CPS #58

As soon as I saw this CPS sketch I knew I had to get in on the act!

Not much stamping on this one. The "verdigris" rectangle is a Cuttlebug embossing folder on Papertrey Aqua Mist card stock, using the "Cuttlebug Negative Effect" with silver pigment ink, then swiping some green inks over the top. The circles have a different Cuttlebug embossed image, and I painted them with water colors after dry embossing.

Card stock: Papertrey Aqua Mist, Recollections Silver
DP: Basic Grey
Sentiment: Papertrey Mixed Messages
Bling: Swarovski Crystals
Ribbon: Michael's
Ink: Palette Landscape, Silver Pigment Ink, Versamagic Pesto

I haven't been making cards because I've been working very hard on a new quilt. I need to finish it by June 9 so that I can mail images of it to an exhibit. I'm hoping to get it assembled by next week, but then the quilting begins. It typically takes me between 60 and 100 hours to quilt a piece the size of this one, so I don't know how much card making is going to get done between now and then. You can see some of my quilts on my quilting website - be sure to go to the gallery and click on the images to see some detail shots of the quilting. In the mean time I'll post cards as time permits.

Thanks for stopping by!

Springy Birthday

I made this last week but didn't get a chance to post it yet. I've been very busy trying to catch up after having the kids home all last week for Spring Break!

I got a new Basic Grey stamp set and couldn't wait to "Build a Branch".

Card stock: Papertrey Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, and Stamper's Select
Stamps: Basic Grey Build-a-Branch, Inkadinkado Birds Galore, Papertrey Sentiment
Ink: Palette Ink Spring Moss, Aqua Mist and charcoal, Pink pigment ink, Ranger Archival Ink in Sepia
Ribbon: Papertrey Spring Moss Twill
Bling: Stickles

I'm hoping that in about a week our yard will have lots of branches blooming just like this one.

Quick Guy's Birthday

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Here's a quick guy's birthday card.

Not very springy! I made the paper on the left from a photograph of reflected pilings, and thought it had a very masculine feel. Originally I just paired it with the Basic Grey paper and did all the stamping on the Basic Grey, but the birthday sentiment wasn't showing up very well. Adding the green horizontal rectangle made for a much better design.

Paper: Basic Grey and my own
Stamps : Papertreyink Shapes by Design
Ink: Palette noir and Ranger Archival Ink Sepia

Have a great day!

Them Bones

OK, I'm making a separate post for this to keep it separate from the CPS card.

Recently one of the neighbor boys was in a very bad ski accident - he broke his jaw, elbow, and some vertebrae. He's doing very well under the circumstances, but still has a while to go before he's fully healed. This card's for him!


I've been waiting for the Basic Grey Archaic set to come out because I love the dinosaurs in it. I've made some "magic dinosaur paper" for my 5 year old and he had so much fun coloring it. Really there's no magic to it - I stamped white card stock with Versamark and heat embossed with clear EP, then let him color over the image with water based markers - he had a ball. This image was done the same way - I scribbled over the dinosaur with my children's marker, then spritzed over it with Ranger Adirondack color wash in Lettuce and wiped the excess off the image with a damp paper towel. The edges were sponged with Versamagic Java chalk ink after trimming the image with deckle edged scissors.

Paper - Basic Grey
Card stock - unknown from stash
Ink - Versamark, Versamagic Java, Ranger Sepia Archival Ink
Stamps - Basic Grey Archaic, Papertrey Mixed Messages

Thanks for stopping by!

CPS #56

Here's my take on CPS #56 - Spring Fling.


Almost no stamping on this one - more like Cuttlebug mania. I don't have oval nestabilities yet, so I went with my new favorite die, the Cuttlebug flowers. The background is one of the new embossing folders. I embossed some Papertery Stamper's Select card stock, then brushed a watercolor/pearlex wash over it. This is a fancy way of saying that I dumped a bit of pearlex on top of my Rose Art (chidren's) water colors, added a little water, and brushed it over the image. I intended it to be a little more yellow than gold, but it's nice and shimmery in person, and there was enough binder in the paint that the pearlex is not rubbing off at all.

When I think of Spring my first mental image is of yellow, pink, and white flowers. The flower is cut from Paper Reflections yellow card stock (available at Michael's) and has two pink pigment inks sponged around the outside - Versamagic Pixie Dust and Color Box pink.

Paper - origami paper
Card stock - Paper Reflections (yellow), Recollections, Papertrey Stamper's Select
Stamps - Studio G (flower center) and Papertrey Mixed Messages
Ink - Versamagic Pixie Dust and Color Box pink
Bling - Swarovski crystal, "antenna" from bridal section
Cuttlebug dies and embossing folder, Pearlex, water color paint

I hope things are starting to bloom in your neck of the woods!

Punchy Birthday

It's spring break here at the Playground so my maternal duties have been taking precedence the last few days. I have found time to make a quick birthday card made from some leftovers.

As I've said before I *love* my daisy punch. Whenever I punch with it I think "I should save that reverse image" - and this time I did. I confess that it's very difficult for me to put just the right amount of glue on the back of these crystals, so after the glue leaked out from underneath I tossed on some Martha Stewart glitter.


Paper - Basic Grey
Card Stock - Paper Reflections and unknown red
Stamps - Papertrey Beautiful Blooms and Mixed Messages
Punch - Marvy Uchida Daisy Punch
Bling - Swarovski Crystals
Ribbon & Button - Target $1 spot
Tools - Nestabilities and Cuttlebug Tiny Tags

If you've been here more than once you'll no doubt be *thrilled* that yesterday I got two new Basic Grey stamp sets - Archaic and Grow-A-Garden - so I'll be able to mix it up a little more now. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with some dinosaurs!

Shapely Flower (and Butterflies)

Here's another card I made using Shapes by Design by Papertrey.


The leaves are from Beautiful Blooms, but everything else is from Shapes by Design. I stamped the stem, then leaves, then the bottommost petal. That gave me the location to stamp the center circles (the Aqua Mist one filled with flowers, and the Spring Moss one outlining it). I stamped the petals in the 12, 3, and 9 o'clock positions, then filled in from there.

The butterfly bodies went on top of the flower, then I used a craft knife to make little slits on either side of the center circles of the bodies. The wings are the smallest heart Nestabilities, with another design from Shapes by Design stamped in Encore silver metallic pigment ink. The wings are inserted so that they're slightly beneath the bodies and adhered on the back of the white layer.

I finished off by adding stickles to the flower and butterfly wings, stamping a sentiment, adding a ribbon from Michael's and adhering to a card made from Aqua Mist.

We just came back from a lovely dinner and going out to see "Horton Hears a Who" with our three boys. I hope you're having a wonderful weekend too!