Out of the Box

Well, not technically, but this is wayyyyy out of my box. I wanted to participate in the My Favorite Things guest designer contest, and decided to challenge myself personally too. The MFT challenge was to use a background stamp for something other than a background. I used the Filigree stamp from SU to create the wallpaper for my yoga girl. Cool, but very hard to cut out. My own personal challenge was to use this piece of DP that has been sitting next to my desk forever. I have all my DP in a 12x12 milk crate file holder thingy(very technical aren't I). So I pulled my colors from it. I used More Mustard(I haven't used that in years, literally), Ruby Red and Sage Shadow(gasppp!!). I stamped the yoga girl three times, once on vanilla, once on the DP(by BoBunny) and the final time on the wallpaper I created by stamping my background stamp in RR on MM. I cut out the shirt, and the wallpaper and paper pieced them, and then colored the rest of the image in. The Polka dot DP is from the SU Ginger Blossom pack and the ribbon at the bottom is from the SU Rustic Retreat ribbon original. I colored a white Heidi Swapp flower with my Sage Shadow marker and then added the sentiment panel. Well, I hope you like it, and I hope they do to. I am really pleased for two reasons-1. I used the dp I said I would 2. I used colors I never touch. Thanks for looking and have a great day!!

stamps-Serenity Now and Filigree

paper- More Mustard, Ruby Red, Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla, Ginger Blossom and Bo Bunny DP

ink-Ruby Red and Black Stazon

tools-SU markers, Rustic Retreat SURO, Earth Element Brads, Heidi Swapp flower, circle punches, scallop punch, word window punch

This second card is from Julie(jkstieber). I hang out with her in the Person Below Me thread over on SCS and the other day she was having a bad day, so I sent her a card to cheer her up. She sent me this one back to tell me thanks and that she was doing better!! Thanks Julie!!

My New Verve

I just got my first order from Verve Visual yesterday, and I was anxious to get started with their stamps. I have been admiring them from afar, and decided to jump in. If I had waited a few days I could have got a 15%discount, what a bummer!! Oh well, I still love what I got, even if it wasn't on sale!! VV is having a guest designer sketch challenge, so I knew as soon as I got my stamps that I wanted to participate. I am not crazy about this card, but I do like it. It is also for the Ways to Use it challenge over on SCS, which is to use rub ons on your card. The sentiment is my rub on, btw!! I used one of my favorite color combos-River Rock, Basic Black and Whisper White. I stamped the images from the VV set Serenity in River Rock then used the outline stamp in Versamark and embossed it with black embossing powder. I have had a nasty headache for a couple of days, so this was really hard for me to concentrate on, if you know what I mean. I think the rest is pretty easy to figure out, but if you do have questions about anything, don't hesitate to ask. I am gonna go find someone to send this too in the Need a Lift forum!! Have a great day and thanks for looking!!

stamps-Serenity

paper-Basic Black, River Rock, Whisper White, and Ginger Blossom DSP

ink-River Rock and Versamark

tools-black organdy, black brads, black ep, SU Love &Happiness Rub ons

RAK's and an Award

A wonderfully talented and special lady........Lee........has awarded me a VERY cool and awesome award!!! It is given to bloggers who share their art and creativity making their contribution to the blogging world. Here are the rules:
1. You pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

So in keeping with the rules, I am awarding this to my pals

1. Laura(she just got named to the Verve Visual design team, woohoo!!)

2. Carolina(she is so super sweet and talented!!)

3. Chat(she is AMAZINGLY talented and sweet to boot)

4. Linsey(one of the most supportive and sweet people I know)

5. Lee(cause you rock, what can I say!!)

6. Silke(I love her style and her fabulous use of color)

7. Lesa(she is my pal, and fellow guest designer for good reason, she ROCKS!!)

Well, now that we have established that I can't count(since when does 5=7??), onto my RAKS!! The first one comes from my pal Lesa. It is from the Bella swap hosted on the Paper Pretties forum. Isn't she cute!! I think I need to send this one to Lee!! Lesa is also one of the new guest designers with me at Paper Pretties and I am so excited to see what she comes up with!! I know it will be fun though!!! She is also the one of the reasons I got talked into going to Texas for a shoebox swap!! I am going to go see my brother while I am there too, but I am also excited to get to meet some of my stamping idols!! Truth be told, she is the reason why I went to the Paper Pretties release party, so without her, I wouldn't be guest designer!!

The second one comes from Christie Ortman, who hand picked me to be a guest designer and completely rocks my world!! Her coloring on this is UNBELIEVABLE!! The colors are so bright and vibrant, you should see it in person!! When I recieved Christie's email about being one of her guest designers, I was overjoyed. I had just talked to my mom that day about trying out for guest designer spots, so when I got her email, it felt so good!! It made me think about one(or many) of the Oprah shows where they talk about sending positive energy out into the world to get what you want. Maybe they are onto something!!

