Halloween Candy Jars

I adore this Candy Jars image - it's just so fun to color and so fun to customize. Had to share this bit of genius - how to make the gumballs into eyeball candies! I used this set (Create-a-Cupcake) again - see those tiny circle stamps? Turns out they make great eyeballs too. Heh........ I stamped the second largest one in chalk ink (one is Tangerine, one is Lime Pastel), and then the smallest circle in Onyx Black, then did a little shading and highlighting with pencil. The highlights on the jars are done using acrylic paint.


This first card was one of the samples I sent for CHA - it has a button eyeball on it too! hee hee... The background uses the Large Paisley Cover-a-Card, and the sentiment can be found here.

The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils - these are the ones I used: I made a second card with the same idea, but a different color scheme... I used the CAC Bubbles stamp for the base layer, and the sentiment is here.
I used vintage seam binding and some black eyelash fiber, too. The coloring again is done with Prismacolor pencils:
Fun, huh?

Impression Obsession meets Inchie Arts!

A few months ago, Lisa from Inchie Arts sent our Impression Obsession design team lots of fun product to play with! If you're unfamiliar with Inchies in general, they are tiny pieces of artwork, one square inch in size. Inchie Arts' high-quality matboard squares aren't limited to an inch though... there are Inchie Squares, Inchie Plus Squares (1-1/2"), and Twinchies (2") - all available in 7 different colors! They have lots of other stuff too. Check out how much inchie goodness comes in just one box!

You can visit their site to see all the products, find samples, and way more information about their products and the process of making them. So cool! Their blog "all in an inch" is very cool, too.

I used 3 of the white Inchie Plus Squares on my first card. My first step was lining them up together and connecting them with some masking tape on the back. Sorry for not taking pictures along the way! Next I sponged the clouds using a scalloped circle as a mask, and sponged Versamagic Sage ink across the bottom. The tree image (Sm. Tree Border) is stamped in Versamagic Sahara Sand. I didn't have a small enough leaf stamp, so guess what... the leaves and grass are stamped with the sprinkle stamp from the Create-a-Cupcake set. The leaves are stamped with Adirondack Terra Cotta ink - I 'squished' my inkpad up into its lid, and then misted the ink that was impressed there with water, and stamped with that. After I was done stamping, I removed the masking tape and mounted the squares on a piece of decorative cardstock.

The sentiment comes from the Flowers for You set and I added the tool line myself, using a ruler and fine marker.
Here's a second quick card - this layout reminds me of a 20s style hat... Here I used 3 cream inchies, stuck them on an an acrylic block, and 'stamped' them onto an inked CAC Newsprint stamp. After that, I inked up Silhouette 12 in Burnt Sienna and stamped different areas of it onto the inchies. I shaded a small area of each leaf for depth with a pencil, and that was it! Here's a closer look at the Inchies - thought it was kind of funny that the area I chose to stamp the center one has the words "HEAD STONES" on it... see it?

Remember you can enter these challenges too, using your Impression Obsession stamps! See the I.O. blog for all the details - you might even win a $25 gift certificate!! We'd love to have you join us. Be sure to check out the other designers' blogs for inspiration - their links are to the left!

Batter up......

...that's a pun.

Get it?

Well you might... if you remember my series of cards last year using the Impression Obsession's Create-a-Cupcake set as anything other than a cupcake. (Click here to see all the cards I've made with this set!) Just warming up for this week's challenge to think 'outside the box'.........

I've had this little guy stashed for a while - he was colored with Neopiko markers and Prismacolor pencils, and you can see that I used the cupcake outline, face, and sprinkles from the set to make him - the bill of his cap and his smile were sketched in by hand. Love those freckles!

I created my own background paper by layering a couple of public domain images I found online. The ticket was also printed and lightly distressed. The baseball is handstitched. Not sure why I used so many staples, but... the stapler was handy, the staples matched, and I was in git-'er-done-quick-and-simple mode this morning. The sentiment stamp comes from the clear set "Flowers for You".

Day 2 with DH gone... I came down with some stomach flu bug the night before he left, but I'm feeling a bit better today. At least I have an appetite and everything has stayed down so far! Just taking it easy and taking things one step at a time. See you tomorrow with my challenge card... here's a teaser - what do you get when you cross a goldfish, 2 birds, and a coffee cup?

