A study in black and white

Well wasn't that crazy weather yesterday???? I really hope we have seen the end of the snow! Ick!!
I always forgot about the color combo black and white however I am always very happy with how the cards turn out when I do I use this combo.
This card was super quick to do and would work for pretty much any occasion. I grabbed a piece of My Mind's Eye paper and embossed 3 daisies from the Impression Obsession set Nature Prints with black embossing powder. I stamped the Hero Arts sentiment also in black embossing powder then added some May Arts twine then mounted the cardstock to my main card and easy peasy card done!
Thanks everyone for stopping by hope you are having a great week!

Guest Designer Linda & Carley

The store had a  few weeks of a special sales associate in June - Carley boxer and her Mom Linda were over for a few weeks and helped out around the store while Carley was helping the customers Linda was making cards. Here is one of her creations using the new My Mind's Eye paper Follow Your Heart. Love it.
Linda also used a Craft Concepts embossing folder, Just Rite sentiment, Spellbinder dies and May Arts Twill ribbon.
Thanks everyone for stopping by!

A fabulous birthday!

A close friend of mine had a birthday last week and I made her this card using one of the new Penny Black Hello Gorgeous stamp set. I stamped the gal on watercolor cardstock and colored her with my Tombow markers. I matted her as shown. I cut out 2 Spellbinder Picot circles (one blue and one yellow) and 2 smooth circles and stamped a Hero Arts sentiment. I stamped the martini and shaker stamps on a scrap of yellow cardstock and colored them with my Tombow markers. The pattern paper is by My Minds Eye. I added some Hero Arts gems to the front of the card and some Crystal and True Blue Stickles to glam it up even more! Because my friend is also a cardmaker I felt I should take the card up a notch so I did something I rarely do - I decorated the inside of the card! I stamped the gal in Cadilac on the inside of the card then I stamped her again on a scrap of YELLOW cardstock and cut out the car and glued it on top of the prestamped the car. For those who know me, you will know why I picked a yellow car. :) I stamped my Penny Black happy birthday sentiment to finish off the card. Hope everyone had a good long weekend!

Butterfly Quote Mini Album

Today's post is a long one! I was inspired a week or so back to do a quote book similar to the one I saw on the BoBunny Blog. I used a Sizzix Butterfly mini album die which if you follow the blog will see I have used quite a bit recently. I decided to use Bazzil, Bo Bunny Double dot and My Minds Eye cardstock. The quote on the cover is by Hero Arts. Embellishments are by Bo Bunny (buttons), Hero Arts (flowers), My Minds Eye (twine), Doodlebug (Pool Brad) and Ranger Fruit Punch Stickles. Page 1 has more Hero Arts quotes. The hedgie is by Penny Black which I stamped on a scrap of watercolor cardstock and colored with my Tombow markers. The swirly is from the Sizzix die and I used more Hero Arts Flowers as well as some Hero gem flowers. I used lots of embellishments for this mini and even managed to use up some of those old packets of embellishments that had a few token bits left. That made me happy so then I can justify buying new packets! Page 3-  I stamped a Penny Black saying "Dance, Sing, Love" on a piece of Bo Bunny Double dot cardstock and cut it up for the next few pages. I cut each sentence apart to use on different pages. I added Ranger's Glossy Accents on each large word to give them a bit more oomph. I added a heart left over from the Sizzix die. I stamped the hedgie dancer (from Penny Black's 12 days of Christmas clear set) on another scrap of watercolor cardstock and colored her then cut her out with a Spellbinder classic oval. I added Stickles to her tutu. Added some gems and a brown pearl. Page 4 is from the same Dance Sing Love and the drumming dog is also from the Penny Black 12 days of Christmas set. I added some bling by using my Sakura Stardust pen to the silver parts of his drum set. I used a Tombow marker to add some dots around the outside edge of the Butterfly.

Page 5 is another Penny Black image that I paper pieced and used another piece of the Dance quote. The butterfly is by Flourishes. I added another Hero Arts flower gem and added Glossy Accents to the bees wings.

This page has the final piece of the Love quote that I stamped directly onto the page. I colored another Penny Black image with my Tombows on watercolor paper. I added Stickles to the flower and some pearls to the page as well.

This page has more Hero Arts quotes. Images are by Penny Black and colored with Tombow markers. I added some Stampendous white Fun Flock to the bunny tail.

This page has even more Penny Black images colored with Tombow markers. Sentiment and flower gems are by Hero Arts. I added a bit of green Stickles to the grass. Final page - I stamped a row of Penny Black mice (from the Micey Day set) then stamped the Hero Arts sentiment on a scrap and wrapped some My Minds Eye twine around the scrap and added some more clear gems to finish things up.
Thanks for staying with me!

Blue Birthday

Well its been quite  week for me busy in the store and my car's ABS system has bitten the du$t! Didn't help my already lacking mojo however a friend was kind enough to bring some of her magazines to borrow to give that old mojo a jump start. I still have at least 1 more man birthday card to make in the next few weeks but here is one more. I'm very happy with how this card turned out.
I cut a circle card out using my Spellbinder scalloped circles then cut out a smooth circle and embossing it with one of the NEW Couture Creations embossing folders called Royalty. Love it! I took a Hero Arts clear branch stamp and applied 3 blue Tombow markers directly to the stamp and sprayed with water then stamped the image onto a scrap of cream linen cardstock. I cut out the image and then assembled the card as shown. As you can see I am using more of the Lime Squeeze designer paper, this time the blue wood grain pattern - love that as well!
Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!
Card Recipe:
Stamps Hero Arts, Just Rite ribbed Happy Birthday
Tombow markers: 391, 373, 476
Paper: Bazzill and My Minds Eye
Ink: Archival Jet Black
Other: Couture Creations Royalty embossing folder, Robin's Nest dew drops, Spellbinder scalloped and smooth circles

I have been trying to participate in the Penny Black blog contests for the past few months now with only a few entries so far however I did manage to get this card in under the wire for last week's challenge.

The challenge was to "lift" a card from one of the Penny Black designers. I chose to lift a card by Jill Foster.
I began this card by stamping and embossing this flower stamp by Penny Black with gold embossing powder on dark grey cardstock. I colored all the flowers first with a white pencil crayon then with colored pencil crayons so the colors would really pop.
I cut out the black with a Big scallop classic rectangle by Spellbinder then matted it on a piece of white, blue and black. I debated quite a while on how to finish the card nothing seemed quite right. As I was about to give up my friend Leslie showed up and was raving about a great new technique by Becca of Amazing Paper Grace. That lead to an unexpected "play date". The Becca technique makes a medallion using a lacy border punch but we figured we could tweak the technique and make a similar medallion with the Spellbinder borderabilities and it worked!! This medallion was actually done with the border in the new Spellbinder set called Parisian Accents. Love how it turned out!! I finished the medallion with a Kaiser pearl.
I used the new My Mind's Eye I was raving about the other day (Hip Hurray) for the card and the bottom border piece (the Parisian border I used for the medallion).
Thanks for stopping by.