Last, is from Charmaine thanking me for sending her a card and for her MIL. Isn't it fabulous!! She is so incredibly talented and such a gifted stamper. I go to her blog daily for inspiration!! She has such a fun style, and is so talented it isn't any wonder so many people want her on their design teams!!

Well, that is all for now, thanks for looking and have a great day!!

Time for a Sketch

The first time I saw this little( and I do mean little, it is so tiny)bench on one of Beate's cards, I knew I had to have it. I tried to be strong and not order it, then Jodi(kharmagirl) and Carolina(craftycaro) posted the cutest cards with the bicycle from this set. I was hooked!! I immediately went to buy it, and as soon as I received it got it all mounted up and ready to use. That was weeks ago, and I am just now getting around to use it. Do any of you have that problem? Do you get to the point where you have so many options, it is hard to narrow down what you want to use. I think I tried 4 different versions of this sketch, before this card popped in my head( and thank goodness it did when it did, because I was about to give up and go to bed)!! I stamped the bench(tiny tiny) on a piece of Whisper White and colored it in with my SU markers and ink pads. I used my aquapainter to blend it, and then outlined the main image with a prismacolor cool grey marker. The paper is Afternoon Tea by SU and it is paired with Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, and Groovy Guava. I sponged all the edges with Chocolate Chip to soften it up. Me being me, I put silver brads all over it!! I used some of my beloved Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, since someone so generously pointed out to me that they have it in one of the SU ribbon original packs(it's sad that someone had to tell me that, I am a demo ya know). Well, that is it for now!! Thanks for looking and have a great day and remember, if you want to send Leanna an RAK, just email me or check out the Need a Lift forum on SCS!!

stamps-All Holidays and Time for You

paper- Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Groovy Guava, Whisper White and Afternoon Tea DSP

ink-Black Stazon and Chocolate Chip

tools-stylized silver hardware, aquapainter, SU markers, prismacolor marker, chocolate chip satin ribbon

Color Me Embarrassed

I have never been so embarrassed, well, that's a bit of a stretch, but it has been awhile!!LOL If you read my 7 random facts you know that I hate to be wrong. Well imagine my surprise when I realized today that the color challenge card I made for last night, was WRONG!! Can you hear the challenge police coming to get me?LOL I was supposed to use Apricot Appeal, and for some reason, I used Pretty in Pink, duhhhhh. The only excuse I can come up with is that I was stamping at 2am, what more can you expect, really!! Some good did come of it though because as I was going through the gallery, I stumbled upon Cindy(mothermark)'s card. She had made it to send to a special little girl named Leanna. By now, I had realized my mistake in the color combo, so I decided I would redo the challenge and make a card for her. If you are interested in sending this special little girl an RAK, check out this thread in the Need a Lift forum on SCS. I am a huge fan(stalker) of the NAL forum because I try to send out atleast 5 cards a week to people I don't know, and who aren't expecting it(speaking of that, I need to get my butt to the PO). I like to send happy mail but I really love to send them to people that need a lift!! I had talked before about a RAK group, but really only had 6 or 7 people interested, so what I had thought about doing is posting a link to a certain thread once a week and all of you that are interested can contact me or the author of the thread and send the person in need a card. What do you think??? Also, I have quite the collection of addresses, and am not shy about asking for them, so if there is someone you want to RAK, let me know, and if I don't have the address, I will get it for you!!!(I've got connections)LOL

Anyway, onto my card!! I used this weeks color combo and Julee Tilman's mojo Monday sketch. I wanted to use my other stamps that I got in the mail from Paper Pretties yesterday, so I stamped the image from Cuddle Me on Whisper White with Black Stazon and colored it in with my SU markers. I went over the whole dress with Perfect Pearls to give it some shimmer. The rest is pretty easy to figure out!! Thanks for looking and have a great day!!

stamps-Cuddle Me by Paper Pretties

paper-Apricot Appeal, Cameo Coral, Creamy Carmel, Mellow Moss, Prints Pack and Whisper White

ink-Black Stazon

tools-Nesties, cuttlebug, swiss dots folder, white taffeta, aquapainter, perfect pearls, big white brads

