Embossing and pretty paper!

When I started stamping....oh...close to 10 years ago now...I was determined to have a minimal supply of 'tools'. I liked to paint and color so I was DETERMINED to own ONLY a good supply of pencil crayons, tombow markers, a good paint brush, ONE black ink pad, and clear embossing powder.


WELL! 10 years later and DRAWERS full of ink pads, countless embossing powders, overflowing glitter, crimpers, melting pots, punches, dies, a variety of die cutting tools, dozens of paint brushes, embellishments toooooo numerous to mention, prima flowers, brads and eyelets in all shapes and sizes, COPICS!, and let's not forget the storage alternatives! i've been thru them all!

Then of course there was paper! 10 years ago patterned paper or 'DP' was primarily used for scrapbooking. The paper I used on my cards was 'special'...and sometimes expensive! I have a folder dedicated to what I call 'specialty paper'. It isn't your run of the mill basic grey, or cosmo cricket. These are textured, or metallic, some are hand made, oh and then there are the Japanese papers! I regularily 'purge' my papers, but not this batch..it is special.

So for this card I thought I would go back to my 'roots' and create something with those lush papers and use some of those embossing powders. I started by stamping this Penny Black Queen Anne's Lace in Versamagic Sage Ink. After it was dry I stamped it again with versamark, off setting it a bit. (use a stamp positioner for this....another tool in my arsenal!) Then I started applying the embossing powders, picking them up with a tiny straw cut on an angle and strategically applying them to the versamark image. First with dark green, then some japanese laquer (which is a mix of deep red and black), then some VERY OLD PSX terra cotta and ochre tapestry. (PSX is soooo old they aren't even in business anymore...but their embossing powders were my absolute FAVE's). Once my powders were applied to the image I held it up and tapped it underneath to make the powders 'dance around'. This is a technique I learned when taking a class with the UBER talented Fred B Mullet. You won't use a lot of embossing powder this way so just trash whatever doesn't stick. Or, if you are Fred, save it in a mixed barrel!

Finally, for something we did not do in Fred's class. I went over the entire thing with inks applied to a sponge. YES, I started this project on a piece of white paper! Dab that sponge dauber (available at Pickle, or Stamping Bella) into chalk or pigment ink starting with a lighter color and apply it all over your image. Then keep adding to it darkening your colors on the outer edges as you go. NOTE....dye inks WILL NOT WORK HERE CAUSE THEY DON'T BLEND AS WELL!

Once you have finished adding your inks buff the entire thing with a soft cloth. This will remove any ink from the embossing and you will be left with a TOTAL WORK OF ART that will leave the recipient thinking....HOW'D SHE DO THAT???? Well, now you know! Seriously, my hand coloured cards get a lot of love, but these are always the ones that leave them guessing!

FYI....I have NO idea where the brad on this card came from! I just pulled it from my vast supply of various embellisments that I love and will never trash!

:) Linda!

Happy Birthday Fella's

OMG...today my baby boys turn 21 years old and for as long as I can remember we called them fella's...as in "fella's, dinner is ready", or "fella's it's time to go"...it has always been "fellas" since the day they were born. I often wonder what our 'calling' would have been if we had girls, or a boy and a girl...but "fellas" has stuck till this day. I can't believe where the years have gone....does this mean I'm officially old? I'm not mentally ready to be old yet but some days my body tells me otherwise.

So in typical twin fashion, I have two cards to show you today and I'll start with Derek. This is a Mo Manning image that I purchased digitally. Mo is my definite go to gal when I need something for a guy and this fella's name is Paul typing, but in all honesty, it looks EXACTLY like Derek, right down to the bright blue laptop. We took a drive to Hamilton on Saturday and took Derek out to the Keg for dinner, which he was most appreciative of since he has been living on a student diet since September.

So here's to you Derek, happy 21st!

Next up is Alex, actually he was known as Baby A and made it to the finish line a whole 6 minutes ahead of Derek. In their early days, Alex was quite proud of the fact that he was 'first born'...but in my mind, they are totally equal. Alex enjoys the 'good life' and I think he takes after his mother a bit there! I asked him if he wanted to go to Hamilton for dinner on Saturday and he 'kinda' had plans! I can only imagine what those plans were so in my most  motherly fashion I gently reminded him of the dangers of binge drinking and then made hime a card that I hope will be a lasting reminder...here goes... this is the front of the card which is an Art Impressions image which was intended to be a root beer float! Well, I strategically omitted the straws and turned it into a mug of beer! Pretty clever eh!

