CSAYL: Die Cuts ~

It's time for another Christmas Stampin' All Year Long  challenge!  Our challenge this week is to use a die cut as your focal image.
WARNING: I'm about to ramble on for a moment, so you may want to skip down a ways till you see a picture.  I swear, these weeks go by so very quickly!  I get less and less crafty time it seems!  The process of moving my goodies back over to my house is not progressing very quickly!  lol  On Sunday, I spent the entire day weeding, mowing, planting my garden and moving my son's and step-daughter's rooms.  I was working non-stop from 9:30am to 10pm!  So much for a day off!  I've moved a ton of fun things over here but have yet to organize things...Wednesday is supposed to be my one crafty day a week - where I accomplish all I've been brainstorming since the previous Wednesday!  lol   Let me take you through Tuesday first - I went to work for my 12 hour day knowing that my District and Regional managers were to visit my store on my day off!  Ugh...seriously?!?  Whatever, I'll just get everything I can done and hope that I can answer questions later!  I manage a small retail store in a dying mall, so the budget is small for the types of things I need (like a door dinger).  Anyway, I put off the things I needed to do in the back of the store till later in the evening when I should be slow; however, I had to re-do all of the posters that need to be put up for all those regulations, etc.  The only place to put these posters up is in our little bathroom (yuk!) where the light and fan are connected - hence you can't hear if anyone comes in the store!  Needless to say, a 20 minute project took more like an hour and a half and had me rattlesnake pissy...once I finally got all finished and was able to close the gate, it was already 20 minutes past closing time.  I quickly counted the drawer and got all ready to head out with my boxes and bags of trash.  I suddenly realized I couldn't find my work keys!!!  Another 30 minutes of looking for my keys (to no avail), I finally decided to leave work at 10pm.  By the time I got home, I was angry at myself and stressed about losing my keys, I was ready to pick a fight!  Then my husband hits me with this bomb.................
You have an appointment tomorrow at 1:30 to finish your sleeve!!  OMG!!!  I've been wanting to do this for so long, but I'm so angry at myself I have a hard time getting excited.  Anyhow....I ended up having to go to work in the morning to find my keys (which I did!), then drive back home (30 miles) to pick up the family and drive back to town to go get tattooed (another 30 miles!)...5+ hours and a bottle of Crown later, my half sleeve is done (and beautiful!!) and I realize I still have a CSAYL card to make!!  LOL  With that all being said, I wish I'd brought you something nicer this week and yet, I like the simplicity and mass productivity possibility of it...

The card base is stamped with PTI's Background Basics: Diamonds in Vintage Cream ink with the edges sponged in the same ink.  A simple mat with Ocean Tides and Rustic Cream stamped with Joy from Verve's Glad Tidings forms the base for a Vintage Ornament tied with Rustic Cream twine and cut from a retired dp of Stampin' Ups!  Easy Peasy! 

Thanks so much for stopping by (and reading my ramblings, if you did!)  Hope you have a super weekend!  :o) lyss

CSAYL: Very Vintage ~

Hey all!  I’m back after a much needed week off…unfortunately, I didn’t get anything accomplished as I had hoped!  lol  I’m in the process of trying to carve out some space at my house to have my crafty goods with me.  It will be so much better when I can just bop into my space for 20 minutes or be able to add that extra little button to a project without having to wait till I can make it over to my mom’s!  Anyhow…
The challenge with Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long this week is Very Vintage.  This week I want you to be "Very Vintage" with your style.  Distress inks, cream cardstock, muted images, ribbon, lace - however you interpret vintage.  The winner will join us next month as a guest designer!  So come play along with us!

I chose to go with one of my favorite stamp series of all time – Year of Flowers by Papertrey Ink.  December’s flower is the poinsettia which can be colored in so many different ways.  I chose a warmer, deeper red with just a couple of leaves sticking out from behind.  This card was CASEd from the fabulous Niki Estes.  The largest mat was misted with water and run through the ‘Bug’ with the Linen and Canvas impression Plate.  Every layer was sponged with Antique Linen Distress ink and the sheet music was stamped in the same.  The poinsettia was stamped 3 times, colored in smaller layers and popped up on dimensionals.

