We got SNOW!

Not a lot of snow…. maybe 10+inches. What? That’s a lot? Not for me it isn’t. I want a few feet!! lol Anyways i had to go out yesterday during the storm and today to take pictures. I tried to take a few of the same views so you could see how much we actually got.

   bushes that are right up at our porch.  

  same bushes TODAY!

 
During the snowstorm yesterday.

Today


Jorden went out with me yesterday.


Don’t think she can swing today! Notice the sandbox is covered completely.


Yesterday this bush was so lovely.

Today………

The ironwork on our porch.

My glider.


I see a snow shovel!


Icicles hanging from our roof.


We still get drifts in town.


The neighbor’s roof.   

Hope you are staying warm today!


Thanks for stopping by!

Amber

Sew Many Cards Valentine Challenge

Today’s Sew Many Cards challenge is a Valentine theme with the colors red, black and silver.


Our sponsor is The Cutting Cafe and the sponsor prize package is 3 stamp sets or individuals stamps of their choice from The Cutting Cafe.

I used this cute image to make my valentine card.

Colored him with copics and added sparkle gel pen to his eyes, heart and patches. I cut an oval around him but cut him out of it a little. Added three heart brads in the corner and design adhesive (xoxo) with glitter to the ribbon. Spellbinder oval is on Helmar zapdots. Layered him on brushed silver cardstock.

He is also entered in the sketch challenge over at My Grafico and Lexi's Creations challenge of Valentine theme.

And guess what? I have picked a winner from my SMC blog hop comments…and the winner is …. lucky #13 Debbi!  Please email our DT Coordinator Jeri, Jeri@SewManyChallenges.com and she will get your image to you!!  Congrats!!


           Thanks for stopping by,

                     Amber

Valentine cards galore

 
I had an order that I have been working on of 4 Valentine cards for 3 young children and a teenage boy. I finally finished them all up. So please bare with me as I share all 4 cards.

I used Lola Love by Our Craft Lounge for the 7yr old girl’s card. Was told she loves purple and sparkles. I used Try New Technique Challenge 257 side stepping card. I embossed her dress on purple sparkle cardstock. Colored her with copics and added stickles to her hearts and hair bows. Be mine has Crystal Effects on it is and is 3d with Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots under it. Embossed hearts on the lower step, cutout wording with heart paper pieced in the sparkle purple cardstock, Masked strip of hearts for second step, colored with prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits, added stickles to some of the hearts. Sentiment is from Jungle Love by Our Craft Lounge and was cut out with nesties. Even added sparkle gel pen to the dsp.

 

For the two young boys, I used Jungle Love from Our Craft Lounge.  I used Mojo Monday’s Sketch and went with monkey theme from Jungle Love. Used Prismacolored pencils and odorless mineral spirits. Stamped the heart bananas in a row and cut them out completely for the layer. Used cloud stencil with blue ink. Design paper is digital from MFT.



For my second card using Jungle Love, I went with the lion in the set. I used this sketch that I found on Jen del Muro’s blog. I did flip the sketch to work better with my image. Used prismacolored pencils with odorless mineral spirits. Little bird is cut out and popped up with Helmar ZapDots. Cloud stencil was used with blue ink and i sponged on green for the ground. Main image is also up on Helmar ZapDots.


I saved my favorite card for last! The teenage boy Valentine card. At first I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull it off but Our Craft Lounge made it easy with their Wanted set. I used the SCS sketch266 for my layout. Colored images with copics. Added some sparkle gel pen to the "U" and on the small heart. Entire middle layout is on Helmar Scrap Dots for dimension. Did the Faux Leather (used this tutorial for the Faux Leather) for the background pieces. Tore and distressed around the wanted sign layer as I wanted a burnt look but didn’t feel like actually using real fire for it so I went the faux way. Boots are cut out of the box.

supplies: Our Craft Lounge – Lola Love, Jungle Love, Wanted, purple, red, brown, blue, white cardstock, prismacolored pencils, copics, embossing powder, crystal effects, stickles, helmar zapdots, helmar liquid scrap dots, spellbinders, cuttlebug, ribbon, gel pen

Sew Many Cards Blog Hop

 
Welcome to another Sew Many Cards New Release Blog Hop!! So glad you could join us this week for a chance to see Angela’s new releases and a chance at winning some great prizes!! Hopefully you have arrived here from Kym W.

Our sponsors this month is  Wags N’ Whiskers and  Simon Says Stamp!

To win a $25 Gift Certificate to the Wags N’ Whiskers Store and a new release stamp from Wags N’ Whiskers you MUST comment on EACH design team members blog. We know we have a large team, but it’ll be well worth the hop to see all of our teams great projects and our sponsors awesome prizes!

Would you like to win a $10 Gift Certificate to Simon Says Stamp and the entire line of Sew Many Cards new releases…then we have a special challenge this week for you during our blog hop…You’ll find all the details on the last stop of our hop!

Okay now that all that is out of the way.. on to my card! I’ve been reorganizing my area and of course I make a card that I want to sew on! So instead of pulling out the sewing machine (as I had just put it away that day), I pulled out the good ole thread and needle and did the sewing by hand. I used Pink Paislee paper and the piece under the donkey is from a sticker book by Pink Paislee. The main card uses DoubleMates cardstock.

