Lego-Inspired Cards for Teen Boys

 Teen. Boys. These two words strike fear into many cardmakers' hearts, mine included. In my extended family I have 3 nephews who have birthdays in late autumn, and when I find a design I like, they often all get the same card (even the twins! lol! I made 2 15 cards and 1 14 card)

We love Lego, and we even watch YouTube videos about the latest sets. This design was inspired by the Lego World Map kit:

I focused on the colours and the dots.

I started by stamping an old MFT background stamp (Simply Circles) onto white cardstock, and then I used Copic markers to colour in the dots. I finished by filling in the white spaces between the dots with a black marker, trimming the panel and gluing it to a black card base.

I made a mistake on my 4th panel and had to cut it down, and made this one:

Penguin Palace Blog Hop

Good morning! Welcome to my stop on the Penguin Palace Stencils 360 blog hop! (hop details are below).

 We are showing off the new Stencils 360 tool today and oh, my, it's so fun! This is a well-made and easy to use tool that gives you the ability to create gorgeous stenciled designs without masking!

I even found a way to 'get more' from this tool by using it for stamping! 

Here's a video:

Blog Hop Details:

Hop along to each blog and leave a comment.  A winner, chosen at random, who comments on each stop on the hop will win a prize of a $40CAD Gift Certificate to the Penguin Palace store!  

Comments for prize close at 11:30pm PST on 7 Oct 20.  The lucky winner will be announced on 8 Oct 2020 on the Penguin Palace Blog.

Sharon Yeung (PP Blog)

Anja Glauner

Ashley Young

Jo Thompson

Bobbi Hart

Ardyth Percy-Robb <<You are here!

Jenny Colacicco

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Ashley Tucker

Wanda Guess

Ilda Dias

Justine Hovey

Sharon Yeung (PP Blog)

Rise & Shine - Ellen Hutson/Waffleflower Hop

Today some of the Ellen Hutson Design Ambassadors are hopping to celebrate the newest Waffle Flower Release! (hop details below).

I mixed new with old for this colourful, happy card. I used the new Be A Cat die and left her mostly white, with softly blended pink cheeks, a pink nose, black eyes and grey stripes and whiskers.

I made my colourful background by blending Catherine Pooler inks onto a white panel of cardstock. I marked the centre of the cardstock and then used the long sun-ray triangle stamp from Rain Check and Wow! Embossing ink to create my sunrays. I planned to emboss them with clear powder, but I felt like they were visible enough without adding the shine or dimension.

I cut the sun from Rain Check and inked it with more Catherine Pooler inks and popped it into the Cat's 'hands'. The sentiment is also from Rain Check.

My sister has a brown horse who is always looking for treats, so to make this card, I started with the Be A Unicorn die cut from kraft cardstock and trimmed off his horn and wings to make him into a horse. I blended brown ink along the edges (and pink on his cheeks) and gave him a darker forelock.

The sentiment is from the Essentials by Ellen Last Bite set and the background was blended with Catherine Pooler inks.

Hop Details

One random & lucky commenter will win $25 to the EH shop! To enter for a chance to win, make sure to leave comments at each stop along the hop! Comment before Tuesday, February 18th at 11:59pm PST. Winner will be notified by email.

Therese Calvird 

Ardyth Percy-Robb <<You are here

Emily Midgett 

Kelly Griglione

Ashlea Cornell

Adelina Starace 

Emily Mydlowski 

Sandy Allnock 

Michele Ferguson 

Carly Minner 

Fairy Happy Birthday - Avery Elle/Ellen Hutson Blog Hop (and a Sale!)

Good morning! Today some of the Ellen Hutson Design Ambassadors are hopping to celebrate the new Avery Elle Release (see below for hop and SALE details)!

I don't make fully-coloured scene cards like this very often, but I do enjoy it - especially when I can combine sets to create something so fun!

I combined the new Fairy Happy stamp set with 2 older sets - Rainbows and Banner Bits.

I created a colourful scene by placing the rainbow stamp on a panel of white cardstock in my MISTI. I then placed the 3 fairy stamps on top of the rainbow stamp, where I wanted them (I love how that one little fairy is sitting on the cloud!).

Then I picked up just the fairies with the MISTI door and stamped them with black Gina K Amalgam ink. I cut masks from full-back sticky notes and then stamped the rainbow over top.

I stamped some of the little hearts from Rainbows and the little magic fairy-dust stars from Fairy Happy.

I blended some Fiesta Blue ink around for the sky, using a Life-Changing blender brush.

Then came a lot of Copic colouring. After colouring the rainbow and the hearts, I decided to keep the fairies pretty neutral, including their hair!

