Followers

8/31/2013

Thinking of you

Good morning, and thanks for joining me today. Some time ago, I ordered some images from Lilli of the Valley (LOTV) and haven't done anything with them. Came across them recently, decided I needed to change that situation. Here's the following card that resulted:


- Can't take any credit for the cute little bunny...was already colored when I started with the card (:-0).  I did make the background of the very simple cardbase. (the black is what I placed the card against to photograph it just in case you can't tell this!). I airbrushed plain white paper with various dark pink copics using a piece of lace as a mask. The lace is sort of a tulle but with patterns in it and the flower pattern showed up pretty well using the dark pinks. It's covered up by the topper though! Used Memento New Sprout on a leaf stamp over the airbrushing. Used the same color to smudge around the S/Binder diecut image, while still in the die. Ditto for the tiny sentiment. Didn't have any pink ribbon that worked with this, so just took my copic marker and colored a piece of white ribbon.

- butterflies were from an embossed piece of vellum, MS punch that has multiple sizes on it.

This was an easy card - I love those LOTV images. This has been mailed to a buddy who's had a rough patch for a while, so I hope it cheers her to know I'm thinking of her.

Ya'll have a nice day. I'm off to take a class in Iris Folding. Something I've always wanted to learn.
Hugs & enjoy whatever it is that you're doing.

8/30/2013

Friday Fun Day at Jo's Scrap Shack

Hello and welcome to another Funday Friday at Jo's Scrap Shack, where Team A's sponsor is Bugaboo Digi Stamps.  Let me give you a heads up that freebies are posted every Friday along with new releases every Tuesday. I'm new to the world of digi stamping, but so far, it's been a fun journey. I've learned something with each image I've used to date. (1)which paper my printer likes best; (2) figuring out how to resize the image to what I need, and what program will work best at doing that for me (3)digi-s are much easier to store & find on my computer.

Without further chit-chat, here's the card I created using the sketch provided for this week's Funday Friday Challenge #15.


Sketch for FFC #15


Image is Poppin Penguin - surfing.  I sized him & printed on Xpress paper, colored with copics. Added some spica pen on his board.  His shades were done with Cool grays, added just a touch of the YG000, for that surfer look. Red spica for the rim of the sunglasses. Created the sand effect by using different Earthtones, going from light to darker shades -  just using a 'dot motion'. Lastly I dotted some Clear Star gelli roll pen to get the sparkle that you see on a bright sunny beach day. Background for water & sky was just doodling some BG0000 around over the S/B circle shape.

8/29/2013

Get Well

Good Morning, as we're wending our way down to the weekend. I'm back with another card to share, and without further blah, blah - here it is:


- Penny Black transparent image from the set Enjoy Life, colored with copics on Xpress paper. Diecut with S/B Label 14, smudged with DI Victorian Velvet & Milled Lavendar.

8/28/2013

Birthday

Good Morning. Welcome to 2 new followers, Sue of Planet Susie  and Asha of Sunny Summer Crafts.  Thanks so much for taking the time to become followers. Please take a few moments and visit these 2 fun blogs, see some wonderful inspiration!

Here's a card that went together fast once I decided what I wanted to do with the die cut. And got it colored ..which really didn't take long.

 
 
- Cottage Cutz Bella Springtime Bird was cut from white paper. Decided to color the bird in tones of a pheasant picture I had seen on the internet (well, my very loose interpretation of the colors). Of course I used copics, and the bird was diecut from Xpress paper (a snippet of paper, BTW!). When I cut paper, I trim an 8.5 x 11 sheet in half, and then into further quarters, depending on what size I may need. So this piece was a left over, and the die just did fit on the paper, when I placed it just so.
 
the hardest part of this card was deciding what paper & color to back the die with. I finally settled on this dark blue glitter paper, which is very sparkly IRL.
 
- sentiment is also a snippet, which had been left in the storage bag where I keep the metal die. Love finding pieces I can use and get the card done!
 
I think I've got all the important family birthdays covered for the moment. I know who is getting this card. Now if I just remember to mail it in time!
 
