no-line coloring {lawn fawn + thermoweb week}

Lawn Fawn and Thermoweb are partnering this week to bring you all kinds of fun inspiration.

I used the no-line coloring technique on the reindeer from critters in the snow.  I won't pretend to know what I'm doing, but I know I'll be asked about which colors I used (ha) so here they are:

• to ink up the reindeer: I used memento brown ink, stamped off twice onto scrap paper first.
• for the antlers: E000 (I shaded with the same color)
• for the reindeer's body, I used whatever brown I could: E11, E13, E15, E59, E79
• for his reindeer nose: R24, R29, R59
• and to draw in his eyes and mouth: copic multiliner, 0.3mm

As for the rest of the card, I created a wreath with the leafy image from peace, joy, love and used a thermoweb zot to adhere a little bow at its base.

The reindeer stands out with the help of foam squares.




To ground my reindeer panel, I stamped a woodgrain background onto black paper and adhered it all to a white card base.

I hope you like it!  I'll be back tomorrow with another fawnie+thermoweb project.

♥.

it's noel, dearie.

not quite, I know.  we're heading into another mini heatwave this week, and it feels weird to post Christmas tags, but that's how the crafty bug hit this weekend!



Our lawnscaping challenge is distressing - use distress inks or markers for your project.

I created a little set of reindeer tags, using lawn fawn's critters in the snow.



They came together very quickly, since the reindeer isn't colored at all.  Here are the steps:

1. stamp the frame
2. mask the outside of the frame, and stamp the reindeer inside
3. mask the reindeer and rub antique linen distress ink to fill the frame
4. remove the masks and smile
5. hand cut the frame, add the red to rudolph's nose and handwrite "noel" onto a die-cut banner.

They're a bit vintage, and a whole lot of sweet.

Add a doily and some twine to make it an extra special christmas package.

I hope you enter our lawnscaping challenge!  You could win a prize from our sponsor, lawn fawn!

I'm also entering these tags into the following challenges:


moxie fab world: holiday gift tag challenge

festive friday: FFC15



Thanks for stopping by ♥.

Baby, it's cold outside.

Hi friends!

Even though Monday mornings come too quickly, the ones that start with a new lawnscaping challenge are so much fun.

I don't know what the weather looks like near you, but this week's "winter wonderland" theme is just perfect for where we are.  Snow and ice - everywhere.



I know I'm (very) late to the chalkboard party, but I was so inspired by some of Kara's pins (here, here, and here) that I decided to give it a go.

I started out with a mat of black cardstock, and created my sentiment using lawn fawn alpha sets.  I stamped the sentiment, and the polar bear (from "critters in the snow") in versamark first, and white-heat-embossed it all.  One trick I picked up from Betsy Veldman - keep sprinkling embossing powder as you go along.  I stamped my polar bear first, for placement, and sprinkled him with powder.  Then, the word "cold" - sprinkled with powder.  And so on.  It really helped to take the stress off!  I didn't feel like I needed to rush and throw the powder on before the versamark dried.

Once everything was heat embossed, I went back in and stamped again: this time with white ink, and slightly to the left of the original impressions, to give a shadowed look.

I added some snowfall, (from "let it snow") in white ink, without embossing any of it, and smudged the edges with more white ink.



The best part of winter is layering cozy textures to keep warm.  I added a felt snowflake and some soft yarn and attached them with a mini clothespin.

I hope you play along!  Both with Kara's challenge, and our latest lawnscaping challenge!

We're sponsored by lawn fawn this week!  You could win a sweet prize:

Thanks for stopping by!

Make it shine & art kits for Newtown, Connecticut

It's our last lawnscaping challenge of the year!  We're asking you to break out the glitter, the rhinestones, the mists - anything you can think of to give shine to your end-of-year project.



I tried to give my whole tag a bit of an ethereal feel, with not only the glitter strip at the bottom of the tag, but the vellum snowflake that sits behind, and the white-heat-embossed polar bear (from "critters in the snow").

After I heat-embossed the polar bear, I colored him in with a white paint pen (a white, "galaxy marker" by american crafts.)

I stamped snowflakes around him, and ended off with a dark grey sentiment to match his cute polar bear nose.

