You Glow Girl ~

Hiya there, friends!  It's time to show you some of the new goodies from iCopic I got to play with for the month!  I got this fabulous chandelier stamp from the Penny Johnson Vintage line by Stampavie and an amazing new product from Tsukineko called Fireworks.   

This little baby is colored with some golden yellows {Y21, Y26 and Y28} on vintage cream cardstock.  Our challenge last week at iCopic was to color on anything other than white cardstock.  Coloring these beautiful yellows on this cream allowed a richer color I think.  Plus, the opal Ranger Liquid Pearls that I added stand out so much better!  I used the current sketch from my friend Jen's blog, deconstructing jen.  She features one of her sketches every Thursday - perfect for when I'm trying to crank out a card for a Friday deadline! lol

The new Tsukineko product, Fireworks, is a lovely, colorful, shimmery spray that coordinates with Memento colors.  I received Desert Sand which is very golden...perfect for that candle light glow!  I didn't want to spray my whole image however, so I sprayed it onto my craft mat and applied it to the image with an aqua painter.

 If you click on the picture below, you can really see all the shimmery goodness!  The sentiment circle was sprayed all over so you can get an idea of how these wonderful sprays work! 

That's it for me!  Hope you have a wonderful day!!  :o) lyss

COPICS {R24, R29, Y000, Y11, Y21, Y26, Y28}    Ha, ha, Chris!!  I only used 7 markers on this!!  ;o)

CSAYL: Inspiration Photo

Hey there, hi there, ho there!  How about a little inspiration photo for this week's Christmas Stampin' All Year Long challenge?  Our fearless leader, MacKenzie, has chosen this non-traditional colored yarn wreath to provide us with headaches, er, I mean, a challenge.  lol  I went super literal and used the colors and a wreath image from Papertrey Ink from the set Wreath for All Seasons.

I think this is all pretty self explanatory.  I used the colors Ocean Tides, Ripe Avocado & Spring Moss on Rustic Cream cardstock.  I have to run out the door for work, so I hope it's enough details!  lol

 Please join us this week!  Someone will be chosen to be a guest designer for July!!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  :o) lyss

A Note of Thanks ~

Hiya friends!  I'm here with a special little note of thanks from my iCopic post!  When my son was born, my grandpa set up a college fund for him.  I opened up a statement of said fund yesterday and realized that he'd been adding to it this year without saying anything.  I figured I'd better make him a special thank you note and quick!  lol

Picking through my stamps, I found the perfect little guy - Musical Ethan from Your Next Stamp.  He's darling and super easy to color.  I knew I didn't have much time, so I picked out my paper and layout (from some inspiration photos that I keep for just this purpose!).  The papers helped me to choose how I would color up his little outfit. 

The paper is My Minds Eye Lime Twist Out of the Blue.  It works out so well because my son tries to dress just like his daddy all the time, so it's camo and army green pants for him!  I used a ruler and paper piercer to add holes around the edge every quarter inch and a 0.8mm Copic multiliner to add faux stitching - that little extra touch adds so much!  The sentiment is stamped in Versafine Onyx Black (the absolute best ink for sentiments and beautiful black coverage) and embossed with clear embossing powder to really stand out against the busy background.  Now I just have to get it in the mail...

Ha Ha!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you all have a super fantastic beginning to your week!  :o) lyss

Copics {BG15, BG23, BG49, C1, C7, C9, E000, E00, E02, R02, R20, YG93, YG95, YG97, Y21, Y26, Y32, 100 Black}

Happy Father's Day ~

Hi everyone!  Hope you're all spending a wonderful day with the fathers in your lives!  Today all my hubby wants to do is relax around the house...perfect for a hermit like me!  lol  A little while ago, I saw this card on the Kenny K's Krafty Girls challenge blog.  I knew this was the digi stamp I would have to use for my husband's father's day card. 

My husband has been riding bikes in some form or another since he was about 3.  He sells Harleys now, so of course, he has to have a Harley too!  lol 

This is my guy riding his bike up in the great Rocky Mountains. 

Seriously, I have to tell you that I felt like this digi stamp was drawn just for me!  lol  It's so perfect...and so detailed...and so daunting!  I put this thing off until the day before because I was so scared to color it.  Whenever I'm that scared, I must have reference photos to go off of.  I'm not a true artist that just knows how things are supposed to look, or how the light hits things, etc.  So I took photos of the card I wanted to CASE and of Doug's bike with me to work and set to coloring.

