It's a 2 Card Day!

Yup, that's right TWO whole cards!  The first is inspired by my friend, M, who likes Hello Kitty.  And how can I blame her?  Hello Kitty is rather cute.  I love her black, white, and pink color scheme.

The background card stock is pink.  I cut the polka dot paper with my cutterpede wavy blade.  Before I attached it, I folded down one corner and put a brad in.  The stamp is from the "Greeting for All Reasons" Stampin' Up! set.  I stamped the bright pink heart first and then slightly offset the white version.  The white is hard to see from the picture, but it looks really good in person.

The second card for today came from just playing around with the sponging technique.  It took me a while to learn a few things about sponging.

1) Be patient and don't press too hard!
2) You have to overlap your colors to get it to look cool
3) The darker color doesn't always have to be the edge.  It can bring attention to the center, too.
4) Lay your colors out before you start and do a test run on spare paper.  The colors may look okay together on their labels and pads, but can turn out differently when you start sponging!

I hadn't done anything in the purple realm before so I thought I would give it a try.  I think it looks cool.  The rose stamp is one I picked up randomly from Michael's because it was on sale at the time.  It is colored with watercolor crayons.  The varied tones of each color (SU! colors Elegant Eggplant for the flower, Always Artichoke for the stem and leaves) were a result of how much water was in my blending pen at that moment.  The background is a combination of Orchid Opulence, Lovely Lilac, Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, and Regal Rose.  I used a corner rounder on the edges to give it a softer appearance.

Inspiration

Inspiration:  This weekend I got to spend time with my best friends.  I met these girls in college and now we are scattered across a couple states.  We get together every once in a while to chat and catch up with life.  One of said friends has a *slight* owl obsession (love you, S!).  We went shopping at Hobby Lobby and she was tickled by all the owl stuff they had put out for the fall.  I am rather enamored with the sponging technique right now, so it was only appropriate I do an owl on a sponged background.

Background inks:  (All are Stampin' Up!) So Saffron, Aprico Appeal, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust
Foreground: Black craft marker

I entered a contest!

This is my first contest entry.  I finally got up the nerve to do it!  The card is inspired by my trip to Hawaii.  We stayed right on the beach in Kauai and saw the sunrise every day.  We didn't usually make it to sunset thought - I was sick with a stupid sinus infection the entire trip.  At least I was in a fabulous place!

The background is all sponging using Stampin' Up! colors and round daubers.  I created the rocky beach and palm trees with a black craft marker, then ran a bit of brown ink lightly over it.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but there is some shading on the beach thanks to the brown ink.

UPDATE:  The people at Crafting Ireland have published my submission!  It is in Issue 2.  Just flip the pages until you see it.  :)

First Blog, First Post

My friends all have blogs, so I guess I will, too.  This will be a place to show my crafty cards.  I make these purely for my own enjoyment when I am not teaching.  Most of the cards seen here will be sent overseas as I am trying to fill a box for Operation Write Home.

Here are a few examples of what I am sending.

This is obviously inspired by the Mario games that I have played recently.  I free-styled my Yoshi, egg, cloud, and ground.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!

This is a silly dragon that I used to practice sponging.  All the shapes were hand-cut. I used a small dimensional to make his wing pop out.

I thought this would be a great card for a little girl.  The pink paper with swirls is one of my all-time favorites!