Bee Happy Thank You

This is one of those projects I started awhile ago and never got around to photographing. I used the Mojo Monday Sketch #245, but I never posted it on their challenge blog since I didn't photograph it until today!

Part of the reason that it took me some time to photograph it was that I wanted to make enough to send one to each of my preschool students as a thank you. I also was busy preparing for Art Camp which ended today. I used a bee stamp from the Bee Happy stamp set since we were the "Yellow Bumblebees," during our end of the year field day.

I played around with some of my new copic markers which I got using a gift certificate for Oozak.com (a gift from my lovely preschool class) to color in the sweet bee stamp. I'm still learning but here's a closer look at the colored image.

I didn't want to have to worry about whether or not I would need extra postage for these cards but I still wanted some dimension so I used one of my favorite techniques. After using a regular hole punch to get the red circles on the bottom left and the light yellow center for the flower, I applied some Liquid Glass.

After the Liquid Glass dried, my little punched holes somewhat resembled brads and give my cards dimension, not to mention some shine, without too much bulk.

Supplies used (all CTMH except for copics and nestabilities dies): (January special from 2009) Key to My Heart papers, (X7141B) Elemental Level 2 paper pack, (Z679) Liquid Glass, (B1374) Bee Happy stamp set, (44751) Archival black ink, (Z578) Corner Rounder, (Z1710) Just Blooms Paradise Paper Flowers, (Z1686) Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge to cut banners, Copic markers, nestabilities 

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Backyard Fun - Studio J Layout

Whew...I feel like I am just coming up for air! The fall is always really busy so I tried to be prepared this year but, as my workload increased, certain things (like my creative pursuits) had to make way. I really miss it when I can't craft!

Studio J has been such a wonderful way for me to sneak in some crafting time even when things are hectic. I don't have to worry about clearing out a space and getting out all of my materials out which all takes time (and then cleaning up after which takes even more time). I love working with actual paper and ink and stamps.  But it is nice when I have limited time to just turn on the computer, sign in, and start experimenting with my layouts. If I need to go do something in the middle, my project gets saved automatically. If I come back and don't like it, I can rearrange it or just start all over without having to worry about "ruining" my paper!

This layout is a 14 picture layout called Snappy and it's available to Studio J members. You could easily turn it into a 16 picture layout by converting the title box and the journaling box into photo wells. I deleted my title box and just used the letters from the Quick Title Tool in its place. I left my journaling box as is and I also added a small journaling box to the bottom right of the left page so I could include the date separately.

Here is the Love Your Layout video for December from Close to My Heart. It gives some great tips about how to personalize your layout including a different way to make a border by cropping Stickease. Click on the arrows in the bottom right of the embedded screen to expand the video.

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Sit Back and Enjoy the Ride

I tend to create a lot of cards with floral themes which isn't necessarily the type of look I want when sending something to my dad or brother or someone male! So I've been trying to create more masculine types of cards just to keep on hand. I used two of my new stamp sets, Enjoy Life and Two Step Backgrounds on my card.

Enjoy Life:






















Two Step Backgrounds:






















I used the colors from The Play Date Cafe Challenge PDCC103 to help me along. I love that these colors can work for a masculine card yet there is no brown in them! It seems that I always revert to brown for masculine cards so it's nice to play with a brighter palette.


Here is the card I came up with.

Supplies used (all CTMH): (X7141B) Elemental Level 2 paper pack, (C1439) Enjoy Life stamp set, (D1473) Two-Step Background stamp set, (Z2125) Grey Wool stamp pad, (1447) Autumn Terracotta stamp pad, (Z2192) Pacifica stamp pad, (Z280) Natural Hemp, (1385) White Daisy cardstock, Scrap of Grey Wool cardstock, Scrap of orange paper from my stashPin It