The Inking Spot of Crain Creations

Makeup 4 the Weekend Challenge #21

 

Yes, I know I'm a few days late... but better late than never, right?? Lol  Last Friday's Makeup 4 the Weekend challenge was "be inspired by the SUN".  While ice cream is certainly yummy year round, I think Lily just screams "HERE COMES SUMMER!"  This card kinda reminds me of a 50-50 Ice Cream bar, or remember those Orange shakes from Naugles?  Yumm-O!  This past weekend we had some nice and toasty temps, but they didn't last... I think we're supposed to get some rain over the next couple of days.  Hope you are having a wonderful week.

Stamps: Lily (Paper Makeup Stamps)  Paper: Linnie Bell pp (Pebbles Inc), Ruby Red cs (SU), Sweet Corn cs (Gina K), Papaya Puree Medium (Prism), Stampers Select (PTI)  Ink:  Tuxedo Black (Memento), Copics, Cocoa (Memento)  Accessories: Hibiscus Burst buttons (PTI), Yellow Candy Dots  (Pebbles Inc), misc flowers (Prima), Brad (SEI), Rhinestone (Zva), Twine

This is me when I go too many days without stamping, lol...

 

I hate when I have several days off from stamping :(.  Every time it happens I cannot make a decent card to save my life!  Grrrr!  This is kinda how I feel about my stamping today, but aside from that, this image just cracks me up!  This is Sourpuss from Paper Makeup Stamps, I think every one of us on the DT started rolling on the floor laughing when we saw him!  Would this image not make the BEST pick me up cards??  I am hoping to cut the work hours closer to normal, my stamp room is close enough to done that I can spend more time stamping :) and hubby has some serious traveling coming up... so I am really hoping to get back into the stampin' swing of things!  Hope you have a wonderful week!  Oh  yeah, this fabulous sketch (that I certainly did NOT do justice to) is from the wonderful Mercy Kerin.

Happy Anniversary!!

 

I made this card for my hubby for our anniversary yesterday.  The image is from Sassy Studios (if you don't see it on her site, email Lindsay and she'll get it for you), and I fell in love with it the second I saw it!  In fact, when I saw a card with this image I just had to track down where the image came from, and thus I found Sassy Studios (perfect timing cause she just released some ROCKIN' Alice in Wonderland images, that I {heart}).  Anyway, as I'm coloring this I immediately thought of the super fun"Twisted Sentiments" from My Favorite Things... it cracks me up that Kim has them "tucked away" in their own category, lol.  Of course I had to giggle and then thought "hehehe, it's a good thing my Grandma and my Mom don't follow my blog", (though they would have gotten a kick out of it).  Just then an email pops up notifying me that someone left me a comment on my blog... it was my MIL!  Holy snickerdoodles, she REALLY does read my blog, lol!  I can't wait to hear what she says about this card, wink wink.  The charm on here is from one of my stamping friends, Tina... awhile back she sent me the most stunning card and a little pillow box with this charm inside it.  Of course I have been hoarding it ever since, but if this isn't the perfect time to use it I don't know what is. The sentiment is from Paper Makeup Stamps, this is a sentiment I have used for years (not that Katie had it put in to rubber cause she loves me, I'm just sayin'...lol).  I don't often like Organza ribbon, but it kinda goes with the whole sheer black nightie theme.  Since I colored her nightie in black you don't see some of the detail so I added a little pearl to pretty it up some.  I also added some Clear Spica to the flower in her hair.  It's a simple card and I think I really like it.  Happy Anniversary Hubby!

Stamps: Sexy Sandy (Sassy Studio), You Make my {heart} Happy (Paper Makeup Stamps)  Paper: Blue Home pad (MME), Black (Prism), Ocean Tides (PTI), White (PTI)  Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine), Copics  Accessories: Black organza ribbon, charm (misc), Pearls (Kaisercraft)

Makeup 4 the Weekend #20, No Layers

 

 Holy snickerdoodles!!!  What do you mean "NO LAYERS" is that even POSSIBLE????  Ok, so after momentary heart failure I knew I had to 'suck it up' and get creative.  This week's Makeup 4 the Weekend Challenge was (gulp) no layers, but as many embellies as you want. While I'm not wild about this card, I kinda like it.  As much as I kicked and screamed about this one, it was fun and I do like trying things outside my comfort zone.  Though I am sure that I will NEVER convert and become a "no layers" kinda gal, lol!  I hope you'll play along with the PMS DT & fans, and if you do, make sure you hop over to the PMS Blog link up your creation to our Mr. Linky.