This is Dirt Bike Mike.  He is so exactly a depiction of my Doug.  Love it!!  Of course, I colored this up almost entirely with Copics!  ;o)  His bike and outfit are colored mostly with warm greys (W3, 5, 7 and 110 Special Black) while the metal parts of his bike and the tires are colored with cool greys (C1, 3, 5, 7, 9).  The forks of the bike are done with Y26 and Y28 - great golden colors.  The ground is colored, dotted and doodled in with a bunch of browns (E23, 25, 29, 33, 37).  I used a multiliner to draw a couple of extra mud clumps or dirt clods thrown up by his tires.  The flames on Doug's helmet are actually all red, but I just had to try making fire-y flames and I love how they turned out!  I did a gradient of R59, R29, R24, YR18, YR12, Y15 and Y13.  The sky is sponged in with Ranger Distress Tumbled Glass.  I thought I was finished there, but it needed that little extra something, so I doodled in the trees with G29 and G24 just like Heidy did.  

Even though this is CASEd, it follows with the Copic Creations challenge #52 - to doodle on your art!  lol  Also, the challenge at iCopic (#34) this week is to color with browns.  You still have a little bit to get your card in for a chance at a lovely prize there!   Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  :o) lyss

My guy with his kiddos last summer.

Please ignore the yucky background of our hot tub...we need to fix it, but always find other things to do!  lol

CSAYL: Black, White & ??? ~

Happy Friday, friends!  I'm back with this week's Christmas Stampin' All Year Long challenge.  We are sponsored by the fabulous Perfect Presentation - your source for printable templates for a perfect presentation every time!  One randomly chosen participant from this week's challenge will win a template of their choice!  The challenge this week is to create an other-than-a-card project using the colors black, white and one other color of your choice!

I chose to use the Easy Candy Wrap file.  One thing that I love about Perfect Presentation is that when you purchase the file in the svg or gsd formats, you also get the pdf file.  Believe me...that saved my tuckus this week!  In moving my crafty spaces {and still not being fully moved or organized}, I have misplaced my SCAL software.  So I have the old computer all set up and hooked up to my Cricut, but it's of no use!  Ugh.  Good thing I have the pdf file too!  I was able to print the template directly onto my paper and just cut it out...yay!

I went super easy with this challenge.  Once I cut out the wrap, I measured and cut out a black mat and an aqua mist layer.  I then stamped snowflakes all over the aqua mist using fresh snow ink.  I glued it all together, scored it, assembled it and tied it up with some 1/4" double sided black satin ribbon.  Easy!  Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you play along with us this week!  :o) lyss

Gorjuss Girl ~

Hey all! I'm back with a little masking and sponging card that I did for iCopic. I recently purchased some of my favorite inks - Tim Holtz Ranger Distress - in Bundled Sage and Tumbled Glass (you so gotta love the names of these colors!). I've been stamping/coloring/obsessing in this little hobby of craftiness for a little over 3 years now...all this time, I've been trying to avoid these inks and oh.so.fabulous tools! I have finally caved and am so delighted that I have! I highly recommend investing in the Distress Inks...not only do you get amazing coverage on both rubber and clear acrylic stamps, you have the ability to emboss with them and get gorgeous results sponging with them!  I also adore my non-stick mat and ink blending tool - not a big $$ investment, and I use them on almost every.single.card.

This little darling is the Little Foxes set of the Gorjuss clear stamp line. She and her pals are stamped in Memento Tuxedo black and colored with, what else?, Copics! After coloring and cutting, I decided I wanted to give my new inks a go, so I stamped various parts of the image on post-it notes and trimmed just inside the black lines. I was able to slip this mask inside the die to get a full coverage...gotta love how I always plan ahead! LOL I then sponged away with the two colors to the depth that I desired. TIP: I always use Painter's masking tape to secure my die to the stamped image from the back side. You don't want your die to slip while you're sponging and lose that crisp white border! Once you pull away the die and the masks...voila!

And there you have it! The sketch is June's Sketch For You To Try from i{heart}2stamp.  The papers are My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose Gertie.  LOVE!!   Hope you all have a fab Monday!  Thanks so much for stopping by!!  :o) lyss

COPICS {BG15, BG23, C1, C3, E00, E02, E08, E09, E11, E13, E19, E23, E27, E29, E81, E87, R02, R22, R24, R27, R29}

CSAYL: Babes in Toyland ~

Friday has rolled around again already!  It's time for another fun Christmas Stampin' All Year long challenge.  This week the DT gets to play with whatever their little hearts desire...as long as we make our creation for a kiddo!  A participant from this challenge will get to be a guest designer in July! 