I stamped the sentiment onto a white banner, and layered it onto a black banner , just slightly offset, to add some definition to the bottom of my scene.

To add sparkle I did 3 things:

1. I sprayed Avery Elle Clear Shimmer Spray all over the panel (and the sentiment)
2. I added Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen to the fairies' dresses
3. I put Star Dust stickles on the wings, hearts and around the edge of the white sentiment banner.

BLOG HOP DETAILS:

One random & lucky commenter will win $25 to the EH shop! To enter for a chance to win, make sure to leave comments at each stop along the hop! Comment before Thursday, February 13th at 11:59pm PST. Winner will be notified by email.

Elena Roussakis
Ardyth Percy-Robb <<You are here

Sandy Allnock 
Ashlea Cornell 
Michele Ferguson 
Emily Mydlowski
Carolyn Peeler 
Kelly Griglione 
Caly Person
Adelina Starace 

Mirror Stamping & Masking (FS658)

Congratulations to this week's Splitcoaststamper's Featured Stamper, Laura (blackbirdcreations).

I chose this card as my inspiration:



I focused on Laura's:
-winter scene
-circular focal panel
-two 'people' decorating

I changed:
-colour scheme
-no embossing
-no ribbon

I started by mirror-stamping the new Essentials by Ellen dinosaur, and then stamped the rest of the scene.

I created 2 masks by using sticky notes back to back, so that one of them would fit over the mirror-stamped dino. Then I stamped the tree, blended a skyline and stamped trees on the hill.

Then I did some Copic colouring, adding texture to the dinos with a Colourless Blender.

Here's a video:

National Ice Cream Day Blog Hop

Good morning! It's National Ice Cream day, and some of the Ellen Hutson Design Ambassadors and Catherine Pooler Creative Team members are hopping to celebrate! Details are below.

I used Catherine's I Scream You Scream set along with the Essentials by Ellen Little Lady and Little Gentleman sets to make a cute card that was intended to be a one-item shaker card - the truck was going to move back and forth in the window. And it does, a little bit. But I made a strategic error so it's less interactive than I had intended. Be sure to watch the video so you can learn from my mistake! lol!

BLOG HOP DETAILS:

We've got fun prizes!!! We are giving away $25 to the EH shop and $25 to the Catherine Pooler shop! To enter for a chance to win, make sure to leave comments at each stop along the hop! Two random & lucky commenters will win! Comment before Sunday, July 28th at 11:59pm PST. Winners will be notified by email.

• Adelina Starace
• Daniel West
• Ardyth Percy-Robb
• Ilina Crouse
• Carly Tee Minner
• Jen Carter
• Kelly Griglione
• Karen Baker
• Sandy Allnock
• Catherine Pooler

Underwater Slider Cards Featuring Essentials by Ellen July 2019 Release

The Essentials by Ellen July release is live now!

We're changing our release-game up and having a blog hop (details below!) to show you a ton of inspiration with the new goodies.

This release is full of adorable new stamp sets - Cooking Lady, Life's A Picnic, and Subbing In, as well as a couple of new standalone die sets.

I have lots to show you with the amazing new goodies and today I'm starting with 2 slider cards using the new Subbing In stamps and Dies, Waves border dies, Port Hole dies and the previously-released Rainbow Slider Die set.


I made a video showing how I made these fun, interactive cards:

Blog Hop Details:


We've got super fun prizes!!! One random & lucky commenter will win $25 to the EH shop and one will win the whole July Essentials by Ellen release!!! To enter for a chance to win, make sure to leave comments at each stop along the hop! Comment before Thursday, July 18th at 11:59pm PST. Winners will be notified by email.

• Adelina Starace
• Mindy Eggen
• Elena Roussakis
• Ardyth Percy-Robb
• Kelly Griglione
• Michele Ferguson
• Therese Calvird
• Sandy Allnock
• Lisa Spangler
• Julie Ebersole
• Mindy Baxter
• Carly Tee Minner
• Emily Midgett

Outside/Inside Card with Pink & Main

I'm on the Pink & Main blog today with this outside/inside card.

I also have a video on my YouTube channel showing how I made it:

Pretty Pink Posh April Release Blog Hop - Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of the Pretty Pink Posh April Release Blog Hop! (details below)

I created 6 cards using the new Wide Stripes Stencil in different ways to create backgrounds so that I could feature as many of the new products as possible.

Let me know in the comments below which one is your favourite! (and commenting gives you a chance to win, as well!)

Here's a video:

Be sure to hop along to all the stops, and leave a comment for a chance to win!
There are 4 $25 gift certificates up for grabs (two winners each day). Winners will be picked randomly along the blog hop. Comments must be left by 11:59 PM PST on 5/8/2019. Winners will be announced on the PPP blog.