Thanks for joining me today, and hope you have a Blessed Day. Hugs 
 
Now I'm off to submit this card to that wonderful place of fun & prizes: Pixie's Crafty Workshop Playground, Week 87 of Snippets Challenges. There's some funny stories to enjoy, along with some lovely cards AND a prize as well if Mr. Random Generator (otherwise known as Mr. RG) should pick your entry. (It CAN happen! Trust me, I know!)

8/27/2013

Halloween

Hello again, and thanks for listening to me vent yesterday. All the aggravation we were dealing with, is  trivial, but it was getting to me because each issue has been an ongoing thing. Thankfully the refrigerator is under warranty but that doesn't cover food loss. We wait for the repair guy to show. Each has a company laptop that he brings inside -  yet seems to not have the 'history', so long explanations ensue; then we wait for a part, then wait for the guy, etc. etc. We also have discoloration marks which seem to be multiplying on the white door, but the manufacturer is not doing anything about it. The extended warranty company informed us that only mechanical problems are covered, not a 'cosmetic one'.   On the positive side, hopefully the next 'fix' _will_ correct the freezer problem. This is one of the French Door type refrigerators, and I really liked it for the first year, until we started having some problems that should not be happening with this kind of product 18 months into ownership. We've had cheap fridges that didn't give us this much grief!

I'm also hopeful the new router will solve our Netflix issues. Had not been able to connect with Netflix consistently, then not at all. It was my decision to stay with our free trial membership as I spied lots of tv series that I watched back in the early & mid 70's, and knew I'd enjoy them. DH said he didn't think it was worth the extra $$$$ for the monthly subscription, in addition to our cable bill, plus we had to upgrade our provider stuff. Then it still didn't work properly; each time the installer came out, it was another charge, because the issues were not really 'his' fault. Hopefully this last trip has the problem has solved. Worked great last night, and I was able to get my 'Doc Martin' fix! I've become addicted to that show!

OK...here's another Halloween card.

 

8/26/2013

Halloween

Hi and welcome! We've had our tv installer here all day, working on our Netflix & router problem..got a new router. And you _know_ what the drill is - when you install new equipment..then something else doesn't work properly, and requires a lot of fiddling. My computer has not been available until after 3:30 pm. Had a refrigerator repairman here as well. Something that should have been changed on the last repair visit, 2 wks ago, was not done properly...now we're getting frost on our freezer interior doors & on the food in the freezer. (think freezer burn). That came about from a control board being changed out because food in the refrigerator area, was freezing. Lost a bunch of vegetables, milk, etc. on that deal. To say we are not happy campers, is an understatement. This refrigerator is about 18 months old, was the most expensive one we've ever purchased. Worked great for about a year. Won't buy another one of _this_ brand!

OK...enough of my whining...onto my card.


- Art Impression Mice & Sweet Set image, colored with copics, diecut with Opulent Ovals. Sponged just a bit of DI Brushed Corduroy on the outer edges. I had airbrushed the background, didn't want the brown tones on the blue airbrushing. Trimmed with copic colored pearls that started out as white.

- cardbase covered with some Bella Blvd Itsy Bitsy Spider paper, from years ago. This was in a stack that got damp in the washing machine flooding fiasco a few months back. It's a little warp-y, but thought it would look ok on this grungy card. Spider is printed on the DP but I used some spica pen over him for some glitter.

- green & white S/B deckled rectangle diecut is from the reverse side of Itsy Bitsy DP.

- snippet of orange, embossed with my fav dots EF, smudged some Brushed Corduroy over this, to tone down the bright orange. This piece only needed to have about 3/4" snipped off, had already been embossed.

- snippet of white stamped with Memory Box stamp, cut with scissors, used a heart corner punch (the top rounded bit) to dress up the corners; airbrushed some Copic E40, and YR02 so that the tag didn't look so 'white'. Added 3 pearls colored with black copic.

- tiny bats from an EK Success punch - from a very small snippet of black.

That's it! I'm off to the Crafty Snippets Playground with this snippety card, as I saw a prize winning that is very much worth vying for. Check it out!


.

