Thanks for Everything

 I made this card for my dad for Father's Day. The Kraft challenge at Make it Colourful was the inspiration, of course, but I thought it would make for a more "manly" looking card. Simple, clean, effective, and featuring my colouring. My dad has expressed that he really appreciates the effort I put into these coloured cards so I wanted it to be *perfect* for him. I used the Vintage T papers from WRMK and brads from MME. I used a Greeting Farm Ian stamp that unfortunately I cannot find a link for, sorry. But I thought he was adorable and uncomplicated for an uncomplicated man like my father. I hope you *and* my father like my little card. Thanks for looking!

The Copics I used for this image.

Forevermore

 I tried something different with the Evermore collection of Steampunks from Simply B Stamps this time. The Steampunks always seem to inspire me to colour them different from my normal "niche" and these images are so full of ennui like the Poe stories themselves. I tried to portray a sense of "the coming darkness" held back only by a small pinpoint of light. I used a piece of paper from Canvas Corp with ravens on it (how handy is that?!) to accentuate the frame, but I didn't want to embellish too much and distract from the "mood" of the images. I hope you all like them! Thanks for looking!

A Cavalcade of Cards

I made a lot of cards!!! Rio cards, specifically, so celebrate the release of the Rio collection from Simply B Stamps. I knew I wanted to create little tiny scenes with them. Each of these is 4.25x4.25 and all but the Little Shop of Horrors one has a Make it Crafty background. The "Audrey 2" digi stamp is actually a freebie.

 For this last one I did a bit of an experiment. I wanted to see the effect that my Distress Markers would have on the image. I think it gave it a creepier look, kwim?

I hope you like my cards. I've been very busy this week and I even just re-did my scrap area. Stay tuned for Wednesday when I reveal it! Thanks for looking everyone!

WOYWW 155

 I started out with four images to get done. Um... didn't make it that far. I got these two cards done today and started on a third before it was time for Mike to go to bed.

I used Victorian Summer Rio first, and then Summer Rio from Simply B Stamps to make these little cards. I like them cos they're bright and I'm way into the brightness right now. For Victorian Summer Rio I used a Make it Crafty background and for Summer Rio I just used a freebie I found as I wanted to keep it really simple so the image could stand out. I used MME and Dear Lizzy papers for these cards. I also made Victorian Summer Rio for the Mojo Monday sketch challenge this week. I thought it was perfect for her. I'm also entering Summer Rio into the anything goes challenge at Whimsy Stamps.

And a gratuitous shot of Mike washing the baby. Dirty pups need baths when they spend most of their time being nearly eaten by the Golden. Dog spit does not make for soft fur.

Thanks for coming everyone and I can't wait to see what you're up to this WOYWW!

Come At Me, Bro

Hey there! Today I'm entering Mojo Monday's sketch challenge with Water Balloon London from Simply B Stamps. I wanted to keep it simple, but summery, so I coloured her with calming blues. I used WRMK Cottontail papers for this, which goes to show you don't always need to stay with the theme of a paper collection. I tried something new with her hair, and failed miserably, but I think it's important to show my failures as well as my successes here. I hope you like my card. It's a nice and simple sketch which really fits my style.

WOYWW 154

 I spent a lot of today attempting to make a food related SMASH book, as well as making sure the pup went out to potty every half hour when the alarm went off. As tedious as it is, it's worked well. Two days without an accident in the house, and a major breakthrough: he actually *asked* to be let out. Scratched at the door and everything. At 10 weeks just today that's pretty darned good progress. Anyway just now I finished colouring this little gal. She reminded me of the old Sailor Moon cartoon so I coloured her as such. She's Rhi from the Simply B Stamps Toxic Teens digis. I love the anime look of them all... I just need to figure out the perfect project for her. But that's for another day. Thanks for coming everyone! I can't wait to see what you're all up to!

Opposites Attract

 I made this card for Mike using two of the Toxic Teens from Simply B Stamps. I tried something a little different with the colouring, going for irregular shading instead of the traditional way I colour stuff. It was supposed to be faster, but not really. I coloured them to look at Mike and I, cos we're so opposite and all. I used Jillibean Soup papers and then I put a little note for him on the back. He's going to take this to work.

These are the markers I used for you.

Picture Perfect

 I made this card for the Mojo Monday sketch challenge with Water Fun Rio from Simply B Stamps as the focal point. I'm really liking doing these sort of "portrait" versions of stamps and you can only do it with the digis, which has really got me addicted to my printer, hehe. I used Amy Tangerine Sketchbook paper for this because I wanted to stick to a few simple colours to highlight the image and still keep a light and fun attitude about it. I hope you like my card!

Here's the few Copics I used on Rio.