Pretty Pink Posh blog 
Angelica Conrad
Megan Quinn
Ardyth Percy- Robb <<You are here
Sharna Waksmulski
Nicky Meek
Eloise Blue
Jacquie Dean
Alix Davis
Joni Nina Andaya
Mindy Baxter
Rina Galit
Yoonsun Hur

Happy Birthday, Joy

Today is my niece's 3rd birthday! I chose a design with all the colours she loves and a super sweet birthday-bear, and I made another design choice that may be less obvious.

I used the stitched scallop die from  Stacked Edges 1  but I placed them on the card sideways and coloured them in such a way that it looks a little like a bunch of 3's! I started by cutting them, and then I used Post-it tape to mask each '3' before blending Catherine Pooler ink on with a sponge dauber.

Next, I coloured the Bear from Cupcake Critters, leaving him mostly white, but using matching Copic markers for his cupcake and hat.

For the sentiment, I used the curvy/landscape die from Stacked Edges 1 and then cut the edge using the stitched scallop die so that it would match the scallop edge perfectly.

I stamped Celebrate from Everyday Greetings on it and then popped it up over the scallops before adding the bear.

I used jewels from Party Mix, Sugar Plum Mix and Valentine Mix for some sparkle.

Inspired Boy Birthday Card

My nephew is having a birthday very soon and I was putting together his present today. He loves Naruto. Yeah, I didn't know either. So I googled it. This guy (top left) kept coming up so I made a graphic card that takes inspiration from his hair and headband.

I cut a freehand mask and blended Sauna, Tiara and Sand Castle ink all over the panel. Then I cut the headband with the curved Elegant Stitch Dot Edges die.

I still have this old, retired license plate die from MFT and I embossed the sentiment on it with Wow! Silver embossing powder.

Making cards for 11 year old boys is not an easy task, but I'm excited to give him this one. Hope he gets it! lol!

30Day Day 18 - Happy Birthday

Today the #30dayfriends are colouring WaffleFlower's Hello Kids. I did some very simple no-shade copic colouring on my kids and added a rainbow sentiment using the Cutaway Alphabet and Catherine Pooler inks.

I used:

30 Day Day 15 - Oceans of Joy

Today is Day 15 of Kathy Racoosin's #thedailymarker30day colouring challenge and the #30dayfriends are colouring this adorable Jillibean Soup stamp set. I coloured the images with copics and added details with a white gel pen.

For my ocean, I smooshed Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide inks on my craft mat and then picked them up with my watercolour cardstock, one colour at a time and drying between layers. I spritzed it with water to add more texture.

I placed my coloured images on the scene and chose some Copic markers that matched the ocean behind and coloured in all the white space on the die cuts. This is a trick I learned from watching a video from Jessica.

I popped up all the critters and added the stamped sentiment at the bottom of my panel.

 

Happy Birthday, Kate!

Today's my daughter's 15th birthday! I was excited to finally use some Neat & Tangled goodies that I haven't been able to get to, along with my favourite Catherine Pooler inks to make this card for her.

Happy Birthday, Kate!

I used:

SugarPea Designs February Release Sweet Peeks - Day 5

Good morning! Today is the final day of SugarPea Designs' Sweet Peek Week and all of the products will be available tonight at 6 pm EST.

Today we're introducing Better Together stamps and Dies and the Diagonal Stripe CoverPlate.

This small set is full of fun images and sentiments to make wonderful 'love' cards. I stamped, masked and coloured my PB&J with copics on the oval portion of the Large Oval Striped Cover Plate we introduced the other day. I cut it down to use on my square card and left it white on white, so it just adds a bit of interest without any clutter.

I'm linking this one up to CASology 287 where the Cue Card is Together.

Here, I used the stripes out of the Diagonal Striped Cover Plate and the largest rectangle in the Card Front Element Builder set. I blended ink onto each stripe, leaving it lighter in the centre. 

Don't forget to leave a comment on the SugarPea Designs blog for your chance to win!

SugarPea Designs February Release Sweet Peeks - Day 3

Good morning! Day 3 of Sweet Peeks and today we're introducing the sweetest new critter set - Otterly Adorable and a new cover plate - Large Striped Cover Plate.

I started by creating a ocean background on watercolour cardstock. I used Zig Art & Graphic Twin Tip markers and water to create my ocean and to colour this pair of adorable otters.  (The white oval is from the previously-released Popcorn Treat Box die set).

For a different look, I made another panel using the markers in rainbow colours and this time inlaid the stripes into a white die cut. I tipped it on its side and used the new Hello die and a portion of one of the Heartfelt Sympathy sentiments.

Be sure to comment on the SugarPea Designs blog for a chance to win!