A Sunny Day For Squirrel

Isn't he the cutest widdle squirrel ever?!  Squee!

Hello, my crafty friends! Back with another card I had to wait a few days to post as it needed to make a short hop over the Pond before I could share it. =)  For this one I went for a sort of  uber cute with a nice pop of color but a grown-up touch. Sort of pleasing the inner child and the outer adult all at the same time. LOL Anyway, here's my clean and simple sunny day card that I made for my best bloggy buddy, Squirrel -

Sorry he pictures are a little wonky and a bit fuzzy... I didn't have much time and the batteries in my camera were going dead. But the postman doesn't wait around. LOL

The red swirl paper has been in my stash a very long time, maybe even as long as decade. Scary. I'm not even sure what I originally planned to do with it, but I thought it was pretty and I loved it. LOL Sad when you have a paper addiction before you ever become a card crafter. =)  The blue sky background paper is a new purchase from Nitwit Collections, part of the At the Park set. Love! It was perfect for my Pink Cat Studio digi squirrel and his heart-full branch. The sun is also from PCS... a freebie sentiment stamp, but I masked off the sentiment before I printed it.

I colored the three stamp images with Copics and then used the large-balled end of an embossing stylus to round out the images a bit. I focused on the squirrel's tail tip, his eyes, his cheeks, his little acorn, the branch, and the center of the sun are all popped out just a bit more.  I also cut a second layer of hearts for the branch which I embossed and then smothered in Glossy Accents. I attached everything with different heights of foam dots. Here are some angled pics that kind of show the dimension...

 

I also glittered up the center of the sun with some beautiful yellow Stickles and punched out my computer-generated sentiment on two cloud punches (Fiskars) which I touched up with a bit of Copics - a light grey on the top edges and a pale blue on the bottom. As a last touch I added a few small gems, one on the cloud and three teensy tiny ones in the bottom corner.  

I'm entering my Sunny Squirrel card in the following challenges:

Craft Your Days Away - All Creatures Great and Small

Moving Along With The Times - Keep It Real!

Cardmadfairy Digi Days - Clean and Simple

Crafty Sentiments - Bingo: Patterned Paper, Colored Image, Punches or Die Cuts

Top Tip Tuesday - Clean and Simple

Kaboodle Doodles - Clean and Simple

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes

That's all for now... back soon! 'Til then, happy crafting!

Christy

James Bear in the Snow & Lili's Little Fairies candy

Hi! Blogging to you from a waiting room at the local hospital. Mom's having her other knee replaced... so that's one hip in April, one knee in October and one knee in December. Just call her Bionic Mom. LOL

She asked for another card to put in her room after the surgery, and I couldn't resist the urge to use one of my new never-inked stamps from LOTV, James Bear in the Snow. I also got to use my new, never used digital paper set from Nitwit Collections, Joyful Hearts.

I colored James with my Copics, and tried to get a furry/hairy look. I think for the next time I use this stamp, I'll go back to basic blending, then work up to getting furry techniques, but he turned out pretty cute. As I've said, it's hard to go wrong when you start with a great stamp image! =)

For James, I used the deckled-edge oval Nestie, Stardust & Waterfall Stickles and Liquid Pearls. Also making an appearance are the Martha Stewart Aspen PATP and some white pearls colored pink with an R85 Copics. Along with the snowflake and striped paper, I used a pink snowflake from the Nitwit set that I fussy cut to layer under my image and a plaid flake that I coated in Glossy Accents for something different than I've done before. I almost added some glamour dust, but waited too long to think of it and the surface was dry. I think I could become as addicted to that as I have to Stardust Stickles! hee hee 

I did a simple inside as I was running short on time, but my mom loved the snowflakes punched from the Nitwit papers. And I love textured cardstock... even a blank white space looks more interesting with all those nooks and crannies. =)                     

It was so much fun coloring James, even with the challenges of it being the first time. I have lots (and lots!) of new LOTV stamps for coloring in 2012... so one of my crafty goals this year is going to be to use at least one of my LOTV stamps every week. To help reach that goal, I'll be following the revamped LOTV challenge... Lili's Little Fairies.

To celebrate the "new" launch, they are having a fabulous candy draw to kick things off before the first challenge in January.  You can read all about it here!

Challenges for James...

Christmas Cards All Year Round - December - My #5 card! woohoo!

Digital Tuesday - #141 Winter Wonderland (Nitwit Collections digital paper)

The ABC Christmas Challenge - F is for Frosty

2 Sisters - #71 Snowflakes

Sweet Stampin' - Sparkle & Bling

Hiding in My Craft Room - Use It or Lose It

Just heard mom's out of the surgery and in post-op... great timing! =)  I expect to be back later this week with one or two last projects of the year, but if something comes up, just want to send you all my best crafty wishes for a very happy New Year!

See you soon!

Christy

Sweet Baby Blessings

Hello! Back again, but not with anything Christmas! One of my coworkers is pregnant and her baby is due on Tuesday. Turning away from all the snowflakes and Stardust HowdidIeverlivewithoutyou Stickles was difficult, but the papers in the Nitwit Collections digital paper collection, Waddles & Whimsy, were just waaaaaay too cute to pass up. I adore the blue duck paper especially.

Looking through the set's images, I thought it would be cute to use the ducks on either side of a main panel, so I came up with some cuts and folds to make a step card. I inked the edges with Dried Marigold Distress Ink and used my Greeting Farm clear set Build-a-Onesie Boy Set again for this baby card (see my first card here).  ProMarkers in various grays and oranges and just a bit of light blue were used for the onesie and a nice combination of bright yellows for the rubber duck. The W&W ducks were sized and printed on my PC and popped up on thin foam; they have a quilted appearance and those little stitches all the way around. I didn't like their eye color though, so I dotted on some black enamel. The flower is a Nestie with two WOC Summer Blooms and a Martha Stewart champagne pearl. I used a sheer white ribbon under a strip of baby blue grosgrain and added a computer-generated sentiment to the bottom border. And I didn't photograph the inside, but you can just see in the angle shots that I used my scraps to decorate the inside as well.

The pictures are a little off - I know winter is just beginning, but having more darkness than light every day is getting old fast, sigh - but it's bright and cheery and colorful IRL. And I've fallen in love with that blue duck paper - too cute!

Challenges for my Baby Blessings card...

   I {heart} ProMarkers - #95 Shaped Card

   Passion for ProMarkers - #129 Celebrations

   Crafter's Companion - #19 New Beginnings

   Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

   Cute Card Thursday - #194 Anything Goes

   Crafty Catz - #112 Anything Goes

   Totally Paper Crafts - #96 Anything BUT Christmas

   Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - Celebrate

One last photo of the card flat...

Well, that card was so much fun, I think I'll go see if I can get any of my other projects finished. Working on Christmas presents as our work party is coming up on Friday!

See you soon and Happy Crafting!
Christy