Antarctic Anniversary

Aloha!

It's nearly a miracle - I was able to finish a card for World Cardmaking Day! Yay!! I usually miss this. How about 2 sweet penguins on a heart-shaped ice sheet, floating at night in the Antarctic?

Did you know penguins live in the southern hemisphere, mostly in the Antarctic? They are not up in Alaska or other northern areas. And they only eat meat. Because of their shape, they can swim up to 15 mph!!!

Your Next Stamp is having a challenge to create an extra long card. I love making Anniversary cards for friends and for us. I also love starry night skies and penguins, so this brought me a lot of happiness to make! This is also going to be uploaded to the Simon Says Stamp Worldcardmaking Day Challenge!


Stamp Set: Penguin in Love by Your Next Stamp
Cardstock: Hammerhill Color Card 110#
Color Pencils
Distress Inks
Adhesive foam
Masking
Crystal gems from Honey Bee
White Gel Pen
Wink of Stella Clear Sparkles

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Mahalo for stopping by!

Happy World Cardmaking Day!

Done Adulting

Aloha, friends,

I'm back. It's been rough for several months with Bruce's health. But he's better and back to work  🎉 !   And I'm here ♫ !!

Needless to say, there were plenty of days I felt done with adulting. Here is a little penguin just playing in sand, building igloos. May each of us have days when we don't have to adult.


Stamp Set: "Waddles Beach Fun," by Your Next Stamp
Cardstock: GKD (my favorite of all)
SSS Curved Border Die
MFT Diagonal Background Stamp (turquoise layer)
Stamped with Memento Desert Sand & Summer Sky (perfect for a beachy scene!)
Colored with Copic Markers
Foam Strips (to pop the umbrella and star fish)
Spectrum Noir Glitter Pen (water and shiny things)
Pretty Pink Posh sequins; sparkly mini stars; cut a curvy paper to sponge the clouds

I've sure missed playing.

Thank you for stopping in 😊

Cold Weather Coffee

Aloha!

Day 2 of Coffee Loving Cardmakers Winter Blog Hop!

I will keep this as simple as possible :)

Besides the mega fun coffee blog hop, I would like to enter this into the Your Next Stamp Sketch Challenge. But they also include a Color portion of the challenge: Brown, tan, silver, white, green and blue. So this card incorporates the sketch AND the colors lol!!!

Stamp Sets: Your Next Stamp "Ellie Loves Lattes" and "Polar Pals" by Avery Elle (the snowflakes)
Cardstock: GKD 120# White, Neenah 80# white, Silver Mirror by SU
Pattern Paper by Jillibean Soup "Winter Tortellini & Spinach Soup"
Inks: Copic Markers, Sakura Metallic Gel Pens, Signo White Gel Pen, Memento Black Marker, GKD and Hero Arts Blue inks, VersaMark Embossing Ink
Ranger Silver Tinsel Embossing Powder
Dies: SB Circle, Lacy Scallop Circle, SSS Stitched Circle, SB Edgeabilities "Classic Petals," and Cheery Lynn "Allison's Ribbons" Dies
SU aqua button tied with burlap twine
Fiskars Heart Punch
Diamond Stickles (on her gray leggings ;)
Tonic Nuvo Crystal Drops "Neptune" (earrings)

I tried to give this little girl an "arctic" flavor to her so put her in mukluks boots, laced them up, sparkly tights, and a darker skin / hair tone. It's so cold there her nose is red! Enjoy!!

I hope your week is filled with hot coffee,

friends and stamps!

With aloha ♥

A Parrot Hello!

Ahoy! I mean Aloha!

I'm on a coloring/painting spree. Yup, it's still hot.

You know how you start to notice and LIKE some images from a new stamp company? Eeek! You fight it, and fight it, you don't need it, you don't want another company's images, and after the months roll by, you look for a set or two you can "afford." Because, after all, you wind up NEEDING it. Know what I mean?

So anyway... LOL... Your Next Stamp "got me!" I couldn't take it anymore. They are having a challenge that is one or both a sketch (Benadryl, please) and/or color inspiration. I did the color. If you know me, sketches strike a deep fear within me. It goes entirely against the "I Gotta Be Me" lyrics that Frank Sinatra sang. Sketches are NOT me.

YNS Color (or Sketch) Challenge!

Driven by guilt, I reached for the little set of Kuratake Zig Clean Brush Watercolors (I think that's close enough to the name?) and used the yellow, pink and green to meet the color challenge. You know how I managed to heat emboss some vellum yesterday until it bubbled and burst into a flame? Yes, another talent. Today (my first mistake of day) I did a similar thing to 3D Crystal Lacquer. Another note to self: Wait until next day to send anything with 3D Crystal Lacquer through the BigShot. Or better yet, apply the 3D Crystal Lacquer AFTER you run your image through a die cutting machine.

I managed to "squish" all the Crystal Lacquer. Boy, was it ever UGLIness. Sooo, I "thought" (second mistake) "Surely a little heat will smooth it right back out." LOLOLOLOL. No. It created a giant opaque snow globe where it was applied, over the parrot's beak. So I covered it with a simply colored nose, fussy cut, foam adhered over the snow globe beak. After all, a little 3D embellie is always acceptable.

Then I stamped some clouds across the background, glued some sequins, and called it a day. Headaches.

Stamp Set: "Soaring By" Your Next Stamp
Inks: Memento pads and markers; Kuratake Zig Clean Color Brush Watercolors (or close to that)
Cardstock: Strathmore 140#; GKD 120# white; AC Fuschia; Neenah 80# white
Dies: Inverted Scalloped Rectangles by Gina Marie (Hey, check out her dies - super cute, super reasonable prices & shipping); SB Distressed Rectangles
Pretty Pink Posh sequins
Dries Clear & Tape Runner, and of course, 3D Crystal Lacquer (not heat proof, sigh)

Always a giant mahalo for your stopping by!

With aloha ♥