Addicted to Cardmaking - Friendship

I created these cards for my Addicted to Cardmaking card swap on my favorite MB for March's theme, Friendship. Okay, I am working backwards, but that's okay, at least I am posting right?? I love this little bunny and mouse! Aren't they cute?? I went with purple backgrounds, not sure why, but I liked it with the pink. And I am trying to use up some of the millions of sheets of papers I have weighing down my shelves in my craft room! So I am making a conscience attempt to use patterned paper in my cards whenever possible! I colored the cute little critters with my Stampin' Up Marvelous Markers. I picked some nice bright cheery colors. I really like how it turned out!

Addicted to Cardmaking - Pretty Papers

I know I haven't been posting for a while on this Blog. It's not because I haven't been creating. I have. I have just been lazy and haven't been pulling out the camera like I should be!
I'm going to try to rectify that situation. I am going to start by showing these cards. The theme for April's cards for my Addicted to Cardmaking cards which I host on my favorite MB, is "Pretty Papers". Now granted these are not the prettiest papers I have, but I find that they are challenging! I mean really what more can you say?? Happy Birthday is printed all over the paper! I saw a layout similar to this on display in a chain craft store. There's had paper with buttons all over it, and they tore the paper and stamped a sentiment on the cardstock. I knew I didn't need any more sentiments, so I went instead with an image of some birthday candles. And since those packs of papers that you get come with the same papers in multiple colors, I made a few in each color. I used my Marvelous Markers to color in the image, and I must say I think the colors match pretty well!
I am so glad it's Spring!! I was able to shoot these pictures out in the Pine trees that line my driveway. I looked around for flowers, but alas, they are few and far between here at my house. Now dandelions....we have plenty of those!

Christmas in July - Santa

I do believe this is the last set of fronts for the Christmas In July Swap on my favorite MB. The theme for this one is Santa. I love how happy Santa looks in this stamp! I colored the image with my alcohol markers. Then I matted him and embossed the white piece with Stampin' Up's "Perfect Polka Dots" embossing folder. I wanted the background to look sort of like Santa's suit. The stars were punched out with Stampin' Up's small star punch and then I stamped the "Ho" one letter at a time so it would fit. Thank goodness for mini alphabets!

Addicted to Cardmaking - July

The theme for the July Addicted to Cardmaking swap was Fall Colors. I saw this card in a magazine and new I had to try it! After making a couple of boo-boos when tracing the pattern, I finally got it right! I tweaked it a bit making the card smaller than the directions so it would fit into the envelope. I had a bunch of cards/envelopes that I bought as a set many moons ago, and thought the green was perfect for this card. I just had to trim the piece. So the envelope is bigger then the actual card, however, since it is still considered a standard envelope, no additional postage is required! (YEAH!!)Each piece was traced, cut and embossed. Then I put it all together like a puzzle, and did some faux stitching. I finished it off with some Raffia that I had (at least I think that is what it is called!) I couldn't decide if I liked the sentiment or not so I included one in each envelope so the receiver could decide.
I seem to be stuck on Sentiments in case you haven't noticed. I like to include one on cards, but I seem to be stuck in using the same ones each time. So to help me get unstuck, I am skipping the sentiments for a bit!

Christmas in July - Traditional Colors

Here's another Christmas in July swap, Non-Traditional Colors. I have a lot of cute simple, small stamps that I never know what to do with. With the help of the Faux Postage stamp and a coordinating Template, I took a very simple Christmas tree and made it into something even better. The color behind the trees was done with a stipple brush in two shades of green. Then I stamped the flourish on the background piece using the bleach method. I love this technique, and it works especailly well with dark colors.