Stop Being Sad, Be Awesome Instead

I made this here boy card this morning. It's sorta based on a quote from Neil Patrick Harris. He said "whenever I feel sad, I stop being sad and start being awesome instead" and I thought that was cute. This idea came into mind the second I saw the Toxic Teens line from Simply B Stamps. I don't know how I missed it, but I'm glad I got them now! There's also a rainbow challenge going on at Make it Colourful and this, though I didn't plan it that way, came out quite rainbow-y. I was just basing the colours of one image on the eye colour of the previous person. A strange way to colour things, but there you go! I coloured this with my Faber-Castell Polychromo pencils, just... well, just cos I hadn't used them in a while!

ETA: This card won Top 2 in the challenge entered.

WOYWW 153

 Welcome to my desk! I spent today colouring *and* scrapbooking. I made a few of the pages that I showed you in a previous post, and I coloured some cards. I was using some of the fun things I bought at the Scrapbook Expo on NSD.

 For this one I used Nurse Betty from Simply B Stamps to make Mike's mom a Mother's Day card. He always springs these things on me at the last moment, so I didn't get to do much planning, but I think it came out okay... I guess.

 This card was just for fun. I'm feeling bright and summery after all and what's better than combining this Bikini Betty stamp with two stamps from Make it Crafty? So fun! This one I'm actually proud of, came out like I wanted it to, hehe.

Also? Puppies like washi! Just like us!

Thanks for coming this week everyone! Can't wait to see what you're up to this week!

San Diego Scrapbook Expo

 National Scrapbook Day was also the day of the San Diego Scrapbook Expo. I got a TON of good deals at the Anaheim expo and I used almost all of what I got in the short time between the end of February and the beginning of May. SO, Mike agreed to take me to the San Deigo Expo. I was really excited because some of the booth's that I'd enjoyed and dropped big bucks at in Anaheim were going to be present in San Diego and I could stock up again. Plus I could get some random little things that I don't really like having to order off the internet. 

But I was a bit disappointed. The stores that were fabulous in Anaheim just didn't "bring it" in San Diego. They had less inventory and the things I was hoping to re-buy or stock up on just weren't there. I did manage to get some good deals. Mike helped me out at the Prima booth, holding and counting my packages so I could get the best deal. I'd forgotten my wallet too, so he was "payment man". He was really good though, quietly following behind me, typing on my phone, as I searched through the booths I was interested in for goodies.

This is everything I got, spread out on our bed as I did before, hehe. I took advantage of the new CHA releases being present to snag some more MME Follow Your Heart papers and embellishments because I'd been using them so much. I also got some of the Queen & Co. washi, cos it's pretty and it's nice to be able to use a ton of something on a project without worrying about using it all up. Mostly what I picked up though was flowers. I've been using a lot of them lately, finding them fun, so I'm just going with it. I find I like these packages better than the whole "bottle of flowers you'll never use up" because, well, the likelihood that you'll use them up is higher. As I said, I used up all the package I bought at the Anaheim Expo, so I needed more. I *did* get two bottles, but they're various colours in the one bottle, and pure white in the other, easy to colour with my Copics to suit my project.

I also got this really cool little tin of embellishments. One place had a lot of bins that you could pick and choose what kind of bling and bits you wanted. I filled a $4 tin to the bursting point so that when I use the new flowers that I got (the ones that don't have centres) and the flowers I already have (none of which have centres) I can put a little crystal in the centre and have it look more "finished". Yay.

This here is my embellishment drawer. With all the new embellishments I bought I had to shuffle things around in the drawer. Look how full it is! And it's so great because I spent the whole of Sunday using a lot of the MME embellishments and a few of the bottled flowers on the scrapbook pages I posted previous. I like when I bring new stuff in and then get to use it right away.

 I also got to see this on our trip.

And do this. (socks cos I really don't like sand between my toes) I'd been wanting to go to the beach and Mike found a cool tide pool beach for us to visit. We even got to see sea lions. I wish I'd brought my swim suit, because there were people out swimming with them, and it would have been awesome.

Anniversary Pages

 I started scrapbooking our anniversary trip to Catalina Island. This here is the pages I've got done so far. Thanks for looking!

Honey, You Should See Me In A Crown

 This here is UK Betty from Simply B Stamps and she's perfect for me because I'm a total Anglophile. If you don't know what that means, it's basically a total obsession with all things British! I'm stuck being an ordinary American without an awesome accent, but that doesn't mean I can't admire from afar (REALLY afar since I'm in California). I coloured up UK Betty and paired her with the London Market paper from Pink Paislee, some tiny embellishments, and a lovely quote from Jim Moriarty in the new Sherlock Holmes incarnation simply called Sherlock and set in the 21st century. It's 20 million times awesome, so check that out, and check out UK Betty too!

