TESC139: Toad-ally Awesome!

Happy Friday! Are you ready for another wonderful Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge? What a great way to kick off the holiday weekend! I adore the Trick or Sweet II set and wanted to use that adorable toad image & sentiment for a birthday card. I also just can't put down these MME Lime Twist 6x6 paper pads. They are all so cute! I use the Fly a Kite pattern because of the fun bright colors which are perfect for a birthday card. I colored the image using Copic markers. I added some spots to the toad using the colorless blender. I tweaked the sentiment a bit by swapping out the "toad-allly awesome Halloween" to "toad-ally awesome ... Birthday" by using the "Birthday" sentiment from Sweet Celebration. I hope you enjoy this week's TE Sketch Challenge and play along with us. There's an opportunity to win a prize with each TE Sketch Challenge. You can get all the details at the Taylored Expressions Forum on SCS.


Ready to play along? Be sure to stop by and visit the rest of the Sketch Crew for some inspiration. We also have another 2 fabulous guest designers this week - Rosemary Dennis and Kelli Hull

• Dawn Easton
  
• Jami Sibley
• Lisa Hjulberg
• Lori Craig
• Melissa Sauls
• Monika Davis
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tracy Clemente

Thanks for visiting and Happy Friday!

ICopic Weekly Challenge #31 - Shadows

Happy Monday! Welcome to another wonderful iCopic Weekly Challenge. This week's challenge is a great one. One I know that has challenged us all at one time or another and that is shadows. Shadows are key in so many ways. They ground our images and make them come to life. I chose the Plus One stamp set by Lawn Fawn to demonstrate. It's not only a super cute set, but the oven is a perfect image to use for this week's challenge. Let's go step by step.

Step 1: I started off by picking my light source to be on the right hand side. I then lightly drew an outline of how I imagined the shadow would be cast using W1. As you can see I added the shape of the top of the oven just to give it more of a realistic shadow.


Step 2: I then added in the cast shadows closest to the image on the left hand side and underneath the oven using W3.


Step 3: I blended out the cast shadows with W1 and then blended out the entire outline of the shadow with the colorless blender to soften the edges.

Hope you have fun creating shadows! iCopic has lots a great stamps and of course those wonderful Copic markers to get you shadowing. They also have in store a wonderful Shadows & Shading guide book to further develop your skills. It's a great resource to have. Hope you will join us for this week's challenge. We always look forward to seeing your creations! Be sure to visit the iCopic Blog for the challenge rules and to link up your challenge creation.

Thanks for visiting and Have a wonderful Monday!


Rachel's Recipe:
Stamps: Plus One (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Copic Markers
Paper: X-Press IT Blending Card Paper (Copic), Aqua Mist CS (PTI) and Patterned Paper (MME)
Accessories: Cotton Candy Divine Twine, Button (Cosmo Cricket), Ribbon (American Crafts), Sewing Machine, Stardust Stickles and 3D Foam Tape (Best Creation)

Copic Colors: 0, C1, C2, C4, E51, E53, R81, R83, RV17, RV19, W1 , W3

TESC138 - Happy Friday the 13th!!!

Hello Friends! Happy Friday the 13th! It started off with a bang as Blogger was down all last night and this morning. I am so happy I am finally able to post and bring you another fabulous sketch from Taylor. It's sure to bright up any day. It seems that I always running out of birthday cards and it's so nice to have extras on hand. I created another birthday card featuring Cuppie and friends from the Sweet Friends set along with the b-day sentiment from the Fresh Flowers set. I flipped the sketch and paired up the sets with some super cute new Lime Twist paper from MME. Aren't those colors fun? Want some more fun? Well be sure to play along with us for your chance to win a great TE prize. You can get all the challenge deets at Taylor's blog and at the TE Forum.

Be sure to visit the rest of the Sketch Crew to see all of their wonderful creations! We also have the honor of having not 1 but 2 fabulous guest designers joining us this week!