Stamps: If I had a Flower (Paper Makeup Stamps  Paper: Kraft (Gina K)  Ink: Majestic Blue (Versafine), Onyx Black (Versafine)  Accessories: Kraft Tafetta ribbon (SU), FLowers (Prima), Pearls (Kaisercraft)

Stamping just for the love of it

 

Today, after getting some cards that I needed to do and working on more organization and cleaning of the studio, I got to stamp just for the fun of it!  Lisa Johnson (Poppy Paperie) has started her own challenges and I LOVE the concept of them.   

This is her second challenge and I had so much fun with it I'm going to go back and do the first one!  I started with this challenge, but as I started putting it together I realized Mercy's Sketch would be great with this, then I started to choose my papers and realized that the JUGS and Crazy 4 Challenges for this past week fit perfectly too!  Lisa Kind came up with the challenge for Jugs this past week (she comes up with the best Inspiration challenges, though this one is a color challenge she includes an inspiration photo).  I can rarely combine 2 challenges, let alone more than that, lol!  

 

 Here's a little better picture of those yummy buttons!  I threw that purple one in there "just cause" it was sparkly and pretty, lol.  I used brown floss on the buttons, so they'd stand out a little and not blend in... I like the look.  My tag/sentiment seemed to get lost in the busyness, so I took the edge of my black copic and went around the edge of it.  Just a little hint to make it stand out a little.  Well, I hope you like my interpretation of Lisa's challenge, I'd love to hear your input so leave a comment if you have an extra minute.  Thanks for popping in, hope to see you again soon!  Have a wonderful day!

Stamps:  Everyday Button Bits (PTI)  Paper: Home mat Blue & Pink (My Minds Eye), Spring Willow Dark cs (Prism), Ocean Tides cs (PTI), White (Gina K)  Ink: Spanish Moss (Versafine), Onyx Black (Versafine), Black Copic  Accessories: Ocean Tides, Plum Pudding & Spring Moss Buttons (PTI), Brown floss, Ribbon Tags (Spellbinders), Ocean Tides Twill ribbon (PTI)

Welcome Home

 

   

This is the "Welcome Home" Pretty Packaging template from My Time Made Easy.  Such a fun idea, you could use this to hold just about any type of gift!  Mine is holding a little candle my youngest DS made for me with his Gramma.  The pretty paper and the butterfly is from Lauren as well.  Have you visited her store?  You can buy the templates in various formats (one being .svg which works with Sure Cuts Alot for the Cricut!!!)  I am in LOVE! lol  The butterfly is from the Flutters & Flowers Pretty Pieces set (I LOVE these!!).  For the flowers, I didn't even bother digging through my flower box, I just whipped out some copics and started coloring! All templates and pretty papers are from My Time Made Easy.

Templates: Welcome Home Pretty Packaging, Flutters & Flowers Pretty Pieces  Paper: Fluttering By Digi Paper, Chocolate Kiss cs (Gina K), Pink cs (Bazzill), Barely Banana cs (for the light in the window), basic white  Accessories: Celery ribbon (SU), misc pearls, gold brad(for the door handle), Lipstick Rhinestones (on the butterfly from Kaisercraft), misc white flowers colored with Copics, Garden Trellis punch (Martha Stewart)

Paper Garden Birthday challenge...

 

Housekeeping items for today:

1. Paper Garden Projects Design Team Call deadline Monday, March 29th.  Go here for all of the deets.
2. Paper Garden Projects is having a sale 20% off all ink pads, paper kits. 25% off Copic Sketch markers. 40% off all Clearance.

March is Paper Garden's 2nd Birthday, so to celebrate Cathy has some great challenges and prizes throughout the month.  Today's challenge is to use Spring Colors, you can get all the deets on the prize and deadlines on the Paper Garden Blog.  I made this card for my Mommy's birthday (if you read yesterday's post you may remember that it was for my Daddy's birthday...they're 2 days apart.  Can't forget one and not the other, lol).  These small paper flowers come in white, so I took my V12, V15 and V17 Copics and colored them (be sure to use the chisel tip).  I love this look and by using the chisel tip you avoid streak marks... you can look at these close up and NEVER know that they didn't come this color :).   To give the focal image some dimension I cut out and popped up the 'word bubble'.  I used the C0 Copic to go around the word bubble just to give a little more dimension.  Happy Birthday Mommy, now the rest of you head over to Paper Garden and get hoppin' on the challenge and submit your goods for the DT call!

Stamps: Too Late for Cake  Paper: Sugar Rush pp (Basic Gray), Prism cs  Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Copics  Accessories: Paper Flowers, Pearls, Sage Velvet ric rack ribbon

PMS Makeup 4 the Weekend...

 

Last Friday's Makeup 4 the Weekend challenge was to use Blue, Red & Kraft.  I have issues with Kraft :(, but I was determined to do this challenge!!  I love the colors and I needed to make a Birthday card for my Dad.  You can't see it on this picture, but for the sails I colored them restamped them on Vellum to overlay the blue.  For the sentiment, I airbrushed the inside of the nestie, but it still needed some "pop" so I tool my Black Copic and ran the side of my nib along the edge of the paper... I like the black!

Couple of "housekeeping" things to mention... 

• Paper Makeup Stamps is having a HUGE inventory reduction sale (40% - 75% off!!  Stamps, Shimmerz, Nesties and more are all on sale).  Sale runs from today to the end of March, though quantities are LIMITED!  This post has all the deets of the sale.
• Tune in to the Paper Makeup Stamps blog on Friday for the next Makeup 4 the Weekend challenge.

Stamps:  Sailing By set (Paper Makeup Stamps)  Paper: Sleepover? (SU), Ruby Red, Baja Breeze cs (SU), Kraft and white cs (Gina K)  Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Copics  Accessories: Black Brads (Paper Garden Crafts), Kraft Ribbon (SU), Rope (SU), Circle & Square nesties

We're all quite 'mad' here...

 

I've missed my blog and I've missed stamping!  Hahaha, it's only been a couple of days but it feels like it's been forever!  I recently stumbled across this Digi image company, Sassy Studio Designs.  I saw an image someone used for one of the challenges I work with... I loved the card and just had to pop on over and check them out.  Lucky for me they had just released their Digi Alice in Sassyland images... I was in love!  This is the same company I got the White Queen image I used a few days ago... LOVE THEM!  Since I have out of town guests tonight this is gonna be quick, but I wanted to give a shout out to Sassy Studio's (they just released some more new images).  This card is for their release challenge and I used Taylor's sketch challenge. I'll be back with more deets later today.  Thanks for popping in, hope to see you back soon!

Another Paper Garden Birthday Challenge...

 

March marks the 2nd birthday for Paper Garden Projects and to celebrate Cathy has some great challenges and awesome prizes.  If you haven't yet done last week's birthday card challenge you still have until midnight tonight (Friday) to participate... the prize is TWO Mo Manning stamps!!  Today's challenge is a sketch challenge, and the prize is this Dressy Miss Anya set!  

 

For my card I used the Iris from the Year of Flowers #2 set.  I love Iris', their shape is fun, but I just love them in purple and yellow!  By the way Basic Gray paper pads, Prism cardstock, copics and more are ALL currently on sale at Paper Garden!

Stamps: Year of Flowers   Paper: Sugar Rush (Basic Gray), Prism cardstock  Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Copics  Accessories: Red Brads (Queen & Co), Sheer Dotted Swiss ribbon (May Arts), circle and scallop circle nesties

Pop on over to the Paper Garden blog for more deets on this challenge and stay tuned for more challenges and prizes!!

** Another bit of important info., Paper Garden is having a Design Team call.  Go here for the dead line and all of the juicy details**

The White Queen...

 

I don't know about you, but I am in LOVE with the new Alice In Wonderland stuff... all of it!  I found this cute digi image at Sassy Studio Designs.  While I really like the White Queen, I am in love with a few of the other images!!  This is for a VERY late birthday gift for a friend (of course the gift is an Alice in Wonderland tshirt from Hot Topic, lol!).  Tomorrow I'll show you how I packaged her gift... Probably one of my absolute favorite gift packages I've made!  Make sure you click on the picture to see the detail of her face (she has a mole, perfect!) and that's a rhinestone on her neck.  For a basically "white" image I used ALOT of Copics!! lol

Stamps: White Queen digi & sentiment set (Sassy Studio Designs)  Paper: DSP (SU), Riding Hood Red, Basic Black and Whisper White cs (SU)  Ink: Copics  Accessories: Riding Hood Red ribbon (su), Red Brads (SU), White gel pen, circle punches, Rhinestone (Taylored Expressions), Curved Rectangle Nesties

Spring means butterflies...

Today was such a gorgeous day!  I am ready to see some "flutterby's"... bring on Spring!! 

 

This week Mercy had an awesome sketch (I always love her sketches), so I just had to take a break from "re-organizing" my stamp room and ink up some rubber.  I stamped the butterfly and colored it in, then I found some paper and started putting the card together.  Somewhere along the line, my butterfly went in one direction and the rest of the card went in another, hahaha.  So I re-did the butterfly.  I stamped it in some Cocoa ink (Memento) and then used some yellow/orange Copics.  I didn't really care if the Cocoa "bled" or smeared some when I colored because I kind of wanted to pull a little of the brown into the yellows.  I really like the look.  Both the butterfly and the sentiment are from Gina K's set, Take Flight.  I was trying to figure out what color for the base of this card... white was too "white" and vanilla was too "yellow".  While I was flipping through my Prism swatchbook I stumbled across 3 colors that I NEVER think about Butter Cream, Vanilla Cream and Sugar Cream. I chose Sugar Cream here.  I LOVE these colors and can't believe I haven't used them before!  I also love the texture of the Prism... I can leave some card stock showing without it looking "flat" to me.  The "pretty papers" here are from the Origins pack by Basic Gray.  I just love this paper pack!  I got some of the 12x12 papers for a project I am working on, fell in love with them, got a small pack and then got some more of them from a friend! lol.  By the way, Cathy at Paper Garden has both the paper pack and Prism cs singles on sale right now, pop on over there and tell her I said "hey".

Happy Hop day!!!!

 

Yeah, it's FINALLY here!  Time for the Paper Makeup Stamps March release (aka my very favoritest release ever, lol).  I'm sure you've met her already, but this is Caliope and this time she is ready for Spring and sporting a flower!  I paper pieced Caliope, used Build-a-brads and to make the sentiment show up a little better I stamped it on Vellum and then adhered it to the base.  I punched a center for my Prima flower to match the brads.  A very springy card, for such a rainy day in So Cal! lol.

You know the drill... if you did not get here from Maria's blog start at the PMS blog and make sure you gather your letters at each visit to get the "special code" giving you 15% off the new release!!  Also, be sure to leave some love at each blog because there is not 1, but TWO chances to win the entire release!!!!

Can't wait to see you all tonight at the Release Party, 8pm CST in the PMS Forum.

... and your final letter is 

Thanks so much for stopping by, hope to see you again soon!

Stamps: Caliope with a Flower and "Where Flowers Bloom" sentiment (Paper Makeup Stamps)  Paper: Pink Home collection (My Minds Eye), Ocean Tides (PTI), Ivory (Gina K)  Ink: Onyx Black (Versafine), Tuxedo Black (Memento)  Accessories: Build-a-brad (SU), Flower (Prima), Vellum

Today is a double post...

** Please scroll down to see my Paper Garden Birthday Challenge card**

 

Today the PMS DT is peeking the new Moody's.  I LOVE these Moody's!!  I'm sure I've said this before, but I think this is my favorite release! lol.  Pop on over to the PMS Blog to see the other Moody being released this month.

Dont forget that our release party is march 7th at 8pm CST in the PMS forum!We will be partying, playing games, giving out prizes. It's so much fun!We would love to see you there!

This month we are going to give away the entire release to not 1 but 2 lucky winners!How do you enter? Just leave us some love (a comment)! We want to know what you like! We will be gathering the comments from all the design team members blogs everyday and will give away the entire release (which is valued at over $70!) The more you comment, the more your chances to win! Please note though, only 1 comment per design team members blog per day counts. So you cant leave 10 comments on each blog for over 100 entries a day! haha!
We will also give away the release from collecting comments from the PMS company blog. Each day leave a comment on what your favorite stamp shown that day is! Easy Peasy!  Thanks for stopping by... hope to see you again soon :)

Stamps: Moody for Showers & Sentiment (Paper Makeup Stamps)  Paper: Key Ingredients kit (Taylored Expressions)  Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Copics  Accessories: Yellow brads (SU), misc. fabric brad, misc flower, black glaze pen (Sakura)

It's Paper Garden Project's 2nd Birthday!!!

Every Friday for the month of March, Paper Garden will have a different challenge.  Yesterday's challenge was to make a Birthday card.. easy peasy!  Post a comment and your link to this post here for a chance to win 2 Mo Manning stamps (I LOVE Mo!!).  Here is my Birthday card...

 

 Be sure to stop by the Paper Garden Blog each Friday for a new challenge and a new chance to win!  If you've not yet heard the news... Paper Garden is looking for a few new Design Team Members, you can get all the deets here!  Thanks for stopping in... hope to see you again soon!  

Stamps: Too Late for Cake (Eat Cake Graphics)  Paper: Sugar Rush (Basic Gray), Pink & Gray prism cardstock  Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Copics  Accessories: Brads, Button & Ribbon from Paper Garden, Deckled Rectangle Nesties