Trust Your Journey

February 25, 2018March 11, 2018 Happy Ink Designs11 Comments

Hi guys!! This was an interesting challenge for me this week. The theme at Always Fun Challenges is Travel and at first I was going to make a masculine card with my Stampin Up Traveler stamp set, but then I remembered I had this super cute image by Stamping Bella called Squidgy on a Journey that I’ve never even inked up yet, and well, I just had to put her to work instead.

I recently signed up for the Kit & Clowder monthly coloring class for both alcohol markers and colored pencils so I put my new skills to the test. You can see the sunset background class is what I practiced on this card. I am loving these classes!! So much information and Alyce is a really great instructor. If you’re wanting to improve your coloring techniques or interested in learning how to color like a pro, I highly recommend taking a class or two from Kit and Clowder. Or sign up for the monthly classes like I did. They even have a couple of free classes that are packed full of really great information. That’s what got me hooked!! I thought I was pretty good at Copic coloring until I took this class. This is only my 2nd month of the subscription but I have nothing but praise so far. I’m not 100% happy with this background, but for my first time practicing it, I’m ok with it. If you do sign up for a class, let them know that I sent you. You get a little thank you for referring a friend.

I used TONS of Copic markers which I will add to this post as soon as I can. The boy’s had all last week off of school so I’m trying to get everything ready tonight. We went dirt bike riding all day on Sunday so I didn’t get my laundry or shopping done until 10pm!! Needless to say, I was a walking zombie. Dirt bike riding is exhausting!! But oh so much fun. I didn’t do a video this week because as you can see, all I did was color for this card. I did actually record one, but even sped up, the video was like 2 hours long… of just coloring so I decided to skip a video this week. But I’ll be back with one next week!!

UPDATED:

Copics Used:

Lavender: BV00, BV08, BV13

Grass: YG03, G21, YG67, G94, G99

Hills: YG11, BG90, G21, BG93, G94

Trees: YG11, G21, G94, G99

Trunks: E43, E44, E47

Gravel Road: E41, E42, E43, E44

Sky: YR14, Y17, Y15, Y02, Y000, BG0000, BG000, B00

Clouds: BG000, B60, E93, BV31

Skin: E000, E00, E01, E70, E93

Hanky and Shoe: R32, R35, R37

Dress and Flag: BG11, BG23, BG57

Travel Bag: E33, E35, E57, R32, R35, BG11, BG23

Wagon: R32, R35, C2, C4, C6, C9

Tires: C2 C4, C6, C9

Seat: C4, C6, C9

Bike: BG11, BG23, BG57, C2, C4, C6, C9

Suitcases (top and bottom): W2 W4, W6 (Handle)

Middle Suitcase: E23, E25, E27

Metal Brackets: Y15, YR23

Please check out the Always Fun Challenges blog, we’d love to have you join us!! We have a new fun theme every week and anyone can play along. Just add your travel themed card by clicking here.

If you’d like to see the adorable baby shaker cards that I made last week, click here.

Thanks so much, my crafty friends for stopping by and I’ll see you all again next week!!

Misty

Here’s a couple pix from our ride on Sunday. Man was it freezing!!

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Always Fun Challenges · Cardmaking · Challenges · Handmade Greeting Cards · Simon Says Stamp · You Tube

Welcome Sweet Baby

February 18, 2018March 11, 2018 Happy Ink Designs10 Comments

Hello crafty friends!! I’m back with another super cute card featuring Simon Says Stamp Wild Cuddly Critters. The theme this week at Always Fun Challenges is Zoo Animals, so I decided to go with one of my favorite zoo animals. I also made a baby girl card with the adorable elephant in the set, which is another favorite of mine. To be honest, I love all animals so all of them are my favorite!!

If you’d like to see the Valentine’s card that I made for my hubby last week, click here.

I am so happy with the way this one turned out. As usual, I had no idea where I was going with this when I sat down to make it. I knew I wanted to try a couple different ways to watercolor. Here are the results:

I ended up using the distress image on the left, but I was pretty happy with the way the others turned out as well. I think the Zigs were my least favorite, but I would still use him. I really liked the way the Peerless watercolored one turned out too. I used Gathered Twigs, Scattered Straw and a little bit of Vintage Photo for the hooves and nostrils.

I used Simon Says Stamp ink for the sentiment in Slate and then some Sea Breeze Nuvo Drops for an added embellishment.

And here is the card I made for a baby girl. I love how this one turned out too!!

I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brushes for this cutie. I used 091 Light Gray, 095 Dark Gray and a little 028 Pale Pink for the ears and cheeks. For the polka dot background I used Distress Oxide inks in Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry and Wilted Violet.

Please join us this week and share your zoo animal themed cards by going to the Always Fun Challenges blog. We have a new theme every week that everyone is welcome to join and we always have super fun themes.