I added some liquid applique for the 'foam' and over heated it to give it the caramel tinge and some deep drips of glossy accents gavr some dimension to the mug.

My cleverness did not end there however! The inside of my card was made with some quickutz dies as a gentle reinforcement to keep the drinking under control. Do I seem like a freak? Well maybe, but as much as I trust my boys to be responsible, it never hurts to gently remind them from time to time... and if they get a chuckle out of my reminder, I've scored twice! Reminder, AND a chuclke!

Happy Birtthday guys!...We love you.

Mom.

Done, Done AND DONE!

I've been on a bit of a card making marathon since yesterday morning working on getting my Mom's Christmas cards made. It takes me usually a couple days but I must say it is a labour of love and one of my fav annual events.

This year I chose a Hero Arts cling mount stamp called Hanging Christmas Ornaments. It was totally inspired by a card that Bernice gave me when she took my last copic class at Pickle. Hers was done in more traditional holiday colours but I knew that mom would love greens, gold and bronze and of course lots of glitter.



I started with a hot press watercolor paper  because it is smooth and embossed my image in gold. Then I coloured the ornaments with tombow markers and softened it off with wet paintbrush. Pretty quick to do and it actually took me less time than I had originally thought. Then I added lots of superfine Glitter Ritz glitter and ranger glossy accents on the smaller ornaments. I kept everything else real simple because I had almost 30 of these to make so time was critical and I didn't want to distract from the image. I'm undecided on the bow. I only have it on this one and not sure if I'm gonna put it on the rest of them. I actually think I like it without the ribbon better.

That's it for today! My hand is a little cramped from glueing for the last couple hours and I think I need to go take a long hot shower. Then I'll be ready to work on my challenge card for Friday.

Have a great day!

Little drummer boy

My friend Pauline, a key enabler in my life, told me about these new Whiff of Joy stamps she just ordered. Of course I had to check it out and fell head over heels in love with this little piece of rubber called Wee and Drum....isn't she cute!



I coloured her with copics, but used my white prisma color pencil for some highlights. I used the pencils again for the shading below her feet and the yellow glow around her. Finally, because I coloured this on white paper I used a sponge dauber and ink around the edge of the paper to tone down that bright white. Again, a simple mount, a little bit of machine stitching and another card done! I think I have about 10 more to make! Yikes! don't get too excited though, I think I be duplicating a lot of them from some of my quicker-to-color designs.

Don't go too far, because remember, I have a super cute card for tomorrow's Bellarific Challenge! See ya then!

Happy Anniversary!

So happy it's Saturday! I did NOT get to bed as early as I would have liked last night, but I did get an early start on the day and this is what I did this morning! We have a 25th Anniversary party to attend tonight and in my last minute fashion, I made the card this morning! Not a ton of coloring on here but it sure seemed like it took me a long time to do it. The stamp is by American Art Stamp and I picked it up a while ago at Pickle. They have a good selection of them and I think they are seriously FUN!



I stamped it with Memento Ink on my fav Bella Paper and added shading with pencils and gamsol. The edges were sponged with Ranger Distress ink in Antique Linen and Brushed corduroy. The punch is Martha Stewart. I had to bling it up so i added black glitter to her dress, black gell pen to her hat and his glasses and clear gell pen on the drinks!

I'll be back tomorrow with another Bella!

Sarah Kay

Today I'm showing you Sarah Kay Picnics of Daisies by Stampavie. I picked up a few of these at Pickle last week and they are soooooooooooo cute! This one I coloured the main image with my copics, then added the shading and grass with my pencils. I think I've said before that I not really a fan of blues, but match it with red and it becomes acceptable. With her wide flared denim jeans and red halter, there was really no other colour choice!



To balance the image I shortened the width of the front panel and cut the edge with my Martha Stewart punch. I used the extra piece of blue and mounted it on the inside of my card and trimmed it with a strip of red. I do this from time to time, but not as often as I should because I really like the way it looks in the end.


On a side note, if you live in the Chatham area and are need of a unique gift you should make a trip to Bride & Joy. Sadly, the girls have decided to close the store at the end of the month and will be having a progressive sale on all inventory. So if you need a little gift for the new bride, or mom, or just a little something to make someone smile now is your chance to get it. I have to say I'm sad that the store is closing, and I'll miss the staff that have been keeping the wheels going at Pickle, but on the other hand, I've missed Kell and Kim and will be happy to see more of them and their wonderful creations back in Pickle again.