8/25/2013

Rudolph Day

Happy Sunday afternoon and a lovely one it is again in our area. It's so pleasant to have cooler temperatures, especially since we're so far behind on tending our yard. Neither of us can handle the heat. (Don't forget we lived in So. Fla for over 42 yrs, but we weren't as bothered by the heat then. Also we worked in the yard early or late when it was summer, and we usually had a very nice breeze as well). DH was outside all day yesterday, edging, weed-eating, spraying some of the weeds. I was out for about 3 hours, working hard - but at the end of the task, didn't seem as though I had accomplished a lot. Had a hugh yard bag full of weeds though. I'm charged with pulling the weeds around the house flower beds, as it's too hard to spray in those areas and not spritz those 'weeds' we want to keep.

Ok, just so you know, today starts Rudolph Day over at Stamping for Pleasure. I realized we are heading into the 9th month of the year, so this is a good motivator to work on some more Christmas cards. So why not join us - submit your Christmas creation,  maybe win a cute stamp, and add one more card to your December stash?

Here's mine:

- stamp is labeled N227, Peter Penguin, JRL Design Co. and I've had it for a while. Had colored up PPenguin some months ago (UFO?) so dragged him out of the pile to finish. Then had to hunt up the stamp from the Christmas stamp drawers :-) so I could provide specs.

8/24/2013

Friday Fun Day at Jo's Scrap Shack

Good afternoon & welcome to some new followers: Sue of Olliesmam and Benzi of Benzi Stamps. Thanks to both of you for visiting, and joining as new followers.  You will be in for a real treat if you have time to take a few moments to enjoy each of these blogs - for some fantastic inspiration.

Yesterday I submitted my first ever post on a Design Team at Jo's Scrap Shack, Friday Fun Day. We had the following inspiration photo to use as guidelines, but we also have a wonderful digi sponsor for this Fun Day - Whimsy Stamps. You'll have to forgive me that yesterday I didn't use the sweet digi stamp I had from Kathryne, as I thought that was _Next Week's_ assignment. Well, I'm on a new learning curve, and I'll get it right eventually! Since I had the card using this digi almost completed, I finished it last night, and am sharing it today, and linking once again to Jo's Scrap Shack Friday Fun  Day.  Our hostess has had a health issue which necessitated postponement of yesterday's challenge. When saw this news on her post yesterday afternoon after realizing my boo-boo, I thought I'd go ahead and share this cute little digi on the card I made - using the inspiration photo below.

 
 
Now for the card:
 


-  the digi is the delightful to color Lizzie, from Whimsy Stamps. I've only done very minimal paper piecing before now, and thought this would be a good opportunity to try on this cute little stamp. I printed the image onto Copic Xpress paper, then reprinted on 2 different patterned papers. I cut out the umbrella from pale blue, then her bathing suit & beach shoes from green. I had already decided she would have blonde hair and the beach towel would be pink & turquoise. (It's only purest coincidence that our DD has blonde hair, and used to love this color combo when she was a teenager). I debated on piecing the ribbon bow on the umbrella, but decided it was too tiny for my skill level. Copics were used to color the rest of this image, along with some spica pen glitter on her lemonade & the sun glints in her hair. This was an 'easy color' doing this image, I must say. Used a dot effect for the sand under the towel, added a little clear spica pen around this area....sun sparkling on crushed sea shells,  don't you know??? On a bright sunny South Florida beach day, the glimmer would hit your eyes as you walked toward water edge. This little digi girl brought back a lot of memories for DH & I. (This one got his seal of approval, and he knew exactly why I chose the colors).

- spellbinder Scalloped circles in 2 sizes were used for the diecuts.

- textured pink Bazzill square background trimmed to size, embossed with a Darice Dots folder, then used a Spellbinder pennant die to cut the snippets trimming that square.

Think I've told you about moving a sewing machine down to the stamp area, but this was my first time to use it on a card. Put a glue dot on each pennant, placed in position, and bzzzzz...away went Little Betsy (an oldish Singer that I used to take to quilting classes. Not one of the Featherweights, which was on my bucket list to own, at the time.). Couldn't reach the footpedal as too many boxes under the table were in my way, so I just hand turned the wheel. _That_ situation is going to get remedied this weekend, cause I think I liked sewing on the card!

