Sweet Sunday Reindeer

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch, SSSC75. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing.

For today's sketch I made my weekly Christmas card (although I skipped last week, so if I'd been smart I would have made two of these...but I didn't...oh well!). I've had this sweet Elzybells image for over a year now and I knew it would work nicely with this sketch. The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White and coloured with copics. I sponged an evening sky to make the stars pop a little more. The large star is popped for dimension and I covered the snow with diamond dust.

The patterned paper is from my stash but I don't know the name of it. The dark blue layers are Not Quite Navy. This was the perfect sketch for plenty of ghost snowflakes and punched snowflakes all layered with buttons and bling.

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch and link your creation on Karen's blog. Now let's go see what the other Sweet Sunday Stampers created.
Jen Tapler
Laura Fredrickson
Nancy Riley
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Wintery Igloo

Here's my Christmas card for this week.

I played along with one of the sketch challenges in the Dare to get Dirty challenge forum on Splitcoast. This sketch is created by Cindy Lawrence and you can view the sketch here (but the link will only work if you're a Splitcoast Fan Club Member).

When I saw the sketch I immediately thought of my neglected Elzybells Christmas stamps that I ordered earlier this year. The igloo image couldn't be more perfect for this sketch, IMHO! I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow white and coloured it with copics. I always find it difficult to colour something that's supposed to be white, so I ended up doing more shading around the igloo and just added a few subtle lines to the igloo itself, and I'm happy with how it turned out. The tree and sign are popped for dimension. I added some red Tiny Twinkles to the tree and some dazzling diamonds to the snow. I like how this makes the igloo stand out more 'cause it's the only white element.

The patterned paper is by Pebbles Inc. and I added Not Quite Navy as my solid blue. I used my EK snowflakes border punch on a strip of white then saved the punched out snowflakes and added them as my three accents above the image. I layered up a ghost snowflake for the other embellishment and backed it with a circle of green to make it pop a little.

I know this is a busy looking card with all the patterned paper and snowflakes, but I really like how it turned out...it looks SO wintery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Chill Out Ice Fishing

I'm really squeaking in just under the wire with my Christmas card for this week...eeks! I honestly thought that I wouldn't get one done because I was away all week, then it's so nice and sunny here, finally, so I was out enjoying the weather. But...in true fashion, the dark clouds rolled in late this afternoon and it started to rain, so I ran upstairs to stamp.   :)

I love these little penguins from Elzybells. This stamp actually belongs to my BFF Dana (we combined our order and I just haven't sent hers to her yet, but she knew she wasn't getting it til I used it first...that's what friends are for, right? giggle!). I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White and coloured it with copics. This one was super quick to colour up...perfect for my very limited amount of cardmaking time today. I added some liquid applique to his hat and covered all the snow with Diamond Dust so it looks icy. He is ice fishing, after all. 

The image was cut out with square Nestabilities and layered onto baja blue. The layout for this card is SC234 from Splitcoast. The red polka dot paper is from the Twitterpated line and I layered it onto old olive, then baja breeze, then onto the white card base. I ran the olive layer through my Snowflakes Cuttlebug folder after I stamped the Chill Out sentiment from Stamping Bella.

The card looks a little plain to me without any embellishments, but everything I tried adding looked wrong, so I've left it bare. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

A Cool Penguin

It's time for my weekly Christmas card! For this card I used the Verve sketch that was one of the challenges on the Stampin' Out Alzheimer's site last week. My poor Elzybells stamps have been hugely neglected so I dug out this adorable Penguin Snowflakes image...LOVE him!

I stamped the penguin with Memento Tuxedo black onto Choice Snow White and coloured him with copics. I added some Crystal Twinkles to the snowflakes and some diamond dust to the snow. Then I gave his hat some dimension with liquid applique. 

The rest of the card was super quick. The patterned papers are from PebblesInc. and the solid blues are Soft Sky, Baja Blue and Not Quite Navy. I used my EK snowflake border punch along the piece of navy and added a fun kiwi ribbon. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Holidays and Wishes set. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Swinging Friend...huh?

What were you thinking? LOL! It's a cute swinging Elzybell of course! I was feeling rather uninspired last night, eventhough I had been to my LSS in the afternoon and picked up this great Bella BLVD "Swing Into Spring" paper. I didn't end up stamping at all yesterday...gasp! But, as I was lying in bed, my mind started to put this cute little card together. The name of the paper is what totally inspired this card, and I remembered I have this sweet Elzybell on a Swing stamp. Of course I got this big grin on my face as I imagined how the card would look...and I drifted off to sleep, excited to know what I'd be stamping this morning.  :)

The image is stamped with Memento ink and coloured with copics. I shaded the blue around her with the technique that Candice shows in this great copic tutorial on Splitcoast. I love, love, LOVE the result!!! I drew in some grass with a fine black marker the coloured it with little swirls to look like the background paper. The image is cut out with oval Nestabilities and layered onto Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip. 