I’ll see you next week ~

Misty

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Always Fun Challenges · Cardmaking · Challenges · Handmade Greeting Cards · Simon Says Stamp

Love Our Life Together

February 11, 2018March 11, 2018 Happy Ink Designs8 Comments

Hi guys!! I’m having a hard time believing it’s already almost Valentine’s Day!! Wasn’t it just Christmas??? Well, I do love playing with hearts and anything pink so this week’s theme at Always Fun Challenges is one of my favorites. If you haven’t guessed it yet, it’s Valentine’s!!! Anyone have any romantic getaways planned for the upcoming Hump Day?? Gasp! Get your mind out of the gutter!!! Valentine’s Day is this Wednesday!! I can’t believe you went there. It wasn’t me!! Ok, maybe it was. There’s gotta be a card or two taking advantage of that pun this year. To be honest with you, I haven’t even put any thought into the “Day of Love” yet. I know, that’s terrible of me. Well, I take that back. I did at least get a card made for my hubs, thanks to this challenge. Ross actually proposed to me on Valentine’s Day 11 years ago. Wow, I can’t believe we’re going to be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary this June!! That’s insane!!

My ideal Valentine’s Day would be… I’ll refrain from saying a day of nothing but crafting and instead I’ll go with a beautiful warm day with absolutely nothing to do. My house would be clean, my projects and orders would be all caught up. Ross and I would sit in our backyard, soaking up the warm sun, holding hands, listening to our chickens chatter. The cats would be next to our chairs while Bentley would be underneath them, enjoying the shade. The backyard would be freshly manicured. We’d either head to D’Aurelio’s (our favorite Italian/pizza joint) for dinner or Ross would cook up something yummy for the kids and I. Speaking of kids, they’d be on their best behavior, of course. They’d do their chores without being asked 50 times. There would be no arguing. Then we’d finish off the evening with a delicious eclair from Harvest Market, not the Safeway kind. Ross would give me a long overdue back rub. If it didn’t put me to sleep, I’d return the favor. Then we’d fall blissfully asleep in each other’s arms. That’s it. That is my idea of a perfect Valentine’s Day

Ok, getting back to the card… I LOVED making this card. I had never used the metallic washi tape before this and I am here to tell you, it’s so very cool looking!! I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it before. It’s absolutely gorgeous!! That rose gold color is divine.

It was kinda hard to photograph but I think I captured it pretty good in this pic. Isn’t it beautiful?

To start off, I did some ink blending on bristol smooth white paper using two colors that I honestly didn’t think would blend so nicely together. I’ve been seeing this color combo on Pinterest for a bit now so I finally decided to give it a try. I’m so glad that I did!! When I think of Candied Apple, I think of a bright red. I really love how this soft blend turned out.

After ink blending, I cut the stacked hearts out twice and glued them together. I topped the hearts off with the SN clear glitter pen. Next I moved on to the sentiment. I cut the word Love out of this gorgeous metallic washi tape and cut the background out of vellum.

I used some SSS rose gold embossing powder for the rest of my sentiment and then glued the word Love in the center. Popped the whole thing up on some craft foam and we have a card, ladies and gents!!

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I do hope you will join us over at the Always Fun Challenges blog this week for some Valentine’s Day fun. As always, there’s a process video below and also on my YouTube channel and below that you’ll find all the products that I used.

If you’d like to see what I made for last week’s theme, click here.

I hope everyone has a lovely Valentine’s Day, whatever that means to you and I’ll see you guys next week!!

Misty

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Cardmaking · Challenges · Handmade Greeting Cards · You Tube

I Really Like You. Like Really

February 4, 2018March 11, 2018 Happy Ink Designs8 Comments

Hello fellow crafters!! Hope everyone is refreshed and ready to take on a brand new week. I know I am. I took a couple of weeks off to prepare for my notary exam and I just took the test last week so I’m back to share a new card with you! If you’d like to see the adorable “Down On the Farm” card I made for the last challenge I did, click here.

The theme this week at Always Fun Challenges is Anything Goes. I’m not really sure what category this card would fall under. It’s not necessarily a Valentine’s Day card because it doesn’t say anything about Valentine’s. It’s not really a love card… Would it be a “like” card?? I don’t know. It’s a happy card though. I was super excited to use SSS’s January card kit so that’s exactly what I did!! This is definitely one of my favorite card kits. It had some really great elements to it. I LOVE the stamp set. As I said in my video, I love that there’s a couple of images that you can use for a sentiment or you could use to make a background. I chose to make a background with the ‘xoxo’ stamp.

I started out with some Tim Holtz watercolor paper and die cut my heart. Then after heat embossing my sentiment, I used a couple distress oxide inks to do some ink blending. When I was done with the heart, I quickly cut out another heart from vellum in the next heart size up. I moved on to the background which was super easy. I just picked out a nice gray ink and stamped the ‘xoxo’ image over and over.

I also used the gorgeous Distress Glitter Dust (also in the kit) to make a strip of glitter for the front of my card. Cut out a few little hearts, some SN clear glitter pen and a little glossy accents and we have a card!!