and grey! ha! i love it because it has the days of the week, like i'm thinking of the recipient everyday of the week! perfect!

well i hope you all have an excellent weekend and i hope you have time to get crafty (i'm hoping too!!)!
enjoy!

merry wishes

i'm totally loving this card i made for the current CAS(E) this sketch challenge! :)

i used mama elephant polar pals stamp set - yahoo for starting christmas cards early! i make my own christmas cards, and i need to pace myself since i create different cards for each person! (i LOVE the idea of mass producing the same card for everyone, especially a very special card, but i just lose interest and get bored! so that's me in a nutshell - i create more work for myself!)

anyway, here's the card:

i paper pieced those cute as can be penguins and then cut them so they appeared to be peaking out frmo behind the washi tape! ha ha!i also made a custom sentiment by masking some of the provided sentiments! a simple tap on my staz-on ink pad and vwa-la! you can stamp right onto washi tape! :)

i added a few sequins for...fun and also because i have a slight addiction to them! :)
that whole base was then popped up onto the a white card base i had liberally sprayed with mr heuy's shine mist! to add a little more sparkle! :)

so that's it! 
do you make your own christmas cards? and if so, do you make one or two layouts or 1000 different cards like i do? i'm so interested to know! 
enjoy! 

love moo so much!

hey all! today i made a card and i think it's just so cute! :)
i used the sketch from CAS(E) this sketch - i think it's just fantastic! 

my card uses four mama elephant stamp sets, even though it's super clean and simple (for me!)!

i used the clouds to represent the banner! :) ha ha! (the clouds are from sunny skies).
everything is popped up for dimensionand i even added glossy accents to the 'moo'! 

speaking of the sentiment, i used one of the speech bubbles from the 'hello' stamp set and then added the fun part of the sentiment with the midnight letters - love those! :)

the little cow (he he!) was paper pieced and is from the cosmic stars stamp set. i finished off the card with some pearls and that's it! 

super soft and fun card! i was stiffling some laughs the whole time i was making the card (love moo!). so i hope it made you chuckle a little.
enjoy!

i've got sunshine

i have been lucky enough to have a little down time with work (we're usually go-go-go and don't stop ever!!!!! lol!). but for some reason, we're a little slow, and that means more fun time for me! :) so i'll take it while it lasts! :)

last night, i made a card for the current CAS(E) this sketch challenge! i love this challenge blog!! but this week, i have to admit, it was hard for me. i don't know why exactly, but i was finally able to come up with an idea that i liked with the sketch! :)

so i took the sketch and rotated it about...45 degrees (according to my engineer husband). here it is:

it's ok, right? maybe not stunning, take your breath away, but i'm happy with it! :)

i used some gold embossing powder to create the sun 'rays'. then i stamped the sentiment over that with some black staz-on ink. oh yeah, all of the stamps are from mama elephant's sunny skies stamp set. love that one! :)

then i added some enamel dots (to emphasize the rays, of course) and popped up the whole grey panel onto some black cardstock. fun! 

so that's it! :) i'm off to the beach with my little menn (love love love love love the beach). i'm sure to get some inspiration (and rays!!) there!

enjoy!

hello friend

today i played along with two challenges today! i llike my card, but i have to say, i think i took the long way to make it! ha ha! the two challenges i played along with are the sweet stamp shop's use what you have challenge and CAS(E) this sketch! it's hard for me to resist a sketch challenge! :)

i also can't resist city scenes lately! here's my card:

first i stamped some of the skyscrapers from the sweet stamp shop's cityscape stamp set. then i used a craft knife to cut out all of the windows. then i adhered a layer of acetate behind that and popped it all up and added lots of martha stewart glitter to create a shaker element! :)

i have had this glitter forever! i originally bought it because i really have a weakness for brightly colored (anythings) in assorted colors. true story! ha! anyway, as it is now, generally if i want to add a little glitter, i use stickles, not loose glitter.

oh well, i had a reason to break out some loose glitter now - this challenge! :) 
i really like the road washi tape, too! it's like we're driving to a friend's to say hello! :) and of course, what's a road trip without some sunrays and sequins, right?! :) oh, and the sentiment is from the 'furry friends forever' stamp set.

so that's it! 
enjoy!

buttercup

my card for today features more mama elephant stamps. i can't resist them, they're too cute and fun for CAS projects! which is why the card was created for the most current challenge at CAS(E) this sketch! here's the sketch they provided:

i thought the polaroid from 'we click' would just be perfect for this sketch. here's my take:

i like the muted colors together for this card, and i had the 'you are my sunshine' song stuck in my head while i was making this card, and that came through sort of subtly (grey background, sunshine in the polaroid, etc). :)

the clouds are fussy cut and popped up from the 'sunny skies' stamp set. and the sentiment is from 'say what' stamp set, and i was totally digging how the flourish of the 'b' overlaps onto the background of the 'picture'.

to finish it off, i added a few pearls to the clouds, i tried to resist adding sequins...but alas, i could not resist adding a little embellishment. :)

so that's my card!

enjoy! 