I used prismacolor pencils and blended it with odorless mineral spirits. I printed the image out again and colored just the head. Cut it out and attached it to the body using Helmar Liquid Scrap Dot so that there is some 3D look to it. Sponged in blue ink for the sky and green ink for the grass. Shadow was added with a gray copic marker.

I used Mercy’s Tuesday Sketch for my layout and also for Fab ‘n’ Funky Challenge of using a digi image.

Please stop by each of the Sew Many Cards design team members blogs and leave a friendly comment, and be sure to leave us an email or link to your blog when you finish the hop at our challenge blog!!
Your next stop in the hop will be Kym B. If you lose your way the list is at Sew Many Challenges.

                             Thanks for Looking,

                           Amber

Here’s to a Crappy Day!

I want to show you a card I did during my 1st month as a Dirty Dozen Girl for SplitcoastStampers back in Dec‘08. The theme that month was Obscure Holidays and yes, I had to wait until now to show it as it is only good for today. Why? Because Jan.27 is Thomas Crapper Day. He invented the flushable toilet! Thank goodness for Thomas Crapper! LOL

BUT Jan 27th is also my middle brother, Timothy’s, birthday.
He is the comedian and artist in the family. You can see his amazing art work here at my mom’s PictureTrail.

He wasn't too thrilled when I told him what 'holiday' shares his birthday. In fact he is the one that said "Here's to a Crappy Birthday". So in honor of Thomas Crapper and my brother, I made him a "crappy" birthday card.



The toilet paper, Running Sick, is from Craft Lounge . The party hat, balloons and present are from the set, Lil' Pea-Nut also by Craft Lounge. Markers were used to color in the images that were stamped on watercolor paper. Used aquapainter to shade the markers. Applied Sky Blue Shimmerz to balloon, present and hat. All images are up on dimensionals. The frame is from Creative Cuts & More.



Sentiment was spelled out with JustRite Brayton font and Harmony classic. Crystal Jewel Bling was added on word window punch and sentiment. Used white gel pen to add faux stitching and dots.

He hung it with pride on his refrigerator, I wonder if he still has it up!

Don’t forget to wish everyone a “Crappy” Day! And Happy Birthday to my bro, hope it’s not a ‘crappy’ one this year!

Supplies: Running Sick & Lil' Pea-Nut by Craft Lounge, JustRite's Brayton font & Harmony Classic, so saffron, blue, flurries & frost dsp, watercolor paper, black stazon, markers, shimmerz, white gel pen, dimensions, crystal jewel bling, word window punch, frame die cut


Thanks for looking,

Amber

SMC Challenge – Color Challenge

It’s time again for another Sew Many Cards Challenge. This time it is a color challenge: PURPLE, WHITE & a splash of BLACK.


                 

Our sponsor this week is Cosmo Cricket with a Cosmo Cricket prize of Jolly by Golly Crafting Kit.

 
Come play with us for a chance to win!

My CHALLENGE CARD:

I love this color combo but have a hard time photographing purple so please bare with me. I used the Friday Freebie from Sew Many Cards that you can find on their Challenge blog (or just click on their name as it will take you right to their blog).

I used the sketch from CPS this week for my layout. I colored the image with prismacolor pencils and then blended with odorless mineral spirits. Black sparkly gel pen was used for all the patches. I added crystal effects to the wheel and to the hearts for some dimension. All the hearts are purple. I grabbed a sentiment from Lola Love (Our Craft Lounge) and stamped it in the corner and colored it in purple to match. I went over the sentiment with a clear sparkly gel pen for some subtle bling.

On the white cardstock, I used the love swirls wheel in purple. Cuttlebug’d the purple cardstock with the Swiss Dot folder. I wanted heart buttons for the sides but didn’t have any in my stash so I decided to revisit an old Try New Technique239 5-Layer Button. I took the heart from Eris the Elephant (see post below) and made it smaller before printing just the hearts out. Colored them with prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I faux sewed them on and attached them to the cardstock with Helmar Gemstone Glue. My splash of black comes from under the image and as the main card.

Supplies used: wheelbarrow of hearts, eris w/hearts (Sew Many Cards), Lola Love (Our Craft Lounge), Love Swirls wheel, purple/black/white cardstock, prismacolor pencils, odorless mineral spirits, crystal effects, cuttlebug, gel pens

                      Thanks for stopping by!
                                
                                  Amber

Eris the Elephant for Valentines Day

It’s been a while since I’ve done the SCS sketch challenge264. But this sketch called out to me and I think it will become one of my favorites to use over and over and over again.

I decided to use Eris the Elephant from Sew Many Cards for my card. I used copics to color her and applied Crystal Effects to her toe nails and the balloons. I also cut her out of the box. Sentiment is from Our Craft Lounge Pea-Nut set. Entire image is on Helmar ZapDots. Vellum cardstock was run through the cuttlebug and attached to the black using Helmar V2 Vellum adhesive. On the red cardstock, I used a heart background stamp in red. The middle strip is ribbon (that I've had in my stash for ages) layered on black cardstock.


supplies used: Eris w/hearts (Sew Many Cards), Pea-Nut (Our Craft Lounge), misc heart background stamp, red/white/black cardstock, vellum cardstock, ribbon, crystal effects, Helmar zapdots & V2 Vellum adhesive, cuttlebug

                   Thanks for stopping by!

                                  Amber