PipsyCraft

With a relative of mine welcoming a new little one to the world soon, I figured I should see what I could do to make a card for them to say hello to the little guy or girl (we don't know yet, they wanted it to be a surprise)! I have a set from Mama Elephant called New Family with just the most adorable little animals in it. I decided to go with a fox and a baby along with a couple of the sentiments too.

All of the stamps I used came from the same set including the sentiment on the inside which I don't have pictured here. I used my wonderful Copics to color them in (YR16, YR68,C-0, C-2, and BG53 for the foxes and G43, YG63, and YG67 for the grass).

It's a standard A2 with the front panel cut at 5 1/4 by 4 and I used Whisper White Cardstock from Stampin' Up, though any paper that can handle Copics works too! I can't recommend the heavy Bazzill paper for it however since I've noticed my Copics tend to bleed on it. I still love it for card making and stamping since it is absolutely perfect for sturdy cards, but try another one for Copics if you can! It really is just a clean and simple card...nothing too crazy today!

I will be submitting this card to a few challenges...all of which you all should go do by the way! It's fun to challenge yourself and be inspired by other crafters. You have nothing to lose! Here are the Blogs I'll be submitting this one:

1. Crafty Calendar Challenge Blog---> Something New Challenge

2. Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog---> Something New Challenge

3. My Time to Craft Challenge Blog---> Something New Challenge

I know I've been doing a lot of challenges lately, but I enjoy challenging myself instead of always doing my own thing. Of course, I love that too, but why not see what my limits are as a crafter and find some people and ideas that inspire me for later projects? I recommend trying a challenge at least once to see how fun it is!

What are you guys up to this weekend?

Love you all!

Pipsy

(Mattie)

Hello everyone and happy Friday! We made it to the weekend, woohoo! For me, the excitement is short lived since tomorrow is the dreaded day of returning to campus to start classes for spring semester. No, it isn't the worst, but I will miss having free time to work on crafting and spending time with the family (and cats of course). For today, I cranked out a few cards and thought I'd share this little lady with you all!

She reminds me so much of Tinkerbell, but alas, my Copic selection doesn't allow me to color blonde hair quite yet. Slowly but surely, my collection will grow...I hope! Anyway, this little fairy is a digital stamp I purchased from Prettygrafikdesign on Etsy and I used the ScannCut2 from Brother to cut her out (highly recommend that machine by the way since it cuts out pretty much all images without needing dies...is that awesome or what?). I colored her in with Copics (G29, G646, YG63, and G43 for her dress; E15, E13, and E18 for her hair; R20, E00, E50, and BV000 for her skin; C0 and C2 for her wings with a little clear Wink of Stella to add some sparkle).

I cut a piece of Whisper White heavy white cardstock from Stampin Up to 4.5in by 3in, and stamped on the leaves on the bottom (Falling Flowers by Stampin' Up). I stamped the flower from the same set on a different piece of cardstock and fussy cut it...not to add dimension, but because I messed up on my first attempt at this card after spilling my tea all over it. Somehow the flower survived so I didn't let it go to waste! So, you can cut it out or stamp it right on the card front. Whatever you want to do! Anyway, I colored the flower in with R20 and R24 and did the Tip-to-Tip (touching the tip of the lightest marker to the darker one and coloring) technique to blend them since I didn't have a color in between the two.

I wasn't quite sure what to do for the background or if I just wanted to leave it blank, but I decided to sponge some Soft Sky ink from Stampin Up (though any light blue ink would work just as well) to make a sort of ombre look...it doesn't show up too well in the picture sadly, but in person it is much more noticeable.

I gave the fairy and the whole card front a little dimension by bumping them up with some foam tape, popped on a few leftover sequins, and voila! It is completed! Sorta anyway, I cut out another piece of cardstock at 5 1/4 by 4 for the inside and stamped a birthday wishes sentiment. Then it was all finished!

Just another lovely A2 card that I think turned out pretty well...and I learned to keep the tea away from the work zone!!

P.S I made this card for the Color Crazy Challenge over at the Color Crazy Challenge blog which you should all go check out as well as the Wednesday Challenge going on over at Simon Says Stamps' blog.

Love you all!

Pipsy

(Mattie)

I haven't had my Copics for too long and I don't consider myself an expert by any means...not even close! As with anything, I have been learning the ins and outs of them as I go and play with them. So far, the best tutor I've found has been Kelly Latevola on Youtube (definitely check out her channel if you are curious). I actually used something she taught me to color my card today!