stinkin cute

hey there!
i have a card to share that i made for the current CAS(E) this sketch challenge! (just eeeeeeek-ing it in!)
the sketch is just divine! and i was able to find (literally!) 20 minutes to craft while the house was quiet and the little menn were napping!

i used this set from simon says stamp - stinkin cute - and it really is!! that skunk makes me crazy it's so cute! :) i couldn't wait to color him up! here's my card! :)

i stamped the base of the card is watercolor paper. then i stamped that skunk (see? adorable, right?!) and used my distress markers and watercolored him in. LOVE it! :) i even like how it looks like i went out of the lines and the colors blended together - that's the point of the watercolor look, right? :)

i also added a strip of the lilac-y colored distress marker which i watercolored around and then stamped over with the dots from this set from simon says stamp - furry kisses. LOVE these images too! even the dots are cute! is that possible?

finally, after a sprinkling of rain (to add to the eeyore-ness of this card...you know, doom and gloom and rain clouds, etc) was added i also added some sequins. but they were super large and super sequin-y, so i added some my minds eye enamel dots to the center in order to tone them down. i love it! :)

so that's it!

enjoy!

simply wonderful

my card today is fun! i have had this idea for a while now (some of it!), but finally made it come to life late last night! :) i was inspired by the challenge at CAS(E) this sketch! it totally fit my vision and helped me get the card from my head to paper! :)

i used three stamp sets from mama elephant for this card: sunny skies, cosmic stars and smitten! :)

i stamped the balloon part of the hot air balloon with picked raspberry distress ink onto water color paper. once it was dried, i colored over some of the pleats of the balloon with a darker pink from my inktense pencils and blended it in (evvvvvveeeer so carefully! ha!) to add a hint of dimensions of color.
the girl (virgo for you astrology lovers!) was also watercolored with the inktense pencils. i cut slits of her hair so the basket of the hot air balloon could be 'behind' her hair. that whole little scene was popped up for dimension! :)

the clouds were made with this cloud die from taylored expressions. i used the negative and main cut! i just off set them and added some washi behind it to add the feel of warm sunny rays!

so that's it! i'm totally hoping to get inky today too...fingers crossed i can! :)
enjoy!

grateful beyond glitter

i made a very thankful card today, and i love it! i decided i wanted to use gold, which i usually shy away from...but as you'll see, i embraced it whole heartedly for this card! and turns out, i love pink and gold together! 

so i made this card for the challenge at CAS(E) this sketch! love that sketch! and i came up with the idea of flipping it and making those hanging banners speech bubbles instead! 

here's what i mean:

(warning - it's shiny, it's bright, it's glittery)

i used the hello and good times stamp sets for this card, from mama elephant.i heat embossed (in gold!) the speech bubbles onto a soft, pale pink paper, and popped one up for dimension. then i layered some pink glitter ribbon and gold glitter tape to add some extra shine. 

the little potty people were stamped and then glittered to match the pink ribbon tape. lastly, i added some vairous sizes of wood veneeer stars to bring the card back down to earth. :) 

as you can imagine, it was sort of difficult to capture the true shininess and glittery goodness of this card. but that's ok! in person, it's super fun! 

so that's it!

enjoy!

what's up?

hey there! i just finally jumped on the avery elle band wagon and received some of their AWESOME stamps! i don't know what took me so long...but i can tell you this - they are fabulous!

to christen my new stamps from a new (to me!) company, i created a card for the current CAS(E) this sketch challenge! the sketch this week is so fun!! and it SCREAMS sequins! bonus! ha ha!

so here's my card:

i watercolored the giraffe with my inktense pencils - so fun!i used the 'what's up' stamp set, and i am in love! 
the giraffe and one of the clouds is also popped up for dimension. and then, because i was really feeling the groove...i decided to flock the giraffe's mane! flock!! it's so fuzzy, and just fun!! i also added some glossy accents to that hipster's glasses.

i don't know why, but this card just cracks me up! a hipster griaffe, with a flocked mane! yes, please! 
so that's it! 
enjoy!

a happy birthday cupcake

happy mother's day to all today! whether you're a mom to a fur baby with a tail, grown kids, new baby's, or wish you were a mom. this day is for everyone, and i'm thankful for all of the mom's in my life. 

today i have a little card to share for the current challenge at CAS(E) this sketch! :)

and for my card, i used neat and tangled stamps and sequins! 
i sort of flipped the sketch, but i still think it works! :)

everything is paper pieced and the little cupcake (LOOOOOVE the cupcake images and sentiments on the sketchy cupcakes stamp set!) is popped up for dimension! and i love that tiny polka dotted 'frosting' ha ha! 

i added a dash of sequins to add a tiny bit of bling and also because they're my latest obsession, so they stay! :) i chose the typographic background paper because i LOVED the sayings on there, and i thought it would be PERFECT to use on a birthday card! it's hard to get older, right??? so it's good to be reminded you're beautiful, loved and wonderful! :) especially around a birthday! (or is that just because i'm going to be 32 in july and it FREAKS me out!! lol! how am i 31 already?!)



so that's it! be kind to everyone today, everyone has their own battles, blessings and struggles to face! so while you're celebrating today, celebrate everyday! :)
enjoy!