Shutterfly Holiday Cards and a giveaway! ~

Some of you may have been around last year to remember when I did this post about holiday cards from Shutterfly.  Well, the time of year has come again to make my Christmas card list (and check it twice!) lol  Being a crafter, I feel the need to make everyone a hand made card.   But…then I hem and haw about who will appreciate what more and who will think it’s cute and then throw it away.  :o)  Welcome Shutterfly to the rescue!!

Shutterfly has some amazing designs for every style out there.  I seem to vacillate between styles depending on my mood – we all do, I guess.  I really like the clean lines of the Berry Merry Frame card and the With Love card is still a favorite – it’s what I used last year. 

I adore doing collage cards while the kids are still growing and changing so much.  This Keep Believing collage card is super cute!  Oh and I go nutty for snowmen, so this Snowman Memories may be a contender for this year!  Oh no!  I think I just found the card I want to do, simple and classic – Classic Mistletoe Frame.  See what I mean?  So many great styles!  Aack!  How will I ever choose?!?
I always order the flat postcard style; that way I can slip one in with the cards I’ve already made.  Plus, if I run out of time to make cards for people, I can easily mail those I have on hand without having to worry about writing a personal sentiment inside a folded card.  Hey, it’s the thought that counts, right?  ;o)  Shutterfly also makes these fantastic photo books – almost like scrapbooking without having to ponder how to put all the pages together.  Such a great gift for the grandparents that live far away!
Now for the fun part!  I’ll be giving away 3 sets of 25 holiday cards to random commenters.  You have until next Saturday, November 5, at midnight mountain time to comment.  I’ll update with a post and the winners sometime on Sunday!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a super week!  :o) lyss

Boo and a farewell ~

Hiya friends!  Hope you all are having a wonderful and warm week!  We were hit with a very wet snowstorm on Tuesday/Wednesday that tore through the trees around my area like a tornado.  So sad!  As I’m typing this up on Thursday night, I’ve just heard from my hubby that our power is back on!!  Yay!  We won’t have to endure another night in the house without heat!!  With that being said, I apologize for the lighting of the photos…no power means no light box!  Oh, the horror!!  lol  This also means that I was unable to work on the Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long challenge because I needed my computer and my Cricut.  Never fear – I’ll be back!

I wanted to make a fun little Halloween card for you today.  I chose to work the sassy little devil from The Greeting Farm’s Naughty or Nice set.  Since the challenge on the iCopic blog this week is orange and black, I thought I’d do a little doodling and draw her sitting in a bed of flames.  I mean, really, isn’t a devil supposed to be in flames?!?  Truth be told, my husband drew the flames for me – he’s the artist in the family, I just like to color!  lol

He drew them lightly with a pencil first and then outlined them with a 0.3mm Copic multiliner.  I used the multiliner specifically because I didn’t want the black lines to bleed at all.  Her purple outfit is supposed to be a little gauzy and see through, so I colored and shaded her skin tone first and then went over it with BV02.  On the flames I used an embarrassing number of markers and then went back and added some shine and glitter with Lemon and Orange AtYou Spica pens.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t capture the shimmer in any pics I took – sorry!  You’ll just have to use your imagination.  ;o)  The sketch is the current Mojo Monday – #212 so fun!

Here’s a little close up along with the list of Copics:

BV02, BV08, BV13, BV29, C1, C3, C5, C7, C9, E00, E02, E11, R20, R24, R29, R59, YR12, YR18, Y11

 

 

 

 

Now for a little extra news…I’m sorry and saddened to say that I need to end my term on the design team with iCopic.  I’ve had so much fun and pushed myself to try things that I wouldn’t have otherwise.  Unfortunately, I feel that my time is just being stretched too thin with a new promotion at work, family and my want/obsessive need to always give you all my best.  I don’t feel that I have been doing that, so I had to make the decision to cut something.  I kind of like my family ;o) and we have to put food on the table {gasp!}, so I’m refocusing my energy and opening the door for someone new and fabulous to work with this amazing company and the wonderful artists on the design team.  It’s been so great to get the encouraging comments and sweet thoughts from all of you!  Thank you!  And Thank You, iCopic, for allowing me to be a part of your team for this time!  Farewell friends!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  ;o) lyss

CSAYL: Sparkles ~

Hi there Chrsitmas Stampin’ All Year Long friends!  Bopping in here with the current challenge this week sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps.  You can bop on over to the blog here for all the fun details. 

Our challenge this week is to make something super sparkle-y!!  I may have gone overboard {blush}.  I chose to use the Ava and Deacon Christmas. 