For the background I sewed a combo stitch around the edge. Can I tell you that I LOVE sewing!!! Not on clothes or fabric of course...just paper. Same as I don't iron clothes (well, rarely anyway) but I'd iron ribbon {grin}. Both patterned papers are layered onto Chocolate Chip and the card base is Gina K 120lb pure luxury cardstock. 

The ribbon is from my LSS...I think. The sentiment is also from AMuse and I cut it out with the smallest of the Spellbinders tags trio and attached it with a white jump ring (which you can't really see in the photo). 

The final layout ended up being the Feb card sketch challenge from my LSS gallery.

I really hope spring is on the way soon! Snow snow go away...bring instead a sunny day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

To The Moon...

I LOVE colouring, and I'd like to get better at the shading part. I really admire Paula's colouring...it's absolutely out-of-this-world gorgeous! This lovely card totally inspired me and I wanted to try my hand at her shading technique. Believe it or not, I spent about half an hour studying the images on her blog, going from card to card, trying my best to notice everything...I felt like I was stalking her or something! LOL!

I ended up completely CASEing her card...it was tough enough doing the colouring part, I didn't want to have to come up with a layout too. I stamped my brand new Moon Girl Elzybell onto Sahara Sand with Memento black and coloured with my Lyra pencils, odourless mineral spirits and a stump. I just kept layering and shading, layering and shading...it ended up taking me a lot longer than it would have with my copics, but I'm really pleased with the result. It's still nowhere near Paula's, but I'm happy with it for my first try. 

When I picked up the Elzy stamp on Friday I also grabbed the sentiment (also from AMuse) cause I thought they were perfect together. The little star stamp is from the retired SU set Bundle Up. 

This card's going to my parents for Valentine's Day, cause I really do love them to the moon and back! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Elzy's Road to a Friend

I made this card for Jen's Sketch For You To Try. I love her sketch challenges. She's also giving away some great blog candy so pop over and have a peek. 

I haven't used this little Elzy yet (and yet she's still smiling!) so it was high time to get her inky.

I stamped the Elzybells 'Girl in Car' stamp with Memento black onto Gina K pure luxury white. Then I stamped her again onto one of the patterns in my new Basic Grey Bittersweet 6x6 pad. I paper pieced her car and even gave her some custom hubcaps! She's one cool Elzy! The rest of the image is coloured with copics. My friend Miche does the best little details on her cards with crystal effects, so I borrowed her idea and painted some crystal effects onto the headlights for the look of real glass. The sentiment is from A Muse Artstamps. The image was cut out with nesties and layered onto a scallop of chocholate chip.

The card base is Gina K 120lb pure luxury, followed by a square of chocolate chip with distressed edges. Next I a square of pink from the Bittersweet pack through my D'vine Swirls folder (only the bottom 3/4 of the square would fit but it worked well for my card). Then I sanded the raised areas so they'd stand out a little more. The strip across the top is also from the Bittersweet pack. 

I layered a Heidi Swapp gel blossoms with a pretty white shimmer flower from MFT, then with a couple of pink Primas. I finished off the flowers with a small SU pink rhinestone brad. Finally, I added three pretty buttons on the left side of the image.

Pink and chocolate...those are definitely my colours! So that must be me waving hello, on my way to a friend's house. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Happy Friends

My friend Dana started a blog! Yay!!! You'll have to visit her over at Dana's House of Cards. Welcome to the fun world of blogging Dae!

I made this card for her, not because she started a blog, but because she's my BFF. We used to live 45 minutes apart but now we're two time zones apart. Thankfully though, we both have unlimited North American phone plans so we still talk just as often. LOL! It's wonderful having a friend like her and I wanted to let her know that. 

The Elzybells 'Holding hands' image and SU sentiment were stamped with versamark and embossed with black detail powder. I like the shine the embossing gives. I coloured the girls with copics. I added shimmer with my Stardust pen to both the image and as a border around the white rectangle, directly on the Taken with Teal layer. That little bit of bling really adds a lot. 

The green background is Kiwi Kiss, with a piece of striped October Afternoon paper. I zig-zagged around the edge with my Janome Sew Mini. 

I picked up the pretty felt flowers and button on one of my many trips to my LSS, Right at Home Scrapbooking. The three dots down the left side are bonbons from Stamping Bella.

Don't forget to let your best friends know how much they mean to you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

A Little Elzy Note

Well, I haven't had a bird in my posts for quite a while, so I thought it was time. I decided on this sweet Elzybells stamp, A Winter Song. The first paper I reached for was pink, then I thought to myself...hold on a minute...not all Elzys need to be pink to be cute...how about wintery blue? So I pulled the striped pattern from my SU Urban Prairie pack and started my card. :)

The image was stamped with Memento black onto Gina K pure luxury and coloured with copics. Yes, I know, I used a lot of copics on this but it only looks like two shades of blue and green. Here's why: I coloured the bird, hat and boots with B93 & B95, then thought the shade needed to be a little more on the greenish side to coordinate with the striped paper, so I went over them with BG72. I used E00 for her skin and added rosy cheeks with R00. To add a little colour under the glittery snow I first coloured with BG000 then toned it down by going overtop with W0.