I did something different when coloring this flower.  Once I had it all colored and shaded, I needed a bit more highlight.  Instead of going back with the colorless blender, I went back with R35 and took some of the darker red (R39) out.  So simple and it didn’t give me the washed out color that the blender may have! 
Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I’ll have my iCopic post up tomorrow!  Hope you have a super duper weekend!!  :o) lyss  
Copics {R35, R39, R59, R89, Y32, YG93, YG95, YG97}

My First Magnolia ~

Hey there! Welcome to a look at my first Magnolia! These stamps are all the rage in the stamping world, and yet, I've managed to stay away for over 3 years!! Intimidation? Why yes! I think it was! lol  I've always thought they were a little fat and looked funny without a nose or mouth!  She's kind of cute though :o)

I was lucky enough to receive Tilda with Hawaii Flower from iCopic, so I set about finding papers and colors to make this little lady nice and bright! She is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on the Copic X-Press It paper - this is my first time using this paper as well. The ink seems to sit atop the paper more allowing you more time to blend your colors.  I think I like it but will have to get used to it first.

The challenge on the iCopic lover blog this week is to color grass in your image. I accomplished this by filling in a straight line of ground in YG23 and then coloring to the base of the paper. I then used YG17, YG25 and YG23 with short flicks of the brush tip to make clusters of grass. I also created a bit of shadow beneath Tilda and where her hands would throw shadow on the ground with the gradient of greens. A bit of sparkle was added to the flower in her hair and to the butterfly wings with AtYou Spica pens in Lemon, Orange & Pink.

The flower is cut from a bit of pink felt and jazzed up a bit with RV13 and RV14. Again, just a few flicks with the brush tip give this flower a little more depth. A button tied with some Divine Baker's Twine in Lemon completes the center.




Thanks so much for stopping by!  :o) lyss
Copics {BOOO, BG10, BG13, BG18, C1, C3, E000, E00, E02, E23, E25, E27, E29, R02, RV10, RV13, RV14, Y11, Y13, YG17, YG23, YG25, YR12, YR18}
Spicas {Lemon, Orange & Pink}
Challenges:
7 Kids College Fund
ABC DT
Claudia & Company
Crazy 4 Challenges
Let's Ink it Up
Paper Sundaes {E23, E25, E27, E29}
Papertake Weekly
Embellish Magazine
Mojo Monday

CSAYL: Make Us Laugh ~

Hi there!  Time for another challenge with the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long gals!  This week we are sponsored by Pink Cat Studio.  The randomly selected winner will win 5 digi stamps of their choosing from this adorable line!

I chose to use this adorable Santa image this week.  The challenge is to use a funny sentiment on your card.  I thought and thought and finally figured out a sick little sentiment that will make my type of friends giggle!

He's colored with Copics, glitter was added to the star and his buckle with a gold Spica pen, the tree is dotted with Silver Liquid Pearls and Xmas Red Stickles and the entire candy cane is covered with Ranger Glossy Accents.  While he was still in the die, I traced around the inside with a 0.3 Copic Multiliner - my new favorite thing to do!

So the sentiments not really that funny...yet!  Jump to the inside of the card

"Ho, Ho, Ho!"  and inside  "You must've been good this year!  Santa called out your name 3 times!!"

Ha, Ha, Ha!  I just couldn't help myself!  So make a funny card and join along this week!  Have a super weekend!  ~ lyss

Copics {BG99, C1, C3, E00, E02, E27, E43, E44, G00, G02, G24, G28, R20, R39, R89, W7, Y28, YR04, 110 Special Black, 0 Colorless Blender}

Gardening Boy ~

Hello, hello! Hope you all are doing fantastic on this hump day! I realized today that I've only been posting on my little old blog about every Friday.  I have posts up on the iCopic Lover blog every Friday too, but I'll start posting them here. 
This is a sweet new Stampavie image, Finn Whistling While He Works. The artist is Sarah Kay, and she draws such darling children! These are very detailed images, so you have to use a light hand when coloring with your beloved Copics. The end result is so worth it though!

 He is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black on a rustic cream cardstock. This neutral cardstock takes a little bit of practice because it bleeds more than papers designed for Copic coloring. Make sure when you are starting out with your Copics or coloring on a different medium to test out on some scrap...you might just ruin your whole project if you don't! Don't ask me how I know! lol

I tried a different technique for the ground cover and just dotted the greens around - YG61, YG63 & YG67. I wasn't impressed with how harsh it looked at first, so I ran the 0 Colorless Blender over it a bit and then added some more dabs of color here and there. I think this technique still needs a bit of work before I'll be totally happy with it, but hey, we're all learning here! :o)

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I'll try to not be such a stranger around here!  ;o) lyss

Copics {B91, B95, B97, B99, C1, C3, C5, C7, E000, E00, E11, E31, E33, E37, E71, E74, R20, V95, V99, Y15, Y21, Y26, Y28, YG61, YG63, YG67}