Gilli stamps and flourishes- I took the easy way out with this challenge lol!

*Please click on the picture for a closer view*

Today I am sharing my card for our current Gilli stamps challenge hosted by Melanie- flourishes! Now I have to admit I feel like I cheated as I chose paper that had flourishes hee hee. You can see them in the bottom left of the card and also below my sweet flying bird. I am obviously in need of some flourish dies ;). 

I used the lovely Lady Gilli on my card tonight and gave her a satin evening dress to go with my elegant card. I coloured her dress using the following copic colours- BG70, 72, 75, 78. I then added some crystal lacquer I had on hand to give it that satin sheen I just love. I had a satin shirt in the early 90's..it was in style then to be fair...and I just loved the way it felt against my skin and I like to imagine she is also enjoying the smooth silkiness of her evening dress.

My card layout comes from one of my FAVE sketch sites- CPS blog. They are one of my absolute first sites I check whenever I need a sketch- love them! 

Well that's all for me today. I hope this helps to inspire you along with the other DT eye candy we have posted so that you play along with our current challenge over at the House of Gilli challenge blog. We would love for you to join us!!

Cheers, Andi 

Lady Gilli stamp from Gilli Stamps

Papers used- My Mind's Eye Lost and Found- Portabello Road 6x6

Kraft and black cardstock

doily shapes from my friend Anja xo

self adhesive pearls

Tim Holtz distress ink- Old paper

CC Designs Amy R collection- 'Live laugh love' from Love-ly sentiment set

Copics- E0000, 000, 00, 11, 23, 25, 27, 29, 40, 42, 43

BG70, 72, 75, 78

R01, 20

HHS is 'counting down' to the end of the year

Today I am sharing my last challenge card for High Hopes Stamps for 2011! We typically take the month of December off to spend more time in the spirit of the season and with our loved ones- love that High Hopes thinks of us and wants us to get the most out of this magical holiday season :). 

My stamping bff Sarah is the hostess with the mostest for this last challenge of the year and she wants us to count it down! She is asking that we add numbers to your card or make a card for a specific date.

If you don't have a number on your card, please state what "date" the card is for. You can find more of the challenge deets here at the challenge blog and also lots of inspiration from the DT on how to play along with this fun challenge. 


I decided to ink up the super cute 'Peeking Baby bunny' stamp along with a cute HHS Happy Birthday sentiment to make a 2nd birthday card. I used my copics and pencils to colour the images and some versatile baby paper from the Simple Stories 6x6. I added glaze on parts as well to help make it pop. To finish it off I used some of my beloved twine and a button. Is anyone else addicted to coloured baker's twine like I am? I seriously want huge spools of all colours at my finger tips as don't ever want to run out!


I hope you liked my simple card today. Have a crafty day!
Cheers, Andi

Birthday card using Sweet Stamp shop stamps!

One of my newest addictions are the stamps over at the Sweet Stamp Shop and their uber adorable owner Nicole. I fell in love with them at their very first release with their Gnome set- Had.To.Have! 

This set -Scootin' by- was one I kept looking at each time I was at their website but I wasn't sure how I would use it. Funny enough it is the very first set I have used out of the ones I now own hee hee. My sweet nephew had his 5th birthday the other day and since he keeps all the cards his Auntie gives him so I wanted to make him something special. Shaker card it is! 

I stamped this image multiple times on my white paper and my patterned papers. I cut out different parts of the scooter and paper pieced them. I used my grey copics for the wheels and the horn and then stamped the clouds in blue ink. I used a card template I had leftover from a past project and stamped part of the sentiment on the white tag and the 'happy birthday' right underneath it. Clean and simple! OhEmGee- was that ever hard for me to do! Look at all that space that is not covered by bling or stamped images. I made a pact to myself to try getting back to my stamping roots and mix it up and do some cards 'old school style' lol. I am happy with how it turned out and I am even happier with my Scooter stamp set purchase - craft spending justified!

Hope you have a great Monday!

Cheers, Andi 

Stamping Bella Christmas Card featuring circle Snowman

**Please click on the picture for a bigger view**

Sharing today the second card club members are making with their Nov card kit. It is using the Stamping Bella Snowman circle stamp. I paired this adorable stamp up with some Authentique Christmas paper and some kraft Maya road snowflakes. To add some shine and bling I used my new glitter by Twinklets and it is GORGEOUS. Sheila has in some stunning new pearls and gems from Prima that have different facets and honestly I think I bought a pack in almost every colour- they are so beautiful! I used the pearl ones on this card- love!!!

One more Christmas card made and a basquillion to go! How are you coming along with your Christmas card making?

Cheers, Andrea

Angel Gilli in Monochromatic style

Today I am sharing a card I made with Angel Gilli to play along with the current monochromatic challenge over at the House of Gilli blog. I have to admit I haven't done many cards in this style so to keep it simple I only used my copics from the E colour family. 

Her wings are 40, 41, 43

Hair is 29, 35, 37

Face 0000, 000, 00, 11 and 91 for the cheeks

Her dress was colored using E's I hadn't used before so I felt good finally being able to justify buying them tee hee! They were 70, 71, 74, 77. They look almost purple don't you think?

I outlined her in E 50 to give her an angelic glow

What co ours do you think you will use to play along with our monochromatic challenge?

Happy crafting, Andi

High Hopes stamps is playing with Snow...

Welcome back to another High Hopes stamps challenge and this time HHS is asking you to make a craft with snowflakes. It can be punched out shapes, snowflakes on your patterned paper, stamped..etc. Anyway you would like to incorporate it into your project. 

I used an older stamp called Cup of Cheer as I love hot drinks and quite frankly it begged me to use it. I couldn't resist ;). I paired it with the Cookies and Cocoa script and stamped it directly over my coloured image. In hindsight I would have moved it down more so that the sentiment was closer to the bottom of the mug but honestly I was so worried about having it be severely crooked or smeared that I didn't give much thought to placement at the time lol! I also used some of my new Kaiser Craft patterned paper in non-traditional Christmas colours. My paper has snowflakes, I used punched out shapes and a sweet charm. I think I am covered for this challenge hee hee. 

My card sketch today comes from Jen Del Muro's November sketch over at her blog- thanks Jen!

To see more snowy inspiration hop on over to the HHS challenge blog where you can also see the details on how you can play to win some new High Hopes stamps rubber. Good luck!

Cheers, Andrea

Color Me Creative Classroom are playing with Mermaids and a blog candy alert!

I love mermaids. Love. Did anyone else try to swim with their legs together to mimic a tail? I couldn't have been the only one ;). 

The CMC DT got to play with the lovely Michelle Perkett images this time around. She has beautifully drawn digi stamps which are actually on sale Today  (Saturday) at 50% off! I am just starting to build my collection of digis so these help me get more for my money...cause let's face it I won't spend less ....it allows me to buy more hee hee!

I coloured this beauty up with my copics and spent a very long time on her tail. I wanted to give a textured multi-coloured look to her and I am happy with the final results! I used only dots to colour it up and started out with it just blue then after looking at it and realizing it was missing something I went back and added some greens. Here are the colours I used on her tail:

BG11, 13, 15, 18

G20, 24

I also added some diamond dust stickles also just with dots to continue with the textured look. 

Hop on over to the CMC site to play along with our colouring challenge where you can win prizes and join us at a guest DT member! Also there are lots of classes available which a few of my friends have taken and said they highly recommend them. I am signing up for a few myself- specifically on how to colour magnolia stamps I think. 

My card is based on a sketch at Card Patterns. They have a new one up today to play along with. 

I am also entering my card into the following challenges:

Alphabet challenge blog- under the sea

Card Mad Fairy- add texture

2 sisters challenges- anything goes

Moving along with the times- Fairy Tale cards

Blog Candy alert!

My stamping BFF Sarah Kipling has wrote a hilarious tongue in cheek blog post about her drawer stuffed full of stamps. We seem to share the same buying obsession and I am so proud that she is trying to thin out this drawer...so that we can buy more obviously hee hee!

She is a fairly new blogger so she is looking to add more friends/followers. Click here to visit her post to see how you can win all these amazing stamps!

Well that's it for me today. It is the middle of the afternoon so it is about time to go get showered and look productive. 

Have a great weekend! Andrea

'lil Gilli Girly stamp is helping me reuse and recycle!

I really enjoy colouring my Gilli stamps and this uber cute 'lil Gilli girly stamp was the perfect size to help me out with the Recycle challenge we had. 

I had these leftover papers from a card I made that I was going to throw most of them away as they were too small for the card size I typically make. I then had the idea to make a mini card and so my sweet little Gilli stamp works perfectly for when you need a small stamp for a small card. 