I know it doesn't really show all that much, but it's there, under the glitter, and I feel better knowing it's there. The image is outlined with W1. I really like how these markers mix and blend. Whenever I'm colouring I usually have a paper palette beside the image, where I try out different colour combos and layering. I was livin' on the edge for this one though...no practice palette. To finish off the image, I added some Liquid Appliquee to the hat and coat, but I sprinkled some dazzling diamonds over top before I heated it. I hope it doesn't fall off...it seems to have 'stuck' ok.

The card base is Gina K 120lb pure luxury, with a layer of kiwi kiss which I distressed. Next is a layer of baja breeze, which I ran through my snowflakes CB folder then added some white craft ink to the raised areas with a sponge dauber. A 2" piece of striped is attached at the bottom and I tied a fluffy "Joanne B." bow with Baja striped ribbon.

The final details are the sentiment (from Amuse) which is attached with a frame from SU's Styled Silver Hodgepodge. The blue snowflake was punched with my Martha punch and layered onto a 5/8" circle of kiwi. I added a styled silver brad to the center and I had THE perfect little denim blue Bella Bonbon for the centre.

So there you go...it's Christmas Eve and I've completely moved off Christmas cards. And hey, I just realized that these are all the colours for last week's Colour Challenge on Splitcoast, CC197, that I never had time to complete. Yay!

Merry Christmas!!! Have a wonderful holiday season. And if you have some time to stop by, I'll be posting. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

A Little Tree just for Leslie

So, I know I said I'd be moving on from Christmas cards, but I can't seem to tear myself away from them. This Elzy image has been stamped for a few weeks now (since Dec 6th actually), just waiting patiently for colour. And, Leslie asked for more Christmas cards, so I'm happy to oblige.  :)

The layout for this card is from Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch. I flipped the sketch to make it work. This would also make a fabulous scrapbook page layout.

The Elzybells image, Girls with Tree, was stamped with Memento black onto Gina K pure luxury. I bet you can guess what comes next...LOL! Right...I coloured it with copics...surprise!  :)   You can't see it in the photo but I added a little sparkle with my Stardust pen to both the image and also to the patterned paper. 

The card base is Gina K 12olb white with a layer of Imaginisce Snowy Jo - Snow Soiree. The floral patterned paper is also from Imaginisce Snowy Jo, Santa's Secret Garden. I used my corner rounder on all the panels. 

For accents, I used my very first ghost flower!!! Oh my...they're super fun and I have no idea why I waited so long to use one (probably has to do with the 'hoarding' problem I have!). The ghost flower is Heidi Swapp's Gel Blossoms. I layered it with a Prima and tied on a button with SU silver cord. 

I seem to be in a groove with cards that don't have a sentiment on the front, but I don't find the cards are missing anything. How about you...do you like making cards without sentiments? I'm curious if I'm the only one out there so let me know how you like to build your cards. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Here Comes Elzybells

Sing it with me:

Here comes Elzybells...Here comes Elzybells...Right down Elzybells lane!!!

Isn't she just sooooooooo adorable! I know I said I didn't need more Christmas cards, but, this sweet image has been stamped for over a week now just waiting to be coloured, so I HAD to turn her into a card. 

My Be Merry paper from My Minds Eye was still on my desk so I used it again since the colours just seemed perfect. The sketch is from Jen del Muro's weekend Sketch For You To Try. This card ended up a little busier than I would have liked, but I needed to cover up a boo-boo. 

The image was stamped with Memento black onto Gina K pure luxury cardstock and coloured with copics. After it was all coloured I cut it out with nesties...then the boo-boo happened. The paper moved while I was running it through my big shot during the 'embossing' cycle and it ended up all askew. 

I had to hand trim all around the nestie to get rid of most of the evidence, then I cut another nestie (the same size) of pomegranate as a layer. 

I could still see some of my boo-boo around the edges of the white so I decided to zig-zag around the image with my Sew Mini (it's been a little neglected lately anyway). The sewing pretty much covered up the rest of the boo-boo, as long as you don't look too close. LOL!

I finished off the image with some liquid applique on her hat, coat and boots for that 'faux fur' look. I also put a good helping of diamond dust on the snow line for some sparkle. 

I ended up sewing around the other panels on the card too (that's where the busier than I would have liked came in). The solid colours are the same as yesterday's card, Pink Pirouette, Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi. 

Hopefully Elzy will bring a sleigh full of goodies to you too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen