EDM 6 - beloved toy

I have a number of favorite toys still cluttering my life, but this was the nearest at hand for this challenge.  this is Scorch, a Beanie Baby dragon my Girl Scout troop gave to me.

He would be more impressive if his wings didn't sag.  They sag in real life, so that's how I drew them.  They are also iridescent wings, and the fur is a tie-dye pattern, but I wasn't able to draw all that.

Mitten for swapping

AMuse Studio makes a terrific die in the shape of a mitten that is 4 by 5.5 inches, and deep enough that you can cut a shaped folded card with it.  My AMuse  hostess club decided to do a mitten swap, and this is what I made.

 It is tricky to make something that looks like you put some effort into it  without making something so elaborate that it defies good taste or looks like you are showing off.  The green cardstock already had a nice linen texture, so I didn't mess with that.  The white cuff is flocked (white flocking is also an AMuse Studio product).  My highlight is my poinsettia, using punched flower-making skills I demoed earlier this year at a shoebox swap.  The end result is a mitten that is distinctly me, but not overdone (I think).

About the flocking - flocking works best with a dry adhesive.  I was stumped on what to use, when I remembered that I had accidentally ruined a full sheet of mailing labels this morning (I only needed to print one, but it printed the whole page).  I found that I could adhere the flocking to the sticky side of the labels, then cut the labels to fit the cuff of the mitten.

Challenges:
Creative Craft Challenges - minimalistic
Hooked on Craft - diecut
Karen's Doodles - anything but a card
My Partner in Crafting Crime - recycle (mailing labels)
Totally Gorjuss - Christmas Traditions

EDM 5 - Bed

It is easier to sit and draw a bed than it is to make a bed.  However, the bed would have been easier to draw if I had made it first.

Again, my perspective is not so good.  The problem is that I focus on one part of the picture at a time, rather than sketch in the whole thing at once, and then filling in details.
At least that is what I think the problem is.

EDM 4 - Mug

I drew this while waiting for a girlfriend at Panera. That is supposed to be my receipt and pen in the foreground, but it is hard to draw with a pen that you are drawing, all at the same time.

Santa's Flight 6

It is easy for a card to get boxy - endless series of rectangles stacked on top of each other.  One of the great things about this stamp is that it adds the look of a curve even when there isn't one anywhere else.
The designer paper is a leftover from a TAC workshop - it was already cut to size!  The image is colored with  pencils and highlighted with glitter pen.  Distressing also breaks up the boxiness, as does the circle paper clip and ribbon.

Challenges:
Forever Friends - Christmas is coming
Catered Crop - colors, theme, inks
Pile it on - traditional Christmas
Drunken Stampers - up in the air
Hiding in my scrap room - super scraps

EDM 3 - purse

The hard part of drawing my purse was to figure out how to set my purse so the handles weren't weird.  I ended up hanging it on a chair.

I obviously have problems with perspective.

Santa's Flight 5

It was time for me to color this stamp with copics, but since the figures are so tiny, it didn't really matter.

The large gold background piece is really just a scrap sheet of newspaper that was used when my daughter was spray-painting something.  It had a naturally distressed/grungy look to it that spoke to me.  However, it wouldn't glue down nicely - it wanted to warp, and the edges kept curling up.  I sewed it in place out of necessity, but I love how it looks and how it adds texture to an otherwise flat card.

The pattern paper was a scrap left over from a different project, and the kraft card base was from a stack of kraft bases my buddy Diane gave me.   Finally, I stamped the sentiment where I did to disguise the smeared ink. It is really very grungy in every way, but I like it!

Challenges:

Crafting for all Seasons - texture

Anything Goes Challenge - stitches

Tip Top Tuesday - Christmas

Cards for Men - masculine Christmas

Craft Your Passion - brown

Santa's sleigh 4

I keep calling this stamp "Santa's Sleigh", but it really called Santa's Flight.  Today I wanted to use some kraft cardstock, and also try layering the image, instead of stamping it directly on the card base.  I colored the image with the Pencilled Twinks technique, and used some little punched stars for embellishment.  The stars are great for covering mistakes and smudges!

  The twinks and the metallic paper that I used for the stars add a lot of shimmer that you can't see here.  The sentiment is from CTMH, and is glittered.

Challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge - cold and frosty
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - sparkle
Creations by Gill M - transport
Fun with Shapes and more - Animal Christmas
Stempelsonne - Santa Claus

Santa's sleigh 3

I'm determined to get my money's worth out of this stamp!  This time I thought I would try a portrait orientation - yes, it fits.  I heat embossed black on the blue background, then used metallic pencils to add some color.  The paper was chosen to echo the harvest colors of the pencils, and it was looking pretty dark, so I whipped out another diecut foam snowflake, put a white offset behind the punched edge, and perked up the coloring with a white gel pen.

Challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks - diecut
CCEE Stampers - 4 different embellishments
Crimbo Crackers - anything goes (Christmas)
Paper Play - Button
Stamp with Fun - Button

Santa's sleigh 2

Santa flies at night, right?  I knew I needed to try and work in a dark background for this stamp, so I embossed it in white on a dark blue, then I embossed the sentiment in dark blue on white for the bottom part of the card.  it just was too flat-looking, so I used a little distress ink to develops some texture, and finally built up an embellishment combining ribbon, a button, and a foam snowflake.

Challenges:
More Than Favors - Button
The Paper Shelter - Christmas fun
Whimsy Inspiration - Monochromatic
PaperMinutes - Blue and white
Stamp-n-Doodle - embossing

Santa's sleigh

I bought a stamp last month that I thought was the perfect Santa's Sleigh stamp - it is sold by A*Muse.  I thought it was time for this stamp to see some ink, especially if I want to have anything to mail out this year.

The ivory background is the card base.  The ribbon is some leftover from previous year's giftwrapping.  There is a tiny touch of glitter added with glitter pens.


Challenges:
Creative Craft Challenges - Fancy edges
Ribbon Carousel - anything goes
Catered Crop - colors, theme, ink
Christmas Inspirations - Bow
One Stitch at a Time - Christmas