I also used this button which I had saved from another project that I was getting rid of. Sometimes my ever present cup of tea spills on my craft area from my cats leaping around and if I have left my cards out...well sometimes tea stained is not the look I am going for so out they go. I have started to take off ribbon, buttons, brads etc to be reused even though it is not like I don't own tons..I just hate throwing out a perfectly good item that could be re-purposed. I am really happy with how my card from scraps turned out and the Fall colours are perfect for this time of year before the snow starts. Which could be any day now lol. 

Anytime you would like to play along with us Gilli girls we would love to have you over at our challenge blog. You could even win some sweet Gilli stamps of your own!

Cheers, Andi

SGD Stamping Bella Card kits and Unity decorated Grab bags

Andrea here on this sunny Saturday!

I wanted to share a picture of the November card kit contents and one of my completed cards. They are all packaged up and ready to go but we are awaiting  the stamps for the kit from our supplier- kind of an important part of the kit lol!!! I have been itching to share this card for a few weeks now and just can't wait anymore as I love this crazy reindeer from Stamping Bella!

I used some of my Bo bunny paper from the kit to make up this card so I matched my colouring to the colours in the paper. I will include what copics I think compliment it well in the card kit instructions to help make it easy for those of you who like to match like me :)

In this month's kit we also provide cricut cut sentiments for your cards- brilliant!!! It was Sheila's idea and the reason I am sharing that is because Lori and Kim had to cut them all out and I guess they were ready to wring my neck after hee hee!!!!! So again it was SHEILA'S great idea and we appreciate the hard work as they are amazing!!! Thanks ladies!!!

Keep an eye out for the second card from the kit and also for the kits to go on sale because once they sell out they can not be reordered. 

Thank you to Susan who sent me this picture so I could share it with you. It was taken by her cell phone and I think it did a pretty good job! 

This is a picture of the grab bag that attendees of the punch a bunch class this weekend will be receiving. I made these up for Sheila using the Unity stamps for the Simple Stories kit generations. I just love this set!!! I especially love the doilies and they are so hot right now in the crafting world. The set even came with the sentiment you see below the SGD. Now the SGD stamped on here was using monograms from Just rite Stampers. Look Anja- I used your fave stamps! hee hee. This bag is so packed full of good stuff I am insanely jealous I am not going to the class and getting one!

Well that's enough from me today. I hope you have a wonderful day ladies!

Cheers, Andrea

High Hopes Stamps challenge- Anything High Hopes!

This week's challenge over at the HHS challenge blog is an easy one- create anything using any High Hopes Stamps images. Sweet! I used this opportunity to stroll down memory lane and use Candi the Tooth Fairy which is an older image. 

Candi is coloured with Touch Twin markers as I had an opportunity to try them out while hanging out with my friend Vicki Garrett. I wanted to be able to try them and give opinions on them as I try to have knowledge on colouring mediums as best as I can as part of the CMC design team as we help others by giving colouring tips and inspiration. I have to report that there is a learning curve for me whenever I try to use a different type of marker. I always start out as if I just learned to colour for the first time lol!!! I found that the Touch Twin markers really flowed across the page and easily saturated my page to help me with blending. I love the result I got with them and hope that when I get some of my own that I am able to colour as well with them as I can with my copics. I used some of the new Webster's pages Christmas paper in the fun purple, pink and green colours to match the bright colours of my image. It's funny because purple is my fave colour yet I have a brutal time crafting with it!! I think it is because purple can have cold or warm undertones and I spend ages looking through my supplies to see what I have that matches my project as least close enough. I may have to sort all my stash by colours and then by the tone of the colour.....hmmm...we both know that is likely to never happen hee hee. I would like it done- I wonder if I can pay someone to do it for me lol!!!

Before popping over to the HHS Challenge blog to see what the rest of the DT has cooked up to get your inspiration stirring check out the High Hopes Stamps sale below on Fairy Tale images (I have linked it for you- just click on the name of the stamp)- gotta love a good sale!!!

November Monthly Special on now until Nov 7th.

R-093 Fearless Knight

R-092 Castle

F-149 For My Princess

D-097 Lilly Pads

F-148 Duck Family

R-091 Reflecting Pond

G-232 Frog Prince

G-231 Leapfrogs

G-237 Kissy Face Frog

C-047 Kiss Me

K-042 Sitting Princess

H-181 Crown/Wand 2 Pc. Set

M-039 Rock Wall

S-104 Unicorn

H-180  Mushroom One

H-182 Mushroom Two

Cheers! Andi