A Pizza My Heart

This Valentine's Day I chose to forego hearts, roses, and even chocolate (not in real life, of course)! My son was giving me a hard time for making more than one Valentine card, but I insisted that this holiday gave the perfect excuse to share my love for multiple people and I set out to make something really cheesy to express my heartfelt wishes for family and friends this season!  

One of the things I like most about paper crafting is the ability to tailor-make cards for each recipient. The one for my daughter included a huge chunk of cheese, my mom's card included a dimensional cookie jar on the shelf (also from Hero Arts), my son's pizza was plain pepperoni with a take-out box from Lawn Fawn's Pizza My Heart set, while my husband had mushrooms and green peppers on top of a heart-shaped pizza;  each to reflect their taste and our relationship. My brother even commented that he would keep this card on display past the holiday!

I combined some of my favorite stamp and die sets to create this one-of-a-kind card for my crafty sister and put lots of love into it in the process. The oven door even opens to reveal the pizza, ready to eat!

I spent so much time making cards for each recipient and attempting to get them all in the mail on time, that I forgot to take pictures of the finished products Thankfully, although her card took forever to arrive and I was beginning to worry it got lost,  my sister sent me photos of the card I sent her! (Thanks, Sis!)! 

I'm glad she did, since I wanted to submit it to Hero Arts' Stay Crafty Challenge.

Supplies: Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Kit (May 2022) cling background stamp and cover plate fancy die, La-La-Land Pizza My Heart stamps, MFT Stitched Square Stax, Wink of Stella (clear glitter brush) and various Copic markers.

A Big, Shiny Birthday Balloon!

 I made this for My Favorite Things' card challenge of the week.

The Three Mouseketeers (plus one)!

 My Favorite Things' Color Challenge #163 includes some mice from an old Penny Black set (before MFT came out with their cute baking mice) with an MFT background stamp.

Supplies: MFT Happy Birthday background stamp, Penny Black's Critter Party, Memento Tuxedo black ink, Copic markers, random card stock, Ranger glossy accents, Wink of Stella and silver thread.

Herd it's your birthday!

My Favorite Things' Sketch Challenge #532 presented a number of difficulties for me.  I opted to follow the figurative sketch pattern posted by Vanessa Menhorn on the MFT site rather than the shape-specific star design since I found her card so attractive and thought it might work with my farm animals. Then, I tried to figure out how to put everything together without doing a bunch of fussy cutting for physical layers. I first considered stamping the animals on acetate and laying that over the background stamp, but once I mastered stamping in StazOn on the ultra smooth surface and got all the animals masked and layered with a bale of hay and feeding trough,  I soon realized how crazy hard it was to color those images smoothly!  So, after what seems like a dozen attempts, I ended up with fewer images stamped on card stock, masked before adding the background stamp and blending the background, then coloring with Copics. I couldn't locate the balloons I wanted, so I used another set (even though these strings were not as long as I really wanted) and then I made the mistake of squirting way too much glossy accents on them. . .  I nearly didn't post this (ideally the chicks should be further down and the hen shouldn't have a speck on her body); but I spent too much of my Saturday to pretend this didn't happen! At least I learned something from the process and now have a card that is perfect for my friend, Sarah which are two things I appreciate about completing the weekly challenges!

Supplies: My Favorite Things The Whole Herd, Happy Birthday background stamp, Sweet Succulent sentiment, Bentley Bear by Adam Pescott (balloons), Ranger glossy Accents, Copic markers, Memento Tuxedo Black and Versamark ink, Neenah Solar white card stock, Stampin' Up! Marina Mist and Tim Holtz Salty Ocean distress ink, and Recollections Snow white embossing powder.

Warm thoughts

My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge #530 was designed for a slimline card, which is not my favorite, but a good challenge for me to try. The hardest part was stamping a snowman and snowy trees on a day when it's in the upper 70's where I live! I may have to save this card for next winter.

Supplies: MFT stamp set Flurry of Love, stitched die-namic, Stampin' Up Whisper White flock and chalk, Memento Ink Tuxedo Black, assorted Copic markers and dimensional adhesive.

Heart broken

I wasn't sure how I felt about this week's sketch challenge at My Favorite Things until I did it. Once it was done, I decided that I like the cut panels, especially for something as heart-breaking as the loss of a loved one. 

Supplies: MFT Fine Line Floral stamped image; Happy Hummingbirds sentiment, Memento Tuxedo black, various Copic markers, Neenah solar white, Stampin' Up! green cardstock, Versamark, fine detail white embossing powder and Paper Studio enamel stickers. 

 

When life gives you lemons

I wonder how lemons got such a bad rep that the phrase about "when life gives you lemons" got started? And why is a kruddy car called a lemon? I know it's a rabbit hole that I could easily investigate as I sit here at the computer, but for now I'll leave it a mystery.

I actually like lemons, I adore fresh squeezed lemonade and I frequently use lemon juice in marinades and/or baking!  When I saw the colors for this week's My Favorite Things Color Challenge #159, I decided right away to use the Main Squeeze stamp set along with some watercolors for the fun of it.

I used Tim Holtz distress ink for the grapesicle-like background and scraps of card stock for the die cut and mat. I'm not a pro at watercolor, so it was hard for me to control the shades of yellow and green on the lemons, but overall I was happy with the results.

Supplies: My Favorite Things Main Squeeze stamp set, Hello die-namics, Tim Holtz water color paper and Shaded Lilac distress oxide, Versafine Onyx ink, Gansai Tambi and a hint of Yasutomo water colors.