Prettie Tuesday

Today marks my first "official" day as a guest designer for Paper Pretties. Christie Ortman was so kind to ask me to work with her and her fabulous design team, I am so excited!!! You want to know what is even more exciting...my new Paper Pretties stamps(the ones I ordered at the last release party where Christie noticed me) arrived in the mail today, so I got to use them for this card!!! If you haven't been to see their fabulous store, you should check it out NOW!!! This card is also for the color challenge over on SCS. I usually love doing the color challenge, but this one was hard for me. Usually we have three colors to work with plus neutrals, but tonight's challenge has 4 colors!! Super tough!!! I really like what I did with it though!! The base is Creamy Carmel and layered with Mellow Moss and Whisper White. I put a piece of the Pretty in Pink DP from the Prints Pack on the bottom and then created the layered scallop panel using Cameo Coral, PinP and Whisper White. I then tied a piece of pink and moss taffeta around it and added a piece of pink and moss gingham to them. The main image is stamped with Black Stazon and I used my SU markers to color it in. I highlighted the necklace, butterfly and bracelets with my Sakura glitter pen. The oval shadow on the ground is from the Sassy Circles set by Paper Pretties. It is great for grounding images!! I masked the feet on my main image and stamped the oval in Creamy Caramel. I made a boo boo in the bottom corner of my image so I used the spiral clip with some kraft taffeta and caramel gingham on it. The white brads in the bottom corner came with my Paper Pretties order today, which was a good thing, because I used so many making my Easter cards I was out!!! Well, I really need to get to bed, so that is all for me now!! Thanks for looking and have a great day!!

stamps-Flutterbys and Sassy Circles

paper- Creamy Caramel, Mellow Moss, Cameo Coral, Pretty in Pink CS and DSP, and Whisper White

ink- Black Stazon

tools-Sakura glitter pen, white brads, pink-kraft-moss taffeta, pink-moss-caramel gingham, SU markers, aquapainter, spiral clip and corner rounder

Why Oh Why...

Do I try to take pictures at night. I can never get a good one!!! I need to buy all the fancy equipment, but then I couldn't spend money on stamps and gas!!LOL This card is for the Technique Lover's Challenge over on SCS. The challenge was to do Paper Tole on a card, but the image could not be a flower. I had never tried this with a flower, or without, so I decide it would be a nice challenge to try. The idea is to do multiple layers of the same image to give it depth. I didn't do many, but the main image is on Whisper White and embossed in black(so were the other layers by the way). The second layer was cut out except for the antenna's that would just be ridiculous. The last layer is just the body of the butterfly. I colored the image in with my Pale Plum then my Perfect Plum marker. I then went over the whole thing with my aquapainter to take out some of the color. You can't see it, but the whole image is covered in Perfect Pearls to make it shiny. The background was created by inking the "reverse" side of the cuttlebug folder(back of the front) with Perfect Plum ink and running it through the cuttlebug. Then I took my Versamark pad and covered the whole thing and embossed it with clear embossing powder. My hardware is from the Stylized Silver hardware from SU. I colored it with my Sharpie first, but didn't like the way it looked, so I covered it in Versamark and embossed it with black. The rest is pretty self explanatory. The second picture is blurry, but it is of the layers. Thanks for stopping by and making my day brighter!!!
stamps- Circle of Friendship and Butterfly by Inkadinkadoo

ink-Versamark, Black Stazon and Perfect Plum

paper-Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Basic Black and Whisper White

tools-hardware, black organdy and brads, black embossing powder, clear embossing powder, perfect pearls, SU markers, aquapainter, cuttlebug, textile folder

My Pal Laura

When I first started getting involved in SCS back in October of last year, I was so scared!! Funny, I know, but scared none the less. I had so many fears about posting cards, and participating in challenges. I was really afraid that people wouldn't like my work and since some of the "groups" seemed so developed, they would think I was butting in. Around Christmas time, when everyone was elf ing people, I longed to be elfed, but still didn't know anyone. Since a lot of time had passed, and they had announced that they would not be taking any more "elf's", I pretty much thought my chances were up(I know now that I should have just done it myself, but I didn't). Then it happened, I got the PM, You've Been Elfed!! I was so excited when I saw it, and after reading it, sent back a PM with my address saying I would be honored, and also that I wanted to know who had done it, so that I could send them something too!! Well, turns out, the pm came from my elf Laura(scrapnextras). She said that I was always so nice to her, and leaving her such wonderful comments that she wanted to elf me, plus she noticed that I hadn't been elfed yet, and didn't want me to miss out. I was so happy I cried. She was the first person to reach out to me on SCS, and the rest is history. I now have tons of people that I consider friends and I feel so blessed to have met them. So, by now, if you read this far, you wanna know why I am babbling about this, well, FINALLY, Laura has been chosen as the FS over on SCS. YAY!!!!! I nominated her a while back, and have been (im)patiently waiting for her to have her time in the spotlight, and it has finally come. So this card is a tribute to her. Her gallery is fabulous, and a great source of inspiration. There are so many cards in her gallery that I would love to CASE, but since I have an ever growing collection of cards(6photo boxes full!!), I try to limit myself to one challenge card a day. I loved this card when I first saw it and wanted to CASE it, so I took this opportunity to do that. I did make my required changes, which were the images, sentiment, dp(same pack, different print), added some more brads and some piercing, a couple of layers, cause you know I love them, and the ribbon. I had just used the chocolate ribbon last night, and it makes my heart hurt when I use it, so I couldn't stand the pain of using it two days in a row. Oh why oh why didn't I buy some extra when it was on sale, now I live in constant fear that I will run out!!!LOL!! Well, I hope you are having a happy Sunday!! Thanks for stopping by, and for your continued support!!

stamps-Sweet Serendipity and Stampendous Changito Swing

paper- Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White and Berry Bliss

ink-Brown Stazon

tools-soft subtle brads, pink organdy, paper piercer and mat pack, SU markers

Paper Pretties

I am so excited about being a guest designer for Paper Pretties for the next few months, that I just had to make a card using their super cute set Look Who's Perky!! I originally fell in love with this set when I saw design team member Charmain Ikach's card here. It reminded me so much of Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast, I just had to have it!!! I made this for a SCS friend that I haven't talked to for awhile. She is busy with life and work, and I just wanted to let her know that I haven't forgot her!!! I started with this yummy paper from DCVW Retro Stack. I got my colors from that paper. I didn't have quite the right blue to match, so I used Chocolate Chip and Sahara Sand. Normally, I don't do this, but I wanted you to see the sparkle on this image. The full picture of the card doesn't show it that well, so I wanted you to see up close what kind of sparkle it had!!! Don't mind my blurry picture, apparently I can't hold my camera still and hold the card at the same time!! My coffe cups were stamped with Black Stazon and colored with SU markers. I covered the Sahara Sand and the steam with my Sakura glitter pen. As you can probably tell, I am still loving my crystal effects right now, so I covered my cups with it to give them some dimension. It really changes how they look. For a little more depth I sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip ink and paper pierced around the image and under the sentiment. I added a row of white eyelets and a some chocolate satin ribbon and it was done. Hope she likes it, and I hope you all have a wonderful day!!Thanks for stopping by!!
stamps-Look Who's Perky by Paper Pretties
paper-Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand, Whisper White and DCWV Retro Stack
ink-Black Stazon and Chocolate Chip
tools-eyelets, chocolate chip ribbon, paper piercer, SU markers, Sakura glitter pen, crystal effects

Saturday's Inspiration Challenge

First of all, I am so excited today....I bought my first gift for my new nephew!!! It is sitting here under my computer table and the more I see it the more giddy I get. yay!!! Today's challenge was to be inspired by something inside of your home. I decided to be inspired by this wreath on the wall in my dining room. My best friend from HS Kristen, and her family, sent it to me 2yrs ago when my second dad Mike passed away(step dad, but I like second dad better, it is definitely more fitting). It has been hanging on my wall ever since, and as long as it holds up, it will remain. I even think that when it gets too ratty to have on the wall, I will take it back to where they got it and have it reworked. I mostly used the colors, but the flowers had a little something to do with it too. The base of the card is standard A2 size in Chocolate Chip, then layered with Cranberry Crisp and So Saffron. The edges were sponged with CC ink. I then used CC ink and stamped both the French Script and Sanded background on Very Vanilla. i have seen a lot of people do this on SCS, and I love the effect it gives. The main image was stamped with Timber Brown Stazon on Very Vanilla and colored in with my SU markers and ink pads. The bucket was stamped separately, colored, and cut out. I used a gold pen to highlight the handle on the bucket, then glued it on top of my flower. And you know I can't not go around the image with my Prismacolor cool grey marker, it gives so much depth!!! I sponged chocolate chip on the edges of this too. The SU ticket corner punch was used on the corners of the main image so that I could add some brads from the Aged Copper Hodgepodge Hardware. The main image and sentiment are from the Whipper Snapper set Posies for You. I used some CC satin ribbon to tie my knot and then sprayed the whole card with Tattered Angels glimmer mist in gold. Well I need to get my butt in gear commenting. I have about a weeks worth of gallery entries to look at, and by now that could be 1000's of entries. Thanks for looking and have a great day!!

stamps-Whipper Snapper Posies for You, Sanded and French Script

paper-Chocolate Chip, Cranberry Crisp, So Saffron, Very Vanilla

ink-Timber Brown Stazon, Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Crisp

tools-aquapainter, gold pen, markers, hardware, chocolate satin ribbon, ticket corner punch