Creating and Connecting

I am super thrilled to be a guest designer at  the Just Us Girls Challenge #521 where the word week theme is "bow".  To avoid having to tie a bow I had to pull out an old Whipper Snapper Designs stamp called Birthday Angel to find a bow (or 2). In saying that I may be telling me age, lol, given how old that stamp is.   Please make sure to check out all the wonderful cards the JUGS team made: Carol, Sue , Angie, Vickie, Ina, Bobby, Nancy, Lisa, Maria, and Cécile . And please drop by the Just Us Girls Challenge #521  and enter your "bow" card!   I look forward to being back at JUGS again next week!  As a teaser, my card will include watercoloring and an Altenew stamp set.    Thank you for stopping by! Betty   If you enjoyed your visit please click on the "Follow by email" button on the right side of this post and follow me on my journey. 

I can't tell you how much fun I am having pulling out stamp sets I have had for a while including Gerda Steiner's Go Wild and Party Animals stamps. Look at those adorable eyes on all those cute critters! I thought, "they need to all be loaded on one card for maximum cuteness impact" (it ended up to be most but not quite all of the images). Here is what I came up with.   I am joining a few challenges with this card including: Gerda Steiner Share Your Design Challenge , Inkspirational Challenges , Just Us Girls Challenge , and The Male Room Challenge .  In case you want to make a similar card here is what I did (instructions then photo to follow): 1. Cut 2 pieces of white 80 lb. cardstock 4 1/2 by 9 inches. 2. Score each at 1/2 and 4 inches on the 4 1/2 inch width. 3. Cut or die cut a 2 7/8 by 6 /12 inch window, 1 1/2 inches from the bottom of one panel.  4. Fold at the scored lines. 5. Cut light blue cardstock 4 1/2 by 5 1/2 inc...

I love to color! Today I am using the beautiful Essentials by Ellen Mondo Amaryllis stamp set along with the Essentials by Ellen Mondo Holly stamp set for the sentiment. I have a couple of tips on how I achieve greater depth and texture in my coloring. Here is a short video on how I made and colored this card. Tips: 1. Use both warm and cool colors in your image. Here my warm, or more orangey red is Copic Marker R29 and my cool, or more blue reds are Copic Marker R89  and Copic Marker R39. 2. Use a muted medium shade of blue such as Copic Marker B34  to deepen the color of the shadows. 3. For more realism add texture once you are finished with your Copic Markers using Prismacolor Pencils. I used PC 1029 and PC1067. 4. And most important, just color and have fun!   I am joining 3 challenges with this card. Emerald Creek Dares Challenge: Christmas/Winter   with Emerald Creek Craft Supplies Time Out Challenges: Merry and Cheerful If ...

Just a couple of weeks ago I got a notification on my Instagram feed from  Sarah at  Funky Fossil that I had won a stamp set of my choice, so I chose the ever so cute Funky Fossils Festive Penguin  set.  Lucky me!!! In less than 2 weeks it arrived at my door in Canada from the United Kingdom.  Thank you sweet Natalie for choosing me! Isn't he the cutest!!! Tips: 1. Plan your card lay out using your dies and stamps. 2. Using the rule of thirds can help you create balance if you are not finding the placement that is pleasing to your eye. *Rule of Thirds: You break your space in equal thirds, both horizontally and vertically. This leaves you 4 points where those lines intersect.  You then place your focal points at these intersecting points or along the vertical or horizontal lines.  Please see my photos where you see a grid overlay I have made. 3. Die cut samples of the snow banks out of scrap paper and then use those samp...

When I saw the super adorable Essentials by Ellen Dinomite Christmas stamps and Essentials by Ellen Dinomite Halloween stamps by the amazingly talented Brandi Kinkaid I knew exactly what I wanted to do...a dinosaur Christmas tree!!!  I know a little boy who will looove these cards! (...and a big boy too; DJ keeps trying to claim cards. LOL! I keep telling him we need to share them!) And I love how it turned out! A little Moonstone Nuvo Glimmer Paste  was the finishing touch. I hope you enjoy my short video on how I made this and 2 extra cards with the "leftovers"! Tips: 1. Stamp and color 2 of each of the dinosaurs and some of the accent images in copic friendly ink and die cut them using the Essentials by Ellen Dinomite Christmas dies  and Essentials by Ellen Dinomite Halloween dies .  This gives enough images to make the Christmas tree, with a few left over. 2. When coloring use dull copic YGs, like YG93, in the ...

When I saw the very talented Jessica Frost-Ballas's card on Instagram it inspired me to pull out my very cute  Lawn Fawn Toboggan Together Stamp and Die Set , Lawn Cuts Stitched Hillside Borders  and Lawn Cuts Slide on Over dies. I made a hidden slider card.   When DJ, my husband, saw this card he claimed it for himself.  Those of you have met him through voice overs on my YouTube channel can probably hear him say something like this.   Tips: 1. I hid the slider mechanism for the sled and penguin behind the hill.  See the picture below. The slider channel is below ground level.  Instead of attaching the image straight to the slider mechanism I added an extension to the image and attached the extension to the slider mechanism.  I then added foam tape behind the top layer and behind the background layer so the slider has room to slide.  (I used 2 layer of foam tape. I am not sure if 1 layer would be adequate.  I want...