Happy Earth Day and 20 followers celebration!

Happy Earth Day everyone! I made a quick card in honor of Earth Day. I couldn't resist using this sentiment from Whimsie Doodles- Save Earth it's the only planet with Chocolate!

Yay! We have reached 20 followers and you know what that means....BLOG CANDY!!! I will post a picture of the candy tomorrow and you will be able to comment on that post to win. I will select a random winner from the comments but you must be a follower of this blog. I will do the drawing on April 25th! (So far the candy will include... A black memento dew drop ink pad, 3 copic markers, 5 prismacolor colored pencils, tortillions, a stamp set, a scrapbooking kit, misc...embellishments, some Tim Holtz Alterations die cuts, and cardstock)...

Recipe: Digi stamp by Tiddly Inks, Sentiment digi from Whimsie Doodles, Heidi Grace designer paper, SU! Certainly Celery cardstock, Memento Pear Tart Dew Drop Ink, Kaisercraft lush pearls, Prismacolor pencils, baby oil and paper stumps.

At the Rainbow's End

I just love Rainbows so I had to get this St. Pat's Digi Stamp collection from Whimsie Doodles. One more day till St. Patty's and my birthday! YAY!!!

My birthday present to myself was to sign up for Suzanne Dean's online Advanced Copic Coloring Class 3. I watched the first lesson last night...I still have to do my homework...which is coloring African American skintones. I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality of the videos and level of detailed instruction. Amazing! I am very happy with this gift to myself! If you would like to sign up for one of Suzanne's online classes too, you can do it here. She offers a Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced class. (Please mention that I referred you when you email Suzanne! so that I can get extra credit! lol!)

Copics used:

Pot- C3, C5, C7, C9

Gold- YOO, Y11, Y15, YR24

Rainbow- RV23, RV25, Y17, Y21, BG02 B04. BV01

Cloud- BG0000

Sentiments- G02, G05, G09

Other supplies- St Pat's digi stamps from Whimsie Doodles, Green cardstock (The Angel Company), Designer Paper- Best Creations, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Shamrock crystal sticker- Michael's, Gold Sakura Gelly Roll Glitter Pen, Nestabilities Label 12 die

Top O' the Mornin'

Here is my first St. Patty's Day card for this year. Those who know me know that St. Patty's is my favorite holiday, and no it is not because of the green beer. St. Patty's Day is also my birthday! Yay! A whole parade just for me...lol! I made this card using Coredinations Cardstock, Best Creations glitter scrapbooking paper, and my nesties lable 12 dies. The word friend and circular Top O' the mornin...sentiment are digi stamps from Whimsie Doodles that I colored with some copics: G02 G05 G09 RV23 and RV25. The dark green glitter shamrock and the Crystal shamrock are stickers from Michael's are the shamrock charm is from Blue Mountain Beads. I airbrushed it green with my G05 copic marker and ABS system.

Yum Yum Treat card and Sharing My Excitement!

I made this yummy looking cupcake thank you card for my Pastor. He is a really wonderful man and he gave me an early birthday present- money to buy Align. You see, I suffer from IBS and it is chronic and sometimes debilitating. When I have an "episode" I can't go anywhere or enjoy anything. Align is on the expensive side for probiotics and still very new, so I was not sure if it would work. He gave me the money to try it. It was such a thoughtful gesture for him to do that. I'm crossing my fingers that it works.

Recipe: Digi freebie from Whimsie Doodles and Sentiment from SU!, My Mind's Eye Be Loved Designer Paper and coordinating Prism Cardstock, PTI Aqua Mist Ribbon, Bow Easy, Neenah Solar White Cardstock, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, Copics:

On to sharing my excitement, here is the news- It is here! My Janome Sew Mini sewing machine arrived last night. I am so excited. The weather forecast says 100% chance of snow, so I will have lots of time this weekend to figure out how to use it.