I printed it out twice so I could pop Deacon up over all that glitter.  The letters are colored flat and then totally covered in purple and turquoise fine glitters.  The color combo is PTI Royal Velvet and Hawaiian Shores – love!!

Here’s a close up of the itty bitty bit of dimension

Sorry so short today!  Make sure you head over to my sidebar and check out all of the creations made by my fellow CSAYL DT!  Have a super weekend!  :) lyss

Happy Feet Santa ~

Hello friends!  Here's my iCopic post from last Friday.  Hope you all are having a fantastical week!  :o) lyss

Hello!  So glad it’s Friday…well, kind of…I’m working a 12 hour shift today and have oodles of work to do!  Oh well!  At least I get to color cards in my spare time ;o)  I’ve got a new little guy to share with you today that I’ve dangled in front of you before.  I know I’ve mentioned how much I am in love with the Wild Rose Studio line of stamps…well, now I have the new Pickle the Penguin character to show you!!  This is Pickle with Sledge – such a great stamp for your holiday collection! 

I colored him up to follow along with the pattern paper – just trying to follow my own suggestions {wink!}.  The presents are colored with Copics while the bows are made super sparkalay with AtYou Spica pens.  I used a little Flower Soft and glitter for the snow at his *happy* feet and a little white flock and glitter for his hat and scarf trim.  The card base and mats are a smokey gray color to tie in with his coloring.  So fun to put it all together! 
Last, but not least!, the super sweet sentiment is from SP & Company, Bold Sentiments II.  Not your typical Santa but a giving little penguin nonetheless!  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Hope you have a super inky weekend!! 

COPICS ~ BG15, BG23, BG49, C5, C7, E29, E57, R24, R29, W3, W5, W7, YG17, YG23, YG25, YR04, YR12, YR24, YR30, YR31

Easy Canvas Prints ~

Hey all!  I have a different sort of post for you today…I was recently asked to review a canvas from the company Easy Canvas Prints.  While on vacation, I made the family take pictures at one of the photo studios in town – in the Old West style.  So fun!  We got *swindled* into buying the entire CD of photos instead of just one or two prints at the shop.  Let me tell you, I am so glad I did!  Upon return, I had the perfect photo to turn into a canvas.

To start the entire process, I chose a canvas size – they come in a variety beginning at 8x10 and continuing on, even to the choose your own option.  I didn’t want it to be too domineering, so I stuck with the 8x10 option.  Then you upload your photo – choose a higher resolution to not lose too much definition.  The third step is to choose how the borders of your photo will appear.  (I chose a mirror image.)  Finally, you are able to add edits if you wish.  I had already changed my to sepia tone along with some other edits; however, you can change the color/exposure of your photo for a minimal fee.

Here we are in all our Tombstone-like glory!  lol  After receiving our canvas, my husband mentioned how cool it would look inside a weathered wood frame.  Off I ran to Hobby Lobby and picked one up.  Love it - the perfect touch!  Turns out that I didn’t need to choose a border or wrap around on the canvas.  Oh well, now it’s good to go without a frame too.  Note – this is not where our photo resides, but I couldn’t get a good photo of it anywhere, so this is the boring wall it ended up on! lol

With the holidays well on their way, I can see ordering a couple of these or some of the other pics from our photo shoot for the grandparents.  Easy Canvas Prints makes it super easy right now too!  25% off all size prints and free standard shipping!  In the future for the smaller canvas sizes, I will stick to pictures with less detail.  I can only imagine some of the macro floral photos that I adore in this type of print!  {swoon!} 

Thank you Easy Canvas Prints for asking me to review your phenomenal product!  The shipping was super quick, packed very well and the quality is fantabulous!!  Thanks so much for bopping on by!!  :) lyss

CSAYL: Gettin' Spotty with Paper Makeup Stamps

Hola mis amigos!  Como estas?  Sorry, guess I’m feeling like speaking a little Spanish this evening as I type this up!  lol  It’s time for another challenge from Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long.

 This week we are sponsored by Paper Makeup Stamps!  Such a wonderful company - cute, whimsical stamps in a variety of ‘flavors’!  Our challenge this week is to get ‘spotty’ – use polka dots somewhere on your creation!  The winner of this challenge will get a $15 gift certificate to the PMS store! 

I chose to work with Nole.  I got him last year as a digi, but he is now available in rubber – so worth the rubber choice though!  He totally reminds me of myself when I get out the lights and am *not* really feeling that Christmas spirit anymore!  lol

I spotted him up with the darker of the Copics to match the paper I chose.  I’m not sure I love the spots, but they’ll do for now.  He’s matted on some label nesties that I had cut and stamped for cards last year and never used.  Gotta love using those scraps! 