Cupcake set winners! and Create-a-Cowboy

I couldn't resist just one more cupcake kid - so here is Create-a-Cowboy. Too much fun! He's colored in with Neopiko markers and shaded with Prismacolor pencils. I got the ephemera from my favorite source for public domain stuff online, Takeabreak's albums on Flickr.com. There are all kinds of printables there - little somethin' for everyone. Love.

And finally, the winners of the Create-a-Cupcake are:

MIRA from Mira's Place

and

DEANNA M!!

Congrats, ladies! Please email me your mailing address so I can have these sets sent out to you right away! Happy weekend, everyone!

Create-a-Monkey

It's the last Thursday in October already - this has been a fun month of Create-a-Cupcake Thursdays! Hope you've enjoyed my trips 'outside the box' with this set from Impression Obsession... thanks to Kelli for the fun challenge! I still have more ideas, so this won't be my last cupcake card by any means...but for now, it's about time to go back to the rest of my neglected and NEW I.O. stamps...

So this is Create-a-Monkey...when we first moved overseas there was a guy that came around the neighborhoods with a trained monkey and he'd do a show in our driveway for about 50 cents - all the neighborhood kids would gather around and then just migrate from driveway to driveway, wherever someone was willing to pay for a show. I haven't seen anything like that here, but drew on the memories for inspiration for this little guy. Good times.

I drew in the tassel for his hat, and drew in his little mouth - the rest is colored with Neopiko markers and Prismacolor pencils. I made the embroidery thread tassel with my Bow-Easy - I'll have to do that again and take pictures next time.

That's all I know today - I'll be back with 2 winners' names and one last cupcake card Saturday night - stay tuned!!

Create-a-cupcake, with apologies to my mother....

"A good friend is like a good bra...hard to find, comfortable, always lifts you up, never lets you down or leaves you hanging, and is always close to your heart."

This card idea popped into my head soon after I got Impression Obsession's Create-a-Cupcake set, but I tried very hard to put it out of mind, since my Mom reads my blog...! But in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, sorry Mom...here is Create-a-Cupcake with a message of hope to those who have been affected by breast cancer.


This year a dear friend's wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and because of a recent stroke she is unable to undergo an operation to remove the cancer. They were encouraged to try an alternative route for treatment, and it was unsuccessful. So sad... Her husband is my husband's language helper, and we have seen him struggle through this as he cares for his wife. Very hard situation. We're glad we can be an encouragement to them, at least in small ways. Reminds me - I need to send her a card or bake her something this week.

I stamped my...ahem... 'cupcake tops' with Colorbox chalk ink, and added some glitter pen around the edge, blending with a Dove blender pen. The ABC stickers were a gift from a friend (Hi Kara - thank you!) The ribbon is tacked with a small stitch to keep it crossed in the center.

Hard to believe...only one more week of cupcakeness to go! I have more ideas than 1 more Thursday can hold...but...I'll be ok. This has been lots of fun! Hope I've inspired you to think outside the box a little.

Impression Obsession DT Challenge: Winter

My Thursday cupcake challenge collided with our design team challenge to create a winter card, but never fear.......we can do both......!

There have been a few times during this Create-a-Cupcake set challenge that I have laughed right out loud at an idea that popped into my head - I think Cupcake Santa was the first one. :) Today he is accompanied by Create-an-Elf...whose pointy ears were my 6YO's idea. Great, huh? I colored with Neopiko markers and added some shading with Prismacolor pencils. The little loopy border made the elf's hair (I masked the hat and stamped it several times along the edge).

If you have winter stamps from Impression Obsession and you'd like to join in our challenge, head over to the IO blog for details on how you could win a $25 gift certificate! (If you don't have any, you should check them out at the link above...there is such a gorgeous variety from all of IO's artists...)Remember, the other team members will be posting their winter cards as well today - be sure to click on their links to the left for more samples and inspiration!

Create-a-Butterfly?

It's time for another cupcake card! In case you missed the kick-off, this month I've been challenged to see how many non-cupcake-y things I can make with Impression Obsession's Create-a-Cupcake set. So far - an ice cream scoop, a turtle, a pilgrim - this week the cupcake is.......a butterfly!

I stamped the cupcake outline twice on patterned paper and cut out the tops as wings. After I had positioned them on the floral print, I laid vellum over the top and stamped two cupcakes again. I cut the vellum out inside the stamped lines - didn't look right with black edges after all...I should have used a lighter color. Next time!

The dotted trail was done with another dot in the set - there are lots of possibilities with those little decoration stamps, too...! Once I had the wings adhered, I sketched in antennae and laid down adhesive pearls to create the butterfly body.

Other stamps used: Believe