The Stamping Actuary

All this month Stampers Delights is celebrating Mer-May!  You can find all the fabulous Stampers Delights mermaid images here.  This card uses the Chibi – Marina Mermaid digital stamp.

Isn’t she so fabulous?  And I think all mermaids need a fishy friend.  She was so fun to color with my Copic markers.

I had a foiled background in my drawer that was covered with reddish pink fish.  I could have sponged blue water, but I decided to go with a completely unconventional pink ocean.  And since I had a pink ocean, that freed me up to do a blue mermaid and fish.  It’s so fun to play with magical creatures and imagine extraordinary worlds for them.  

Don’t you love the sparkle of the Wink of Stella on her tail?  I also added Stickles to her top and Nuvo Crystal Glaze to make her eyes really shine.  I hope you have a mermazing day.

Are you a member of the Stampers Delights Facebook Fan Group?  Have you seen the Progressive Challenge too?  Join each month to receive the monthly image for free!  Click below for details:

Linking to the following challenges:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Always Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Layer It Up

Simon Says Monday Challenge – Add Texture

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Today Angie has challenged us to use pets in the Free For All Challenge. And Janelle has challenged us to make MOMumental cards in the MIX Challenge. Searching my stamp catalog for “Mother’s Day” and “dog” resulted in the perfect stamp for my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day. She was just helping me fold laundry last night while we watched Jeopardy. This fun image needed a funny sentiment, so I went with the classic “No matter what life throws at you…at least you don’t have ugly children.” Her two boys are very handsome.

As always I’m sharing the sentiment here if you’d like to use it.  Just right click on the images below and save it to your computer.  If you use it, I’d love to see it, so please tag me @cardsbyjennifrann and #thestampingactuary.

To qualify for the MIX challenge, I went digging through my background drawer. It was a tough decision, but I thought this marbly background went well with laundry.  I’m always glad I have my phone handy when I’m trying to choose backgrounds.  I took pictures of so many options before I chose the one I did.

What do you think?  Did I make the right choice?  You know I always make two cards, but I only needed one Mother’s Day card.  For my other card I went with this gelli print that I thought had a bubbly/wallpaper look.

I love an excuse to use my favorite Riley and Company sentiment:

Good times in the craft room this morning.

Linking to the following challenges:

Anything Goes

Feminine

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

All this month Stampers Delights is celebrating Mer-May!  You can find all the fabulous Stampers Delights mermaid images here.  This card uses the Chibi – Mermaid Delphin digital stamp.

I just love her and her fishy friend–and the punny sentiment!  For a proper underwater scene, I printed her on blue cardstock.  Every so often I enjoy the adventure of coloring on paper that isn’t white.

I ended up with pretty much a one layer card, but I kept layering one more colors and media.  The second layer made all the difference–stenciled water.  My go to ink for stenciling is usually Distress Oxides, but I knew that ink would cover the cute sentiment too much, so I opted for Bahama Blue Memento Ink.

Now it’s definitely a fun underwater scene isn’t it?  But still needs just a bit more–some metallic marker and white gel pen highlights and details.

To finish my card, I die cut and glued to a nice clean white card base and finished off with some sequins where bubbles might be.

Are you a member of the Stampers Delights Facebook Fan Group?  Have you seen the Progressive Challenge too?  Join each month to receive the monthly image for free!  Click below for details:

Linking to the following challenges:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Always Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Next Wednesday is Administrative Professionals Day and I needed two cards for it.  I decided to use both today’s Sketch Challenge and today’s Watercolor Wednesday Challenge to make my cards.  When I saw the sketch, I started thinking of what I could scatter across my card.

And since I needed an Admin Day card, I started thinking of office supplies. I thought paper clips would be fun and thought maybe I could scatter paper clips across the gelli plate and pull a print. So you can see the paper clips scattered across the colorful layer of gel print. But I thought it needed more than that one layer, so I spread on some black paint and threw down six circles to mask so the paper clips would show through in the circles.  As usual when I take out the gelli plate, I got carried away with experiments and multiple prints.  While I waited for my gel prints to dry, I started on my watercolor.  So much art on so little desk.

Look at that gel print with all the dots.  I can’t wait to use that one!  For the WCW challenge, I enjoyed loosely watercoloring, splattering, sprinkling salt and watching it dry.

My favorite part was of course the big reveal of peeling off the tape.  I chose a silhouette stamp instead of doodling and went with “It’s your day” for the sentiment.  It says “Happy Admin Day” on the inside.

I finished off my Sketch Challenge card by stamping some invoices from a PTI stamp set. I kept the paper clip theme by adding a pretty gold paper clip to secure my “Thanks for keeping us together” sentiment onto the gel print. The sentiment is computer generated using “Tired Panda” font and as always I’m sharing it here if you’d like to use it.  Just right click on the image below and save it to your computer.  If you use it, I’d love to see it, so please tag me @cardsbyjennifrann and #thestampingactuary.

Linking to the following challenge:

Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!