• Dawn Easton
  
• Jami Sibley
• Lisa Hjulberg
• Lori Craig
• Melissa Sauls
• Monika Davis
• Rachel Sztonyk
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tracy Clemente
• Guest Designers: Iwona Palamountain, Molly Joly

Thanks for visiting and Have a Happy Friday!!!

iCopic Weekly Challenge #29 - Coloring with Red

Hi Friends! So excited to bring you my very first iCopic DT project. I am delighted to be a bi-weekly designer for iCopic and look forward to bringing you all the latest goodies from iCopic. Let's start the week off right with another fabulous iCopic Challenge. This week's challenge is to use reds for coloring. Lipstick Red (R29) was one of my very first Copic markers. I fell in love with that vibrant and rich color and I couldn't resist bringing home some friends for R29 with the wonderful prices they have at iCopic.

The inspiration for today's card came from my darling niece and nephew. These fun loving twins will be graduating from Kindergarten this month and will be off to the wonderful world of First Grade in August. I wanted to let them both know how proud I am to be their Auntie, so I created this card for them. To start I stamped the sweet little apple image from the My Silly Valentine set by Lawn Fawn on X-Press It Blending Card Paper with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. I began coloring by laying down my base color for the apples using R24. I chose my light source to come from the right and began shading the left side using R27 and using R24 to blend. I finally added my deepest shadow using R29 and blending it out with R27 and then R24. The following pictures layout the 3 step coloring with red process. My final coloring was done on the leaves using Y23 and Y25. I also added a little shading to my finish card around the image using Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The fabulous Distress Inks will be coming available at the iCopic store beginning this week. Woo Hoo!!! I hope you will play along with this week's challenge for your opportunity to win a fun prize from iCopic. Be sure to visit the iCopic Blog for the challenge rules and to link up your challenge creation. I can't wait to see what you create using those gorgeous reds!






Thanks for visiting and Have a Happy Monday!


Rachel's Recipe:
Stamps: My Silly Valentine (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Copic Markers
Paper: X-Press IT Blending Card Paper (Copic) & Kraft, Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy CS (PTI) and Patterned Paper (MME & Bo Bunny)
Accessories: Circle & Scallop Circle Nesties, White Gel Pen, Sewing Machine, Piercing Tool (Making Memories), 3D Foam Tape (Best Creation), Red Brads (Creative Impressions) and Cherry Divine Twine

TESC137 - Happy Easter!

Happy Friday! You know what that means.... another fun and fabulous TE Sketch Challenge. I am going for the Cuppie Hat Trick with my 3rd Sketch card in a row featuring Cuppie. Cuppie is just so adorable and even more so inside of an Easter Basket. How can you resist? This cute image is from the Sweet Spring set. The delightful springy paper is from MME - Stella & Rose collection. I colored the image in with Copic Markers and added a little sugar to the sweets with Stardust Stickles. Super Fun!

This week we also have some more excitement as we welcome 2 more Sketch Crew members. The fabulous and sweet... Dawn Easton and Tracy Clemente. Woo Hoo!

Be sure to play along with us for a chance to win a prize! You can find all the challenge rules at Taylor's Blog and at the TE Forum @ SCS. Happy Stamping!


Ready for more? Hop on over and check out the wonderful creations my TE Sketch Crew buddies have in store just for you!

• Dawn Easton
  
• Jami Sibley
• Lisa Hjulberg
• Lori Craig
• Melissa Sauls
• Monika Davis
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Tracy Clemente

Thanks for visiting and Have a "Good" Friday!

iCopic DT Call - I heart Pink!

Hi Friends! Here to share with you my creation for the iCopic DT Call. The DT Call Challenge is to create one project using the color Pink! I had promised a cupcake creation, so I thought it was only perfect to create a Jumbo Pink Cupcake for the challenge. The perfect stamp was of course the Cling Cupcake XL by Stampendous. I used R81, R83 and R85 to color the cupcake. I took my time and colored the image in sections to keep the coloring and blending consistent. I paired up the cupcake with one of my all time favorite pattern papers from MME as the cupcake liner. Those polka dots are too cute to resist. I added the fun Happy Birthday sentiment using the Bday Messages set from Stampendous. Topped it all off with lots of sugar using 2 different multi crystal glitters from Stampendous. I also added some Kraft paper too to play along with my sweet friend, Jeanie's, 50th TKT Challenge. Wow! I hope you all love this sweet Pink Cupcake!

I am super excited for a chance to be part of iCopic DT. They offer a wonderful line of products and great customer service. Be sure to stop by and visit them here. You also will be happy to know they also have a great blog too with lots of fun challenges for all us Copic lovers. Coloring with Copics is so fun and I love, love, love them!♥♥♥

Hope you enjoy the card and thanks so much for stopping by today! Hugs!




Thanks for visiting and Happy Stamping!

Best Wishes!

Hello! It's been super crazy around here and there are stamps flying everywhere! I have been busy creating for the upcoming Stampendous July Catalog and I can't wait to show you what I have created, but unfortunately it will have to be after the catalog release. It's just around the corner, so you don't have to wait too long. I did want to stop by and post this Bridal Shower card I created for my BFF's little sister. Gina is like my own little sister and she was a junior bridesmaid in my wedding. Wow! I feel old now! LOL! She is going to be a gorgeous bride and I had so much fun at her Bridal Shower. I found this adorable new Lawn Fawn set called Happily Ever After at my LSS and knew it would be perfect since it looked so much like her dress. I used 2 different heart images from the set to create the background for both the black & kraft cardstock. I popped up the gown with foam tape and added some bling to the waist. This card came together so quickly and it was great fun making it for her. Hope you are having a wonderful week and I will see you again soon!

Thanks for visiting and Have a Great Day!

TESC136 - Happy Birthday!

Hello Friends! It's TESC time! I hope you all were as thrilled as I was to get back to Taylor's wonderful sketches. For this week's sketch I decided to play with Cuppie again this time using the TE Doctor's Orders and Sweet Celebration sets. I carefully inked up the Cuppie image around the Get Well sentiment on the balloons, so I could use the image for a birthday card. I was also trying for a more masculine card using some MME patterned paper with the orange, blue and brown color combo. Love these colors together! So are you ready to get to stamping? Well lucky for you Taylored Expressions is a member company over at SCS, so you can get all the challenge deets at SCS or Taylor's blog. Remember you have a chance to win a prize when you play along with each TE Sketch Challenge. The more you play the better your chances of winning! I loved checking out the TESC135 Gallery over at SCS and I can't wait to see what you come up with this time.



Be sure to visit my TE Sketch Crew buddies to see all of their fabulous TESC136 creations:
Jami Sibley
Lisa Hjulberg
Lori Craig
Melissa Sauls
Monika Davis
and Taylor!!!!

Thanks for visiting and Have a Happy Friday!

Life is Sweeter...

Life is SWEETER when shared with friends! What a great sentiment! It's one of my favorites. I have just fallen in love with these adorable Mimi images from Penny Black. They are so cute and I love all the new images that have come out for Spring featuring Mimi. This card was made using the Flowers for Mimi stamp. Aren't those little birds so sweet? I wanted to use my Stella Rose patterned paper again to create a darling little paper pieced dress for Mimi. I used the same paper for the background along with another pretty pink floral piece. I colored Mimi and her little bird friends using Copic Markers and added the grass using Prismacolor Pencils. I hope you like today's little fun Saturday card and I'll be back again on Monday to share some Stampendous Fun.



Thanks for visiting and Have a Sweet Weekend!



Rachel's Recipe:
Stamps: Flowers for Mimi (Penny Black) and Sentiment (Hero Arts)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Markers and Spica Pen
Paper: Kraft & White CS (PTI) and Patterned Paper (MME & Bo Bunny)
Accessories: Circle & Scalloped Circle Nesties, Twine & Ribbon (SU!), Buttons (PTI) and 3D Foam Tape (Best Creations)

Have you seen the "Eclipse"?

Hi Friends!!! Did you see the "Eclipse"? Eclipse tape of course! LOL! I have been looking and looking for this tape for months. No one had the large roll in stock and when I had finally given up I received an email from Impress Rubber Stamps featuring their What's New items. I clicked on the link and what did I see... the ECLIPSE!!!! Woo Hoo!!! So I thought I would do a little post for you in case any of you were looking for it as well. It arrived very quickly and you can find it right here. So happy I found it! I will be back later today with a card to share and Monday I will have some Stampendous Cupcake goodness for you too!


Thanks for visiting and Happy Saturday!