I hope you like it!  Your turn to come up with something even better:

and this week, we're sponsored by Lawn Fawn!  You could win a gift certificate to shop in the lawn fawn store, just in time for Christmas:

On another, more meaningful note, my friend Amber is doing a wonderful thing for the grieving kids of Newtown, Connecticut.  I have 2 school-aged children myself, and have wept and prayed for the parents whose arms will feel extra empty this holiday season, and for the kids who have been scarred by this tragedy.  Being crafty herself, Amber is seeking to put together art kits to aid in the healing of these children.  If you're an international, like I am,  you might just want to donate some money instead of sending over the goods she's listed.  There's a button for that on her blog.

If you think this is a great idea, like I do, I hope you'll share Amber's post.

Thank you, and have a great Monday!

penguin shuffle

Time for another lawnscaping challenge!  This one's color-themed: create a card using a red-turquoise-kraft combination.

This card was so much fun to make - and will have that tune running through your head all day!  And look, he really shuffles:

...and to the right:



If you want to know how to make your own dancing penguin, here's the tutorial I followed - I couldn't help but CASE JJ's hilarious card.  The only change I made to the actual construction of the shuffling penguin is that in place of buttons, I used pennies - they're thinner, and the weight of the pennies really makes him waddle around!

I taught a class over the weekend, and we all made this card - the students were challenging each other's penguins to dance-offs... it was all fun and games until someone's penguin landed on his head...

We'd love it if you played along with our color challenge:

At stake is a gift certificate to shop at Simon Says Stamp!

baby, it's cold outside.

Like, freezing.

We took the kids to play outside this weekend, and the only sane one was Maia, who just stood there in her full snow-suit, crying, because it was so cold.  10 minutes later, I scooped her up and we stayed inside watching the other weirdos climb the mounds of snow and shoot white stuff at each other for the better part of an hour.  I think it was something like -22 degrees (celcius).  Now that is cold.

Only fitting, then, that Lawnscaping should post a "winter wonderland" challenge.  And only right that I should jump on that, since I'm currently living inside a snow-globe.

I grabbed a piece of PTI guidelines grid cardstock and ran it through my die-cutter with their "take 3" die.  It left me 3 little openings into which I could stamp those adorable penguins (from Lawn Fawn's "critters in the snow".)  I did have to mask off around the squares so that the penguins didn't overlap into their neighbors' squares.  Didn't want to cause an icy riot, you know.  I then masked off the penguins as well and stamped a layer of polka dots (PTI's polka dots basics II) in a light blue ink.  I outlined the penguins with a light grey copic marker, to make them stand out a little more.

On the white mat, I stamped the igloo from the same set, outlined it with a light blue copic marker, and sponged the edges with tumbled glass distress ink.  Then, I sprayed it with a healthy layer of Mister Huey's calico white spray.  Looks like the igloo was caught in a blizzard, non?

The sentiment was white-heat-embossed onto a light blue banner, and the whole mat was mounted with foam squares onto the kraft card-base.

Thanks for peeking!

snowflake & critter christmas tags.

Thank you for your kind "get well" wishes yesterday!  I'm happy to say that the kids seem to have turned a corner, and I'm starting to see the light :)

I felt well enough to make a little set of 4 christmas tags - to be donated to Thomas' preschool christmas fair next week.  I love his little preschool - the teachers are so great, and Thomas is my 2nd kid to pass through their halls.  I won't lie that I can't wait until Maia is old enough to give me that break of 2 hours, twice a week.  Whatever will I do with all that free time?  Ha ha.

Each tag is identical, save the critter :)  I started out with a craft doily (found in the baking section of Walmart) and sponged it with blue ink.  I then layered a die-cut snowflake overtop (it's an SU die), and then a white PTI tag shape.  The white tag was stamped in bashful blue ink with the snowflakes from lawn fawn's "critters in the snow."  I also stamped "noel" (from PTI's "think big favorites") in memento black ink.

Towards the bottom of each tag, I cut some vellum "snow-drifts" and sprayed them with a white calico mist.  The critters were popped up on foam squares.

Thanks for looking!