'Till next time!

True Love

This is another Sugar Nellie stamp that I ordered from Scotland. Now if I could define a style that reflects what I like, this is IT...she is almost Picasso like with her big round head and wide eyes. I LOVE HER!!!!!!!! Since I am giving it to the hubs for valentines day I thought the colours should also reflect a bit of myself. Nice neutral golds and browns, simple design with tactile accents and a splash of red for colour. She was stamped in Versafine black and coloured with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Gamsol. The lace is something I picked up at our local fabric store. This card actually looks fantastic sitting in on the dining room buffet! I may have to keep it there on display for a while after I give it to him.

Coming up I'll have a Stampavie Sarah Kay that I bought at pickle and an MFT that I stamped off from Pauline's stash.

Sugar Nellie has arrived

Hi everyone!

Have you seen the Sugar Nellie stamps yet? OMG, they are just the cutest things ever! They come from Scotland and I ordered myself a few. I even got Pickle on board and they will be carrying some in the store as well but they have not arrived yet. Speaking of Pickle...if you haven't been in lately you should make a trip because this week they just got in some Stampavie! I snagged myself a few and now I just gotta find the time to colour them.

Back to the card. This little guy is called Porridge and he is from the Home Grown line. Now I'm not too sure who will be the recipient of a pig card, but then I passed by my son's room and it's highly likely that this card could be his one day! Can you say Oscar Maddison! I coloured this guy up with my pencil crayons and gamsol and check out those little buttons. They are fancy pants and I picked them up last week during Pickle's anniversary sale. Finally, the paper is Memory Box, Twiggy...another perfect match!

One more bit of Pickle news, the girls are at CHA this week and will be posting updates on their blog so be sure to check that out too! I can't wait until they get back...they get so excited!

Thinking of You Hydrangeas

ETA (for Linda): The glitter on this card was done with stickles!
Hi Everyone...don't know what the weather is like where you live but it sucks here. I think we have been hit by snow about three times this week. I'm sure there are some folks who are just loving it, but me, not so much! The ONLY good thing about it is that the drift out my back door is providing a really nice spot for me to chill my wine! LOL!

Today was spent making some Thinking of You cards that a friend asked for. I thought I'd use my Kitchen Sink Hydrangea set which hasn't seen any ink yet and thought it would be quick and easy...like how much time can it take to just layer colours and stamp. Well it was a bit more time consuming than I thought! I must have spent a good part of the morning just dinking around with colour combos until I found one that appealed to me...then of course there was the assembly. Assembly is not my forte! I really just like to colour and I could be happy just passing them on to someone else to come up with a fantastic layout. But I persevered and this was the fruit of my labour.

Since it took me sooooo long to get the colour combo I think I'd better get it down in writing! For the flower I used Memento Angel Pink, SU River Rock, Adirondak Lettuce and finally Adirondak Pesto. The leaves were done with Adirondak Willow, Lettuce and SU Old Olive. The stem was hand drawn with my copic marker in YG21 and detailed with my pencils. I also used pencils on the leaves to add a bit more depth. The punch is Martha Stewart and the sentiment is Papertrey.

A couple other combo's I came up with for the flowers are as follows:

For a greener flower:
1) Adirondak willow, stamped off once
2) Adirondak willow again
3) Adirondak lettuce
4) Adirondak pesto

A nice purple combo (even tho I'm not a purple fan, I did like this one a lot):
1) SU Pale Plum stamped off once
2) SU Pale Plum again
3) SU Perfect plum
4) Adirondak espresso

Enjoy!

Season's Greetings

Hi everyone. I'm sure you think I have dropped off the planet...no...i'm still here, just deep into Christmas. After my 60 Christmas cards I had to take a little break from card making and I spent a couple days crocheting a hat. It's done, but I have to felt it and haven't gotten around to that part of it yet. And I also have to go mooch my friend Kathy's washing machine because she still has an agitating washing machine and you can't use a front loader for felting. I've never done this so we'll see what happens.

Today I needed a gift card holder so I whipped this up. I stamped this Elzie while visiting my friend Mary over in Northville back in the summer and have had her coloured up for a while, just never mounted it, so this card came together pretty quickly. I still managed to make a total mess of the table though! How does that happen?

I thought the inside was pretty cute too. Speaking of card insides, I always put liners in my cards, and when I have time I usually decorate them too. I've been seeing a lot of cards out in blog land lately that have 'beautiful' innards. They are using papers that match their card fronts and maybe a little stamping, maybe none. But they are really nice so you should be seeing me do some of that in the near future.