Last night, I also started putting together a Copic Mini Journal. Rachel that runs the CopicMunkie blog was nice enough to share her journal and the template pages for it as well as all sorts of color recommendations from the club and her journal. There are pages for four color families- Basics, Brights, Mutes, and Naturals. There are also sections for Hair and Skin Combos, and Favorite Color Combinations. You can find this info here if you would like to make your own mini journal. It is cute and portable at this precious little 4.25 X5.5 size. I put mine on binder rings instead of binding it with my bind it all since I want to be able to add more pages as I go. So this weekend I will be working on this and figuring out how to sew on my cards with my new Sew Mini.

vday ele

Here is a very cute valentine I made for my mommy because she loves Elephants. It is inspired by TuesdayMorning Sketch # 31.

Recipe: Elephant Shoes digi stamp from Whimsie Doodles, My Mind's Eye Be Loved Designer Paper and elements, SU! Riding Hood Red Cardstock, Petaloo Dazzlers, SU! Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Neenah Solar White Cardstock, Dimensionals, Copics:

Sock It To Me

Here is a quick valentine I Made a few days ago. I'm still sick so I may not have another card until Saturday.

Recipe: Sock Monkey and sentiment digi from Whimsie Doodles, SU! DSP and Cardstock, Martha Stewart Hearts Border Punch, Reflections Rhinestones, Bubblegum Pink ribbon from Paper Maniac, Copics, SU! Heart Punches

Copics used: E31, E33, E35, E37, R20, R81, R83, R85

Die Cuts R Us Challenge 21

This weeks DCRU Challenge #21 was Leftovers!!!"
More specifically, to make a NEW creation from left over
Christmas/Holiday Scrapbook Paper. I had some left over Whimsie Doodles digi images, so I combined them with this weeks Easel Card tutorial on Splitcoast and my left over My Minds Eye Paper. I even used the EK Success snowflake border punch that I just had to buy and then never took out of the packaging. I'm watching the red carpet for the golden globes right now and laughing at all the angry celebs who are complaining that it is raining in LA. It is barely raining there compared to here. It is raining cats and dogs here on the East Coast. back to my card, here is the inside or bottom half:

Here is a glamour shot of my pretty figure skater:

Finally, here are the copics I used to color her. I also used C1, C3, and C7 on the skate blades.

Recipe: Whimsie Doodles figure skater digi and sentiment, Prism Cardstock in Island Breeze
Medium and Light, Neenah Solar White cardstock, Sage Shadow grosgrain ribbon from SU!, Rhinestones anf foam stickers from M's, My Minds Eye paper, Stardust Stickles, Corner Rounder, Copics

My first Valentine...

My first valentine of the year. I made this quick card last night. Still feeling under the weather. The bow definitely needs some work. My Bow Easy is in the mail, finally ordered it, yay! Off to bed to get some needed rest.

Here is a close up of the Valentine's Whimsie digi stamp I received as a gift for applying for the Whimsie Doodles design team:

Copics used:

Wishing Ewe A Happy New Year!

Have a Happy and Safe New Year!

Recipe: Whimsie Doodles Lush digi stamp, Bo Bunny Tis the Season Treasure designer paper, Satin Ribbon, SU! Bashful Blue and Black cardstock, Neehan Solar White cardstock, Copics, Baby Blue Spica Glitter Pen

Copics Used: R05, R24, YG93, YG95, YG99, B000, W1, W3, W5, R81

Reindeer Poop

Last night I slaved away in the kitchen to make Reindeer Poop for my friends at work. What is Reindeer Poop you ask? Well in this case it is yummy, gooey, chocolate chip cookies. This was my first time making cookies from scratch and I love them! My co-worker was actually speechless when she tried them...she was too busy eating more pieces and licking the chocolate off of her fingers. I think they were a hit.

The tag on cookie baggie has a digistamp of "Olive and Toastie" by Whimsie Doodles and reads:

Reindeer Poop
Santa's been here. How do I know? Look what I found outside in the snow!

Nestle Tollhouse Pudding Chip Cookie Recipe:

Ingredients-
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 pkg. (4 serving size) instant vanilla, butterscotch or chocolate pudding mix (I used French Vanilla Jello pudding mix)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg
1 large egg white
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels

Directions-
PREHEAT oven to 350° F. COMBINE flour and pudding mix in small bowl. Beat butter in large mixing bowl on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Beat in brown sugar and baking soda until well combined. Beat in egg and egg white. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop dough by rounded teaspoon 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Cool on baking sheets 2 to 3 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Tis the Season for Snow Angels!