I was so inspired by the ease of last week's challenge, that I chose to create another gift card holder.  Seriously, with all the nieces and nephews, gift cards are the way to go!  lol  So I channeled a little Shrek..."Not the buttons! Not my gumdrop buttons!!"  One of my favorite lines...
The paper is Dasher from a retired Basic Grey line, cherry Divine Baker's Twine, pink and blue embroidery floss and a sentiment on a tag from PTI's Mixed Messages.  The GingerBread Man is from PTI's Holiday Button Bits - instead of buttons, I used some candy looking drops from Martha Stewart.  Pretty simple and fun!  The inside houses the same easy peasy gift card holder from last week with more Dasher paper.  Hope you like!  Play along...   :o) lyss

A Syren's Treasure ~

Hi there! I'm back this week to play with dots some more! Not sure why I'm doing this so very much, but I'm loving playing around with the texture of dots! lol  This is an iCopic post from a couple weeks ago...hope you enjoy!
This week I worked with a very appropriate hotty - Syren of The Greeting Farm. She is so very appropriate this week because of the new Johnny, er, I mean, Pirates of the Caribbean movie that came out recently.

I'm {still} in the process of moving my crafty spaces, so didn't have a ton of stamps in my arsenal. I needed a sea like background and always think of polka dots as a nice bubbly like backdrop. I found a polka dot heart in SP & Company's Artsy Heartsy (sent to my by our fabulous former DT Diva Linda C!) I turned the heart upside down repeatedly to stamp in the negative spaces of a line of hearts to create a polka dot strip. It's not perfect...but it doesn't need to be! It's just a background!
I colored up this little vixen and added dots of YG95, G99 and BG75 for some texture on her little fishy tail. She's complete with make up and super rosy cheeks using R32. Hair is something that gives me a real problem! It quickly became a hot mess LOL so I just started scribbling some colors around and then blended with my lightest brown. It's all about knowing your limitations and understanding that this is your artistic license!! At least, that's what I tell myself! ha ha ha
Little Miss Syren is sitting on some sand that is torn from Kraft cardstock and sponged with Ranger Antique Linen Distress Ink (the #1 Distress Ink you NEED!) I used a few pearly buttons to represent some treasure and called this little cutie done! Thanks so very much for stopping by!  Also, I'm seeing this around a lot, but I'm having a hard time signing in on google to comment on my friend's blogs!  Sorry...I'm seeing everything you all are making...and as always, you all blow me away with your creativity!!  :o) lyss

COPICS {BG70, BG72, BG75, E00, E02, E13, E25, E27, E29, E37, G99, R32, W3, W5, YG91, YG93, YG95}

CSAYL: A Little Something for You ~

Hey!  How are you all doing?  I'm not so hot...well, actually I am.  I think I'm running another fever here.  Gotta love that it's finally sunny and 90 degrees outside, and I'm stuck inside with strep or some other nasty thing.  Ugh...anyway...

It's Friday again!  Time for another Christmas Stampin' All Year Long challenge!  This week we are sponsored by Pink Cat Studio - 5 digi stamps are up for grabs with this challenge! Your challenge this week is to make something from me to you: Make a gift card holder and leave us a link for your chance to win. You can create your own design or use a favorite template or tutorial.  We also have the amazingly talented Lori joining us as a Guest on the DT for today.  Please stop by her blog and say hello!

I knew I'd seen a cute gift card holder that I really wanted to make for this challenge...after searching SplitCoastStampers, Paper Craft Planet and plain old Google, I couldn't find it anywhere!  That's when it dawned on me to check my bookmarks for 'Blog pages to refer to'.  I found it!  And it was on SplitCoastStampers!  It's here if you want to check it out, and it's super easy!

 I used the adorable Reindeer Ride digi stamp from Pink Cat Studio.  It's colored with Copics and distressed around the edges with Ranger Antique Linen (don't know what I did before I had that fabulous ink and sponging tool!). 

Here's the inside that holds the gift card...sorry, I only had a Mother's Day flowery one from Lowe's to show how the gift card is held inside.  lol  In my fever induced state, apparently I didn't realize that I need to put a white mat inside to write a little message to the recipient.  Oh well!  That's an easy fix!  I'm so glad I finally tried this tutorial!  Now I know how I'll be doing my brothers' Christmas cards this year.  Hope you play along with us this week!  Have  a super weekend!  :o) lyss