Monkey Sketch 111

Shirley and Terry from a La Card Monkey chose one of my cards last week, which means I get to be a GD this week!  Here’s their fun sketch:

Terry assured me it didn’t HAVE to be a graduation card, so I went with more of an encouragement card, using one of the new In Colors, Summer Starfruit, some new papers from Cozy Cafe, and the Countryside truck:

When I first read the name of this color, I misread it as “Summer Starfish” and that just sticks in my head, so if you see me mistype it in the future, you’ll know why!  I stamped this image in Stazon on some watercolor paper and colored it with various inks and my aquapainter:

  

I also “vintaged” the edges with some Crumb Cake ink and a lot of water to give it an aged look.  The sentiment (gasp-I cut it apart to use it in two pieces!!!!) is from Blessings from Heaven.  I don’t know what took me so long to get this set; my friend Darlene sent me a card with one of the sentiments on it, and I just had to have it!  It looks terrific on this banner, stamped in Early Espresso, especially with that little apple that fell off the truck:

 

I love this unique sketch and I hope you’ll drive on over to the Card Monkey blog to play along with us this week!  TFL!

This is a book I got from the library about a mother mouse looking for her babies; each page features an image with little flaps that fold down, and the mother doesn’t find her babies until the last page.  Cassidy LOVES this book, but her fingers can’t quite get under the flap, so she grunts “UNH” on each page…..as if that would help those little fingers!  So cute!

Monkey 109

 

Hey peeps!  Or maybe I should say “sheeps” today, because my card has a sweet little lamb featured on it!  I used the sketch from A La Card Monkey for this week:

to make a birthday card for a special friend who likes to knit!

 

I used some new papers from the upcoming catalog called Comfort Cafe and one of the new In Colors, Midnight Muse, paired with Crumb Cake.  I LOVE this combination!  The little images from Hand Knit were simply stamped in Midnight Muse, punched with a circle punch, then outlined quickly (don’t look too closely!) with a Sahara Sand marker!  I did pop up the little ball of yarn:

and made a couple of little tags for a gift to tuck inside the envelope (pardon the bad photography here):

What a fun sketch!  Thanks, Terry & Shirley! 

Already Cassidy is a discerning artist, perusing carefully her blue crayon (every crayon is “blue” to her!):

Monkey Challenge 108

   

Those sweet chicas over at A La Card Monkey asked me to be their guest designer this week!  I always look forward to playing with them!  Check out this fun photo inspiration:

Yes, the little girl is standing on an alligator!  What a hoot!  Well, the challenge is “girly”, and the photo is vintage, so I pulled out some vintage sewing goodies from my stash to make my girly card:

I used a wide & varied assortment of products here!!!  Normally when I do vintage, I do sepia tones or lighter shades.  The Miss America Pearls image is an actual button card from my MIL’s stash, as is the Woolco Needle Pack, and they gave me the inspiration to use the brighter shades. The other images are from paper packs, embossed or stamped.  I added some stitching and lace from my stash to the DP from Material Girl by Cosmo Cricket:

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the inside:

Remember, if you have any questions, shoot me an email!  I hope you have some time to play with Shirley and Terry over at the Card Monkey and share your vintage girly creation!

 

Paper Players 94

Happy Sunday!  What a beautiful weekend we have been having!  I hope you have some time this week to play our Paper Players challenge….Nance is our hostess, and here is the challenge:

Aren’t these little cupcakes on their own little stands just the cutest thing?  I chose to do a “love” theme as my mom is gone, and I wanted to highlight those cute little birds perched on each plate!  The color palette from Pals Paper Arts this week of Baja Breeze, Calypso Coral and So Saffron was a close match, and check out this sketch from the girls at A La Card Monkey:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here is my love-themed card:

I pulled out a couple of retired sets to make this; a hostess set called Punch Potpourri and a background stamp called Floral.  I found some woodgrain DP that mimicked the table; I heat embossed the birds on vellum cardstock with white craft ink and white embossing powder.  The vellum circles behind them were stamped in white craft ink with the Floral stamp, and I flipped them over so that I had a softer image.  It’s a bit hard to see, but here’s a closeup:

There’s also a heart image in the set with some French-looking script; I embossed it the same way and diecut out a couple of tags as well as a little heart to help my sentiment show up better, and attached them to a scrunchy Baja Breeze seam binding bow that I tie-dyed:

 

If you’re a SU customer and are lamenting the fact that craft inks are going away, as long as you have a Versamark pad, you can still emboss in color!  To get the embossed “Love” tag, I simply inked my sentiment from Pennant Parade first in Versamark, then again in Calypso Coral, and stamped….then embossed with clear embossing powder.  Just be sure to clean your stamp before you ink again in the Versamark!!!  If you have any questions about my card, just shoot me an email!