For those of you in Chatham, I will be working on my next class cards in the upcoming week and I have something really adorable in my head! Then back on track with Birthdays and Anniversaries. I'm so excited that this year we had the addition of a little girl to our family...NO not 'my' immediate family....i'm well past the baby making years. But my cousin and her husband had a little this year and you can't imagine how THRILLED I am to be making cards for another little girl.

However you celebrate the holiday, I hope it's wonderful!

See ya soon, Linda.

Harvest Wreath

This is a VERY old PSX stamp that I have had forever. I bought it when one of our local stamp stores was going out of business. I've always liked it but haven't used it until today. I have a friend who is home recouping from surgery and I needed a card to send her. Rather than something bright and funny, I decided to do something warm and cozy. With fall coming to Michigan and Southwestern Ontario, and a breeze in the air today, this was a perfect choice.

I stamped it on Neenah paper, coloured with copics, added a hint of blue shading with pencils and gamsol, distressed with ranger tea dye ink, mounted on papertrey brown paper that I frayed with the edge of my scissors and finally mounted on some Basic Grey and Memory Box papers. In the end I added a bright ribbon to punch it up. Although it's not a typical get well card, I hope she likes it! Get well soon Mary! You got a scrap room open house coming up!

Sometimes I sits and thinks...

Sometimes I just sits.

That's been me for the last week. More appropriately, since my back has been out AGAIN, it should say "sometimes I lay...". Sitting has been uncomfortable to say the least! On top of that, I've been on call this week and that pager has been burning it's batteries out all week! Wednesday night till almost 1am, an early wakeup call on Friday, again on Saturday which sucked up a good part of my day and yet again this morning! Not to mention the darn thing went off the moment I stepped foot in the door after work! I hate when when work interferes with my life! Thankfully Kathy gets the pager tomorrow...sorry Kath...hopefully for your sake we have resolved EVERYTHING that could possibly go wrong and you will have a quiet week!

Anyhoo, in the midst of it all, last night I figured out that I could sit on the sofa and prop my thermophore heating pad between my back and my new feather throw pillows, open up the lid on my Harvest House supper table (looks like a coffee table, but the lid opens to become a table top!...awesome for small spaces) and manage to color! So I got this guy all coloured up.

A few weeks back Shannan Tuebner emailed me with a few River City sentiments she owns and that sparked me to check out their site since I hadn't been there in a while. To my surprise, they were having a 25% off sale on all unmounted stamps so I ordered a 'few'. I've always loved River City...they were one of my first fav companies when I started stamping 5 or 6 years ago.

This is one of my new ones, and I can't recall his name, but I like him! (unfortunately, he looks a bit washed out in the pic and I didn't bother to 'correct' it) Now, they are a bit of a challenge to color and I have to really be in the mood! They never look good stamped in black on white paper! so it always takes a few tries to get the right color combo of paper and ink. This guy was done on SU natural with Versafine smokey grey ink and I used Cornish Heritage Farms Fine Houndstooth Scrapblock behind him. I have also done them using SU night of navy on a darker carmel paper. AND I think that if you use a natural paper with some flecks with these stamps, it looks better for whatever reason!

The sentiment I'm pairing him with says "Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits".

I love him. And I have a different one colored up but I'm busy with class this week, not to mention massage, chiropractor, and a must needed hair appt so I can't promise I'll have her mounted in the next couple days. Speaking of classes, Pickle asked if we would do weekly classes for the next 8 weeks! I agreed, but that means I may need to slow down on blogging for a bit. Between that, the 'day' job, callouts, and getting my own xmas cards done I may not have too much time for new stuff! Be patient though...I'm not going far and will sneak in what I can. Let's hope the back holds out!

The Greatest Thing about Stamping

This is sort of an extension of my Stampers are Fun post, but the greatest thing about stamping is the people I have met....just to name a SMALL few...Emily, Nicky, Dena, Pauline, Lynn, Paula, Dana, Mary and Janine.

If you read my blog you know that last weekend I went to Michigan to visit the UBER talented Paula and her friends. Well, if you don't know by now Paula is a DT member for MFT and Elzybells. When I was there we did some swaps and this is one of the images I got from Paula...it is an Elzybelle direct from the UK...holy COW...the UK images are HUGE!!!!!!!!!! some of them won't even fit into my spellbinders! At first that sort of saddened me, but as a girl who LOVES to color, I got over it real fast.