Here's the few Copics I used for ya!

WOYWW 152

 What's on Your Workdesk stunt shot; or, how two seconds later the puppy decided to walk off the edge of the desk....  Yes, that's Sirius Lupin up on my work desk today to illustrate what a nuisance he's been tonight. All day he was unusually well behaved, then switched patterns and became an hellion when Daddy got home. Usually he's a pain for me, and then an angel for Daddy. I say "usually" when he's only technically been here two weeks, lol! But for the first time he spent my crafting time crawling around me, needing up on my lap, messing around with his brother (the Golden), and just generally making a nuisance of himself. In the photo he's attempting to drink my (cold) tea.

But through all of this I *did* manage to finish this card. It's quite small for the amount of work that went into it. I used to think that colouring took a while, until I tried paper piecing. And this is only HALF paper pieced! Her hair and her face I coloured with my Copics and yet it seemed to take forever. I used Princess Anya from The Greeting Farm and the dragon from the Lawn Fawn set Critters Ever After. I made this card with the Christy Thomilson paper from Pink Paislee which, in all honesty, looked better online and I was disappointed with once it arrived. I've only got four sheets though, so that's good, and hopefully I can just slap a few cards like this together and use it up quick. Ah well, take a chance, that's what you get!

Thanks for coming by this Wednesday and I'll be sure to give you a visit too!

On an unrelated note, here is a video of my two boys playing.

Self Portrait

This is me wanting to use my Amy Tangerine Sketchbook paper. Really, that's all. I wanted to make a layout like this, random and bright, and the Amy Tangerine stuff works really well for it. I used the SMASH tape that is all multicoloured and I thought "I'm probably never going to use this but it's cheap so toss it in your basket" and I've used a bunch of it already. The thing about washi is you're almost sitting there "how much can I use on this project to use it up more?" whereas with paper you go "I want to use this, but not all of it, so I'll just put a dab". It's almost feeing. BUT I can see it getting tiresome because washi comes with a LOT on those little rolls. Anyway, the rest of it was me just embellishing randomly. There's some Queen & Co washi on there, letters from the Simple Stories kit from the last layout, and then bits of the Sketchbook paper cut out to use as embellishments. 

Random note: Mike asked me why I'm all of a sudden using just one photo on layouts now and the answer is that I have a lot of random photos that's really just one photo per subject. It's not really a choice, it's just there's nothing else that goes with the photo. The kids especially, one photo usually does the job. And, in all honesty, right now I want to scrapbook and I'm avoiding the big projects like Halloween and our anniversary.

So Cool Viggo

I'm using my Simple Stories kits!!! Yeah, okay, so I used a piece of Crate for the background, random sticker embellishments, and I just kind of kept looking at what I had and tried to find places to put them on the page. It's very random, but I like how it came out. It started out with the patterned paper strips and just went from there.

Sleep, Beauty, Peace

The fun thing about your kids being animals is you can make whatever kind of layouts about them you want. At least, that's my story. I love this MME paper. I love that I bought it at the Expo and I keep using it. Old and new all together. I also used some Prima bits and the new Tim Holtz washi.

Hippy Chique

One last card for the night, this one just for fun. This here is 60s Willow from Tickled Pink. Technically I picked the paper first, Prima's Sun Kissed, because I like it so much. It's bright and Spring-like which is nice because our Spring up here has been so strange. I wanted her to match the light, subtle colours of the papers so I coloured her with my Polychromos. Pencils just give you an easier "soft" feeling. Copics *can* do it, of course, it's just lazy vs dedicated time, lol! Hope you like it. I added a few flowers, and the Prima butterfly to cap it all off. I'm glad I'm actually using these flowers I bought. I was worried I'd just got them cos they're pretty, but they're fitting into my new style nicely.

I'm Excited for Your Birthday

 This here card is for my dad. It's his birthday on Thursday and I'm sure he's not all excited and stuff about it. And since Lilith and I share a common unenthusiastic expression and I'm sure my dad's not quite looking forward to getting older, eh? This here Lilith is from the Futuristic Tickled Pink set. I'm not quite sure about them, in general, but in these portrait kind of things they look just as good as all the others. I used more of the Echo Park This and That Charming line, cos its fun. Although I do wish I'd chosen the paper before I coloured her shirt black, it would have looked better in the blue matching this line, I think. Ah well, too late now. Dad will like it anyhow, I'm sure.

And here's the few Copics I used on her for you.

You're the Best

 I made this here card for my nana for Mother's Day. I used Evie from the Tickled Pink Victorian Steampunks because she's elegant and I figured that works for her. I originally planned to make this more of a red/pink kind of thing, but it just turned out all purple. I used Jillibean Soup papers, some twine, and two washi tapes for the background.

Here's the few Copics I used.