Air Mail Birthday Wishes

Hello, there!  It's a new week and I'm glad you're here.  Let's start out the week with a birthday card for my 3 year old neighbor girl.  I had plenty of cute stamps in my collection to choose from, but because I'd already made this stenciled sky background I decided to float some foxes.  They're just so darn cute, aren't they?  It's TCP's For Fox Sake stamp set which I've used often and had bunches of fun every time.  The sentiment is a Poppy Stamps Birthday Blowout.

You might be able to catch a glimpse of Wink of Stella sparkle on the balloons in the photo below.

About that background... I set out one day recently to play with my Heffy Doodle Cloudy Skies stencil, try some different colors, tuck them away in my background bag.  This was not a perfect piece, but I thought it was usable.  I do like it a lot, and the stamps help minimize some of the goofs.  Colors are SU inks -- Soft Sky and Barely Banana.  Stamps are colored with Copics.

I played with my cloud stencil some more after this, but didn't get very far before I decided I'd made enough of an inky mess for a while.  Not very much of it ended up in the background bag, either.  Cards happened... you know how it goes.

I must run now.  Too long on the computer makes Leslie a dull girl... or something like that.  See you again soon!

Stamps:  TCP For Fox Sake, Poppy Birthday Blowout  Paper:  SU Whisper White, Barely Banana, Soft Sky, Neenah Super Smooth 110 lb for fox stamps  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Barely Banana and Soft Sky  Coloring:  Copics  Other:  Wink of Stella on balloons

Twofer Card Challenge #18: Garden

Welcome to Twofer Card Challenge #18!  Our theme through July 24 is "Garden".

My samples are a child's birthday card and an encouragement card with the stamp in common from The Cat's Pajama's For Fox Sake.  Same stamp, two cards, two different occasions or purposes, each with a different layout/sketch.

It's an itty bitty garden, but we all have to start somewhere, right?  Our fox has bright hopes for the future.

In order to turn this into a child's birthday card I borrowed a sentiment stamp from a retired SU set, It's Your Birthday.  I may not have thought to combine these stamps, but that's what the Twofer Card Challenge does -- it gets you thinking about how you can stretch your stamps into more uses than they were, perhaps, originally intended.

Both cards are stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics.  The birthday card is on hot press watercolor paper and the encouragement card (below) is on Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White.  You can see the difference in the Copic colors and the whiteness of the paper.  Just having fun.  I like hot press watercolor paper for just about anything, really.

These cards probably don't require much more explanation, but I'll list details in the recipe below my signature.

Hop over to the Twofer Blog to see samples and welcome our new member, Cat Craig.  Hello and welcome,  Cat!  Our Loll will still be with us, working behind the scenes in an administrative capacity, but no longer sharing card samples, sniff sniff.  Girl has a lot of other things going on.

We're pleased to welcome Kathy and Robyn as guest designers for our Twofer Garden challenge, too.

Thank you, and have a happy day!

Dies for birthday card:  Taylored Expressions Stitched Rectangle Stacklets, Poppystamps Stitched Landscapes
Dies for encouragement card:  Spellbinders Long Classic Rectangles, Elizabeth Craft Bunch of Flowers 4, Impression Obsession Tiny Flowers, Impression Obsession Watering Can

Going Postal

Welcome back!  I hope you've all been having a nice week and are looking forward to a great weekend.  We've had a lot of sunshine and the cold north winds finally subsided.  Best of all... no rain.  Is it safe to believe that spring is here to stay?  I sure hope so!  Onward to stamping...

After several months of little or no crafty shopping I suddenly have quite a few new things.  How did that happen?  Well, it started when I won a gift voucher to The Cat's Pajamas during their latest release and off I went to shop.  Gosh, it was hard to narrow it down, but I ended up with two things:  For Fox Sake stamp set and Mailbox die.  The combination is so cute, I think!

I went all US Postal with the look of the card.   Colored with Copics, added a few extra dots and lines to the scene for grounding, and sponged some sky with Salty Ocean Distress Oxide ink.  I also spritzed some water on the sky and blotted immediately with a tissue.

That mailbox!  I adore it.  It comes with the little heart and envelope dies, too.  Little mouse is asking for help getting his happy mail into the post box.  See, he left a couple of envelopes laying over there by it, too.  They're probably hand stamped cards featuring people characters.  Do you notice how the little bird is sitting with his feet out in front of him?  These details are just so sweet.

I'll be back in my stamp room each morning before the busyness of the day begins.  I've got lots of inking and cutting and coloring to do!  See you again shortly.  Enjoy your day!

Stamps:  The Cat's Pajamas "For Fox Sake"  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White, red Bazzill  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Distress Oxide Salty Ocean and Pumice Stone, SU fine tip black marker  Coloring:  Copics  Accessories:  Enamel dot  Dies:  The Cat's Pajamas Mailbox, Poppystamps Main Street Stitched Tags