Colouring these GINORMOUS UK elzys reminds me of colouring when I was a kid. Do you remember colouring maps in public school...every country was a different colour and you would outline the continents in little short strokes of blue to represent water! I LOVVVEDDDD colouring those maps! i'm so NOT a geography buff, but I sure did like to color maps! That love of colouring has stuck with me forever and when i found the craft of stamping I knew this was for me! As I look at this Elzy pulling her sleigh, that blue halo reminds me of the short precise strokes I would use to color the water around the continents.

For those who are new to my blog, I am not so much into layouts, definitely not into altering things, just LOVE to color!!!! I hope you my first Elzy!

Tulips in Fall???

Yes, I know I really should keep the tulip stuff for spring...but I couldn't help myself! My mom needed some Birthday and Anniversary cards and flowers are always so appropriate! This is an Artful Stamper image that I bought in Novi. It's not a latest and greatest release, actually when I showed it to Pauline she said...WOW...that's an old one. Old or not, it's new to me, I thought it was pretty and knew my Mom would love it. I stamped it in versafine, embossed it in silver and water coloured it with my Tombow markers. Looking thru my stash of paper I came across this one that Paula brought when she was visiting in July and it couldn't have been more perfect! It reminds me of vintage wallpaper.

I've coloured up a couple more Stamping Bella holiday stamps the last couple days so hopefully I'll find some creative juices to get them made into a card in the next few days! Until I get those done, enjoy the tulips and let's hope for a nice long stretch of beautiful fall weather.

Tyler for Jacob

Man, blogger wouldn't let me upload my image yesterday so I'm here, but a day late! However, I'm not mad because I know (hope) there are people in the Blogger IT department trying really hard to fix it and running around saying "ohhhhhmmmmm".

Here is the second card I made for the nephews. This one is for Jake and since he is six years old and can read his name he thought it was pretty darn cool that the card had his name on it. Note that I used my Just Right Monogram stamper for the first time. I wanted to circle his name with 'happy birthday' but OMG...I just DID NOT have the patience to plug in and center all those little letters. If anyone has a tip for doing this in a reasonable amount of time PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to Jake, he is a natural little athlete so Tyler the Jock was all to appropriate for him. He also seemed quite amazed at the ribbon! he kind of felt it, and examined it, way too cute! I love the little nephews and wish I could see them more often!

That's it for today! Except, if you haven't seen yet, you MUST check out Paula's bella. It's her very first bella and I think there is a Bella future for her! The coloring on her card is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!

Something Pretty for Ya!

I sense that nobody liked my Creepy Clowns but that's okay. So I thought I would give you something pretty to gaze on! This card is yes, another one for my mother to give to my brother and his wife for their anniversary. Personally, I don't send anniversary cards unless it is a milestone anniversary. Then I usually forget (heck, I have trouble remembering my own), and the date passes and I wait till the next milestone! Now, I do try really hard to remember birthdays, but I'm not 100% perfect at that either. I blame it all on having those twins 18 years ago. I think they sucked a few million brain cells out of me! And we all know that once we have lost a brain cell, it is gone forever. So for any new moms who might be reading this, it is perfectly NORMAL to suddenly feel like you lost a piece of your brain after that baby is born. It's okay...it will recover....for a while....then that little baby will turn 18 and you'll suddenly start to lose them again when they start staying out till all hours of the night and you worry yet again!

Enough blabbering...on with the card. I stamped the Hero Arts Long Stem Blossom in Ranger Adirondak Lettuce, then added extra colour to the leaves with my copics. Coloured the flowers red, added detail with my BS copic black and added some Inkadinkado viney flowers with Memento Rhubarb and Ranger Willow. The little Hero Arts Bird was embossed in gold, then filled in with Tombow, cut out, shaped and added with a pop dot.

Enjoy!

Crafty Secrets Birthday

I'm such a BAD stamper! It was my brother in law's birthday last week and I completely missed it! LIKE TOTALLY FORGOT! (I blame it on work...it consumes my brain). Since it was only a WEEK late, i figured I'd better get something done and mailed. I knew I wanted to use the Crafty Secrets Favorite Fella's set but was under a time crunch so I did a quick surf of their gallery to get inspired. This was the card that got me inspired! I even had crafty secrets paper, albeit I used a different one than the sample, the idea gave me the groundwork I needed to pump out a quick card. (I still think it took me a couple hours though! LOL!)

I hope he likes it, even though it was late. But you can be rest assured, now that he turned the big 4-0 I was quick to remind him that the mind is the first to go!