Before I get into any of that however, I will mention that I created this card for My Favorite Things' sketch challenge which I will link to here--> Right Here!!

This challenge has this sketch as a guide which I love! It has so many possibilities!

It took me a while to figure out exactly how I wanted to approach the sketch, but the Delicate Pretty Poppies set from My Favorite Things immediately caught my eye. I'll link to it below for anyone who is curious about it.

I used a handful of Copics to get these beautiful poppies just how I wanted them (R29, R27, R17, R05, and G85 for the petals; E59, E89, and E47 for the centers; YG67, G29, and YG63 for the stems). The black paper was just from some random scraps I had left over from an old project and I stamped my images on Whisper White thick cardstock from Stampin' Up with my Memento Tuxedo Black Ink (I recommend this ink for Copics and water coloring since it's waterproof and doesn't smudge easily). I also used white embossing powder from Stampin' Up, though any white embossing powder would work!

I talked about learning a few things about my Copics above and I thought I could share what I learned with you guys! While I was coloring the flower petals, I was getting a bit frustrated that the darkest red I had just wouldn't make the shadows quite as dark as I wanted and my poor paper started to get a little saturated! Well, Kelly Latevola said in one of her videos that she faced the same problem and used a complimentary color to shade and it was honestly a life (and paper) saver! The complimentary color for red is green so that is how I shaded the flowers where I wanted the darkest shading. Not going to lie, I was pretty excited about the result so I looked up the other colors that compliment each other to reference later. Blues and oranges compliment each other and yellow and purple compliment each other.

So, this was a new experience for me and I hope you guys find the information helpful if you didn't already know it! Have you guys found or tried anything new?

Love you all!

Pipsy

(Mattie)

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*These are affiliate links and are of no extra cost to you, but are here for your convenience. I have purchased these products myself and I am not sponsored to share them. Thank you!

Hello everyone and happy Wednesday! Hold on a few more days and the work week will be done and a nice relaxing weekend will be upon us. I don't know about you guys, but where I'm at, we have been getting snow all day...they said we'll get 6-10 inches! I already miss those warm spring and summer days and winter has only just begun so I see many long mornings of shoveling in my near future! Oh well, what can you do, right?

Anyway, onto the card for today! Was I the only one who was unaware of the existence of digital stamps? I discovered them today while poking around on Youtube (catching up with some of my favorite fellow crafters) and I love them! Tara Sell over at Curl E. Cue's used them in a video and I knew that I just had to try them. Gerda Steiner was who Tara Sell led me too and she has some absolutely adorable ones which is where I found the cutie I used on this card, though I am sure there are plenty of other places with digital stamps up for sale...all of which I want to see!

This kitty, who I will link to below for you to check out if you'd like, is such a sweet thing! I printed him out on some 110 lb. cardstock from Staples, cut him out, lined him with my black Sharpie Pen, and then colored him in with my Copics (YR21, Y23, and YR23 for the body with Y24 for the stripes; R24, R27, and R29 were used to color in the heart along with Wink of Stella to jazz it up a bit; R20 was used to give him a little blush and to color in those little ears and toes).

The sequins are from a bunch of various packs I recently purchased from Simon Says Stamp and there are these tiny little shiny hearts from Pretty Pink Posh which I adore. Perfect for Valentine's day! You could always punch out a bunch of tiny hearts instead which would look just as cute.

The sentiment is from the I Knead You stamp set from My Favorite Things which I will link to down below for your convenience if you are interested in taking a look at it. I wasn't sure if I wanted it behind the acetate or inside the card, but I settled for this which adds a little something more to the front.

It's my first shaker and I must admit, it isn't too shabby!

I will be submitting this little cutie to the Send A Smile 4 Kids Challenge Blog which is an awesome blog dedicated to sending cards to children in hospitals in need of a smile. They hold challenges to raise awareness of who they are and don't require you to send your cards in, but would appreciate it if you can. Head on over and check out their blog and challenge!

What is everyone else working on this week? Any fun card or craft projects?

Love you all!

Pipsy

(Mattie)

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* All affiliate links are of no extra charge to you, but are here for your convenience! Thank you!

** NOTE: I Knead You stamp set by My Favorite Things and the heart sequins from Pretty Pink Posh are both currently out of stock on both Simon Says Stamp and the affiliate websites. Check back another time or sign up at Simon Says to be notified when either of them come back in stock!