Remember when you were a kid and you had a ball playing in the snow making snow angels?
Well I had a ball playing in the house making this snow angel card. This card features one of the new releases from Whimsie Doodles. I just love their adorable digis. As you can see, I am still om my easel card kick.

I have been toying with the idea of buying the Bow Easy since I am not the best at tying ribbons. I know it only costs $5, but I was on the fence about it because I couldn't tell from looking at it , how it would work. How many times have we bought some contraption that was supposed to make our lives easier and then it just sits on a shelf because we can't figure it out? Well, last night I got extra creative and made my own ribbon tying template out of an plastic laminate sheet. It is shaped like a Bow Easy and works pretty well even though it is much flimsier than the real thing. Now that I know how it works, I will definitely order a real Bow Easy because I absolutely love how this bow turned out.

I colored in the Snow Angel image using my copics (BG0000, BG000, BG01, BG15, BG72, Y06, Y08, Y13, Y15, Y17, YR65, YR68). I added diamond stickles on the stars and stardust stickles on the wings. Gotta have some sparkles! Next I cut the image out and adhered it to the oval and scallop oval that I die cut from Nesties. I used Baja Breeze cardstock for the scallop oval and Whisper White for the inner oval and I airbrushed it with my BG72 copic marker to make it the background look like sky.

I topped off the card with lots of rhinestones and foam snowflake stickers and a silver snowflake brad. The background paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Jolly By Golly collection. I cut the rectangle in half diagonally so that I could show off both sides of the cute paper.

Angels for Sarah...

Here are some special order Holiday cards I just completed.

My friend Sarah requested little angels that looked like her, so I went to town on C.C. Designs Angel Emma with my copics (E25, E27, E33, E29, E47, E49, E50, E21, E53, RV25). She liked my Gold Snowflake easel card (using the snowflakes from Christmas Punch and Snow Swirled stamp sets from SU!) so we made some changes and added the Season's Greetings sentiment from the SU! stamp set Snow Swirled. (Cardstock is Kraft, Brushed Gold, Very Vanilla, and Shimmery White from SU!, Kraft ribbon, Scallop Edge Punch, Encore Gold Metallic Craft ink).

These are my first photos taken using my portable light studio. I ordered one of those light tent contraptions that comes with the lights. I still need to play around with my camera settings, but I was able to get a pretty good picture with the flash turned off. You can actually tell that there is stickles glitter on the card for a change.

Below is a special order card that my friend Rhiannon requested. She wanted something colorful with snowmen. I decided to do this one CAS style (Clean and Simple). I used the Snow Friends stamp from Whimsie Doodles and colored them in with my copics. (Riding Hood Red Cardstock, Sentiment, Scallop oval punch, and small oval punch from from Stampin' Up!).

The Holiday cards are finally ready!

I took ages, but I have finally finished my first batch of Holiday cards. I was making them to sell in packs of 5 cards each so you can imagine how much coloring, cutting and gluing was involved. I have already sold 10 boxes!!!

The first card below uses the Olive and Toasty image from Whimsie Doodles. This is my favorite card. A few people have already placed orders for this one. (Cards are $5 per 5 card pack/envelopes included- email me at michellena317@comcast.net to place an order).

Inside the cards feature one of the following sentiments:

Wishing you all the joys of the season and the best in the coming year! (landscape cards)

or

Season's Greetings and all good wishes for the New Year (portrait cards)

Below is the Kitty with tree image from C.C. Designs Christmas Time set.

Next features Angel Emma from C.C. Designs.

Here is the figure skater image from Whimsie Doodles.

Bunny with Ornaments from C.C. Designs

Puppy in Lights from C.C. Designs

Willow with Hot Chocolate from Whiff of Joy.

Another Angel Emma (with harp) from C. C. Designs

Snowflake motif from Stampin' Up Christmas Punch set

Snowman Tag from Stampin' Up Christmas Punch set. (sentiment says wish on the red panel and Tis the Season on the tag)

Note: All stamped sentiments on the cardfronts are by Stampin' Up!

One More- Snow Friends