The lights are dotted with glossy accents.  I lightly colored with a colored pencil to show the shine from the lights…and now have realized that I forgot to blend that pencil!  Whoops!  Guess I’ll have to do that before I send it off!  :) 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you have a supercalifragilisticexpialidotious type of weekend!!  Don’t forget to stop by the DT’s blogs (links are in my sidebar) for some amazing inspiration!!  ~lyss

Forest Critter Party~

Hiya friends!  Bopping in here with my iCopic post this week.  I didn’t have time to play along with the CSAYL challenge this week, but you should take a gander at all their lovely creations and play along if you can! 

TGIF!  Actually, I can’t believe it’s Friday already!  These weeks seem to be flying by lately!  Before you know it, it’ll be Christmas!  Eek…that’s even scarier than Halloween!  lol 

Today I have a cute critter scene I created for you using the masking technique.  Masking allows multiple images to be stamped without overlapping each other.  This allows you to create scenes and to create the illusion of depth in your image, as well as combine several stamps together. 

I used the Lawn Fawn Critters in the Forest clear stamp set.  I simply placed all the large image stamps from the set on one acrylic block and stamped them straight onto a thin masking tape.  iCopic carries the Mask It medium tack paper that works for this technique and for airbrushing, as well.  Each image is then fussy cut out and stored straight on the stamp sheet for future use.  Easy peasy!  The one thing you need to think about when creating your scene, is what image/s you want in your foreground and which will be placed in the background.  Stamp your foreground images first, place your carefully cut out mask over them and stamp the background – see?  Easy!

I used some October Afternoon Campfire papers, Rustic Cream button twine and Pacific Point paper.  The scene was colored with Copics – BV25, BG99, E08, E19, E41, E57, E59, G24, G28, R02, R22, R24, R29, W3, W5, W7.  The edges of the scene were sponged with Ranger distress Tumbled Glass and Bundled Sage inks using the ink blending tool and foams. 

It all looked a little bare and I couldn’t figure out a sentiment, so I decided to pop a little banner on there.  Kind of reminds me of Bambi for some reason lol.  The banner and birds are from Lawn Fawn’s Bannerific set.  The sentiment is one from my stash. 

Here’s a close up of the coloring. 

Hope you all find a little time to play along with our challenge this week – All about Fall!  The creations I’ve seen so far have been fabulous!!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Fizzy Moon Christmas ~

Hi there friends!  I'm bringing you a little post from iCopic again.  This one is from way back at the beginning of September!  I've been busy this past week with catching up from vacation, birthday parties, family and friends in town, plus all the work stuff.  Right now I'm taking a break from organizing at cleaning my crafty space.  We have guests and they don't want to sleep on top of paper pads! lol  Hope you had a fabulous weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!!  ;o) lyss

TGIF! Actually, I wish it were Tuesday again because that would mean I would be going camping with my little family.  We had such a good time!  I love being in the wilderness!  Hmmm, that brings a cute little stamp set from Lawn Fawn to mind…perhaps I’ll have to scrap a little page!  So many projects, so little crafty time!  lol

Anywho, I’m here today with a *new-to-me* little cutie from Fizzy Moon.  This darling little set is called Little Messages.  The sweet bear is just peaking around a very large sign that you are able to customize with all the messages included in the set – gotta love that!  I tried something new on this card.  I cut the rectangle with a die and sponged the edges with Ranger Distress Antique Linen ink before stamping the bear.  I only had a scrap of paper and wanted to make sure that he came out level and straight.  Since these stamps are clear photopolymer, I was able to line him up perfectly after all the stuff I normally do at the very end!  I also didn’t have to worry that the distress ink would smear or smudge any of my Copic coloring…this may be a technique I use in the future more often!  The sentiment really pops because it is embossed.  I always use Versafine Onyx Black ink with clear detail embossing powder for my sentiments.  They just come out so crisp and nice!

The holly paper is from the First Edition Festive Treats 6x6 paper pack.  Because of the holly theme, I created a bit of a holly embellishment using some red jingle bells and a twiggy punch.  The bells are tied into a little cluster using the Cherry Divine Baker’s Twine.  I used the twine to tie a little bow through a red button as well.  You can’t tell on this image really, but the bear has one great big button on his belly.  CUTE!  A few more details to finish him off – his paws are stamped, colored and up on dimensional foam tape, his hat trim and pom are covered in white flock and the ground is covered in polar white flower soft.
Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Hope you have a super fab weekend, your fingers get all inky and your Copic tips get dry!

COPICS {E25, E29, E37, R29, R59, W1, W3, W5, W7, W9}