I hope you’ll be inspired to make a Mother’s Day-themed creation and share it with us!  And be sure to check out the other Paper Players designers, and welcome Narelle Farrugia as our guest designer this month!

With temps in the high 80s, we were able to get some sandbox time…..and we had sand EVERYWHERE…..which led to some bathtub time!!  And be sure to check out the image on the shirt!!!

 

Monkey 106

I finally had a chance to play with the A La Card Monkey challenge this week!  Here’s the sketch/challenge:

I love blue, but I have to admit this sketch was a bit of a challenge for me.  I pulled out my Fabulous Florets and did some watercoloring:

Normally, I don’t watercolor on Confetti cardstock; I also don’t watercolor unless I have heat embossed my outline image or stamped it with Stazon, but I broke all my rules here!  I just stamped my images in Marina Mist and colored them with Marina Mist and Bashful Blue ink, but did not go all the way to the edge so the outline didn’t blur.  I added a little punched-out sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes and a line of pearls:

Oh, and I embossed my Marina Mist panel with the Framed Tulips EF, although not much of it shows!  Thanks for looking today!

ColourQ130

Arielle is tempting us today with some lovely Easter colors for the ColourQ:

Wouldn’t you love to have a handcrafted fabric basket like that?  So sweet!  I had to make do with a stamped “basket”:

For some reason, my Certainly Celery just doesn’t look right in the photo, but  that’s what it is!  I used the sketch from the Card Monkey challenge this week:

They always have such fun challenges!  I did some watercoloring and embossing on my card and used a few diecuts as well:

Hope you’ll play along with these fun, bright colors!  This palette can be interpreted in so many ways!  We can’t wait to see what you come up with; please share it with us at the ColourQ blog and make sure you see what the other designers have done as well!

Little sleepyhead!

Monkey Challenge 97

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  This card today is for my sweet friend Denise!  I don't usually post cards before they are sent to their recipients, but I was so excited about the REASON for the card, I had to share it early.  So Denise, this is on its way to you!  If you check out Denise's blog, ChezMoi Creations, you'll see that she not only stamps but she knits too!  And this is what she made for my wee little DGD:

Aren't they sweet?  Three shades of pink and some fun sparkly buttons!  Cassidy is not real happy about mittens right now, but she will wear them if it is cold enough outside!  I can't wait to see them on her little hands!  Thanks, Denise!  And now, to my little thank you card:

I used the Monkey Challenge sketch 97, which is Anything Goes, and I turned it on its side to make better use of my cute little image:

A few fun papers from my stash along with an embossed button and some floss, finished it off! 

You know those moments when all is quiet and you start to panic, because it's TOO quiet, and what could they be up to??  This was one of those moments:

She climbed up on the couch all by herself to read her book!   Thanks for stopping by today!

Monkey Challenge 94

Hey there! The fun, happy girls over at a la Card Monkey asked me to be their guest designer this week!  Here is their sketch & challenge:

My nephew’s birthday is coming up next week, so this was a perfect opportunity to use the sketch!  He is a senior in high school and is a super neat kid…he’s into physics, math, and mechanical stuff, so I thought these images would be great for him:

I am going to bet that he has NO IDEA what that little embellishment is at the bottom right of the image panel…..but he’s smart enough, he can probably figure it out!

The colored images are stamped in Memento black and colored with Copics….the numbers are stamped in Pacific Point.  I just love this vintage look and I know he’ll probably just want to see what’s inside!

If you have any questions about the card or supplies, give me a shout!  (Make sure you include your email address so I can return your answer!)  I hope you’ll have some time to play with the Monkey sketch this week---we all need birthday cards, and this is a fun, simple sketch!  Be sure to join us and share your creation!

This was taken last week, after recuperating from teething and a bad cold…..red cheeks and runny nose, but check out the curls!  Amazing! And raisins always help!  Thankfully, the teeth have broken through: