Tank you!

Did you know that many stamp companies have just released a lot of new products?  WPlus 9, Avery Elle, My Favorite Things and Lawn Fawn!

I am very lucky to grab several items from Lawn Fawn and was excited to play with them this past weekend!

They stamp images give me a great opportunity to practice Copic coloring.  I am so happy with this card:

When the card is shut, you see two fish , some seaweed and a hermit crab.  It's actually a window card:

The two bigger fish on the acetate cover the smaller fish in the back:

I really like how fun it is - it looks great both open and close!  And yes it will go to someone who is very special!

I'm linking up this card to:
Scrappers Delight - Anything Goes
Brown Sugar Challenge - Anything Goes
Creative Fingers - Anything Goes
Simply Papercrafts - Anything Goes
Sister Act - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks (in 2 ways)

I'm doing my best to catch up with the assignments at Online Card Classes - Maskerade.  And let me be honest, I am sticking to the easier assignments now.  For those fancier techniques that bring gorgeous results,  I'll just have to save them for a time when I could focus on crafting but nothing else.

I'm continuing with the use of masking paper today.  Here's one that I use the positive die cut heart to mask off the card front to create a background:

Here's the one that I used the negative die cut heart:

The stamping part was absolutely fun.  I picked these bright colors so I can use them during summer.  Love how bright they are!

Here's a collage of both of them:

 

Which one do you like better? 

 

 

I'm linking up the first one to the following:

Cute Card Thursday - Summer colors

Allways something creative - anything goes

Card and scrap - use dies

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Father's Day

I'm back with one more Father's Day card.  Yes, it is masking again - I just got to try out some of the techniques learned at the online class.

I pretty much CASed the teacher's card using my own supplies.  While Laura Bassen used a rainbow array of colors, I chose to stick with blues and greens.  I think they represent a safe color combo for a masculine card.  Don't you think?

My card is linking up to the following:
Double Click - Happy Father's Day
Crafting by Design - Anything Goes
Creative Moments - Anything Goes
Inky Impressions - Make it for a Man

Thanks for stopping by!

DAD

Have you started preparing Father's Day card?

I have!  Inspired by Kristina Werner at Maskerade, I created this one by stamping to create a plaid pattern:

The stamp set I used is one from Papertrey Ink.  I like that it has different stripe patterns in the set and each of them is more than 6 inches long (definitely quite a bit longer than 5.5 inches).  The inks used here are from Hero Arts:  Cup O' Joe, Navy, Tide Pool, Green Hills and Cornflower.  I like this color combo and I think I'll use it for future masculine cards. :)

My card is entering the following:
DL.art Thankful Thursday - Father's Day
CRAFT challenge - Father's Day/Male
Sweet Stampin' - Father's Day/Special Male

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday flowers

This blog was not given much love last week.  :(  It was more than a crazy week at work and I was so tired that I could not even get to my craft desk when I got home.

Even though I had signed up for the online card class Maskerade I didn't get to watch the videos during the week.  Well, I did try watching one or two with my tablet before I went to bad but I couldn't resist the temptation to fall asleep within 20 seconds of that.  Glad that I can watch them any time and anywhere I like.

So this past weekend I was just catching up with the videos and trying to do some of the assignments.  Here's one using masking paper:

It was really a CAS of Debby's card except I used totally different materials.  It is an easy and fun technique and I look forward to using it again soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Going on An Adventure

I hope those in the States have enjoyed a great Memorial weekend.  Salute to those who have sacrificed themselves to protect us!

My weekend is not as craft-filled as I wish.  The most crafty part was probably the shopping part!  LOL.  Because of additional sale on certain items, I did stock up a few things at Michaels and Joann's.  But in terms of actual crafting, not much was done.

Apart from spending time with friends and family, I did quite a bit of reading.  Some was for work (too bad my supervisors don't read this blog otherwise they may consider giving me a raise for being so into work) but more was for leisure. 

Know the girl who makes perfect CAS cards called Cristina Kowalczyk (see her blog here)?  She is also an author of several books.  While doing grocery shopping at Target, I also picked up her book The Book of Unknown Americans.  I'll tell you honestly that not that many other books stood out to me.  Further, many card makers have given positive reviews for this book and it made to Targer's reader club, it couldn't be bad.  Finally, isn't it a nice way to support a fellow crafter?   The book didn't disappoint me.  It was just as beautiful as her cards.  No kidding.  It touched my heart, very much.

Probably due to the fact that I live in a city where the population is diverse, I've heard some similar stories from real people, but I never felt the intensity of their emotions when they told me about them.  Cristina's book and the stories of her characters led me reflect on what I heard, and understand those who are new to this country.  I would recommend this book to anyone who likes some easy read and anyone who wants to understand immigrants more.

Onto the craft project today.  I am sharing a simple layout that I made based on a sketch from Sketchbook 2015:

I've used Amy Tangerine Stitched paper and Kelly Purkey's Clearly Kelly: Destination set from Hero Arts.  This page came together at no time.  I remember Amy Tangerine once said that the pretty papers look prettier on a project than sitting in a drawer.  She is right.  I hoarded quite a bit of her patterned paper but apparently her paper on my layout means much more to me!

I'm linking up my layout to the following:
All Crafts Challenge - Anything Goes
Not Just Cards - Anything Goes
Scrapbook Stamp Society - Anything Goes with option of a tag

Stuffed Animals in a Meeting

Stuffed animals play quite a big role in my family.  I like them (yes, I still buy them at this age!), my brother and sister-in-law like them, and now my 2-year old also likes them.  Well, my mom likes them too.  The only person that does not like them as much as we do is probably my dad.

Having said that, my dad, didn't hesitate to buy a stuffed animal for his first grandchild, my niece R a big Minnie.  My niece R would put the big Minnie on a chair and then read with her, play with her and sometimes try to feed her.  She likes to feed Ernie from Sesame Street the most because Ernie's mouth is always open.  LOL.

R likes many activities but one thing we all enjoy is to play stuffed animals with her.  I can't even count the number of pictures that capture both me and her and some kind of stuffed animals.  One day we put the stuffed animals in a circle and did some role play.  It was so cute and I snapped a picture with my cell phone.  I turned it into a scrapbook layout:

Yup, the big Minnie is R's new favorite.  Just in case you are interested, she doesn't like Mickey, just Minnie.  LOL!

I used a sketch from a sketch class I'm taking now.  It's Sketchbook 2015 at Studio Calico.  I am enjoying it immensely!  There's no doubt that I truly like sketches.  Sketches help me a lot as I lack creativity and I only know how to read and follow sketches strictly.  What makes this class so awesome is that every sketch is interpreted to be used on layouts, cards, even project life!  I've learned so much from the contributor's interpretation.  

I've made several layouts based on the original sketches provided by the class.  My next step?  I'd love to use the sketch as the basis, but interpret it differently and make more layouts!  

Thanks for stopping by!