Adhered all the layers to a lighter blue textured square, added some trim from a sale pack of Recollection Sweet Flora 8.5 x 11 paper pack. Also found another DP that had surf board images on the reverse side, so trimmed one out to stamp the sentiment on. Thought this fit in with the beach theme.

Think this is going to be a birthday card for the DD...I colored Miss Lizzie with thoughts of my own Miss as I worked away.

Hope you will enjoy this one, and also take a look at what the other team members at Friday Fun Day have submitted. Maybe even play along; we'd love to see what inspires you from the photo above. Also check out Whimsy Stamps....you're sure to see an image you'd love to color.

In the meantime - have a beautiful day. We have delightful weather, almost feel a touch - just a touch mind - of fall in the air. I might even go out to do a little weeding after the laundry is finished. There's a breeze, and temp is in the mid 70's. And no mugginess so far! Thanks for visiting, and Hugs.

8/23/2013

Friday Fun Day at Jo's Scrap Shack

Hello Friends. Welcome to a new follower, Kathryne, of Stampart Design by Kathryne. I'm so pleased to have you as a follower.

Also a big welcome to another Friday Fun Day at Jo's Scrap Shack, Challenge #14. Today our photo inspiration is the following:
 
Our challenge was to be inspired by something we saw on/in this picture.  I saw a lot of beachy / water type images...so here's what evolved as my inspiration from the photo.

 
closeup of the Koi
 
I had a lot of fun with this card. I used Dylusions sprays to create a watery background. I had seen a video by Joggles recently where Barbara showed a way to double & triple your Dylusions colors by diluting with water. Then make another mix using drops of White Linen opaque, mixed either in a previously diluted spray, or mixed with some of the full strength spray. I tried this using Dylusions After Midnight, which is a very intense color. I had only some cheap travel-size spray bottles (purchased at a local Walmart for $1). The spray apparatus is not the best, but it worked fine. (I've ordered some bottles from Joggles). Got a note that afternoon, they had been shipped. That's fast! OK, I digress. I did like the different colors I created, so I encourage you to try this.

8/22/2013

All Occasion

Hello again, and I'm back with the 2nd card that I made with just plain ol' embossing over a simple watercolored cardbase.


This is the same type of card I shared yesterday evening, just added a couple different things on it. Did the same watercolor trick as described earlier..also got the same overflow ink on the inside, so I'm hoping when I add an insert, it will cover up the dabs. Next time I try this, I'll add a sheet of paper under the card front. Or I might just cut this off, adhere to a clean cardbase.

Once the card dried, I used Derwent Inktense pencils to add just a touch of color to the cattails and leaves on some of the grasses.

Diecut Impression Obsession small birds (DIE003-A) from a yellow snippet of w/colored paper; then colored with a couple of Warm Gray copics for a bit of shading. Guess I should add a little eye on each bird....just noticed that. As DH would say "Hmm, Blind Birds". (There's a story to that, involving a stuffed teddy I bought at a craft show. Had no eyes..just a blank face - our daughter still has the bear..probably from 25-30 yrs ago. All of us call him the Blind Bear). 
Elizabeth Craft dragonfly diecut from some paper snippets, body from a snippet of black velvet self adhering paper.

I've reached my max of 3 submissions at Pixie's Playground (sniff, sniff--boo hoo), but hey, don't let that stop you from going over with your snippets and having some fun. I've already been 3 times, but I'm going back just to take a longer look at some of the wonderful cards I saw on my quick visits to submit a snippety card.

Thanks for coming by to visit, and have a fun afternoon. Hugs.
Edit: I've had several comments about using watercolor paper on this & yesterday's card. It is _NOT_ watercolor paper, per se. It is just a very thick & quality weight paper. I've not tried using copics on it yet, but was assured I could use any kind of media on it. I don't know the brand, as the sheets were just stacked in a paper rack, and I grabbed up 10 of white & cream. It did work well for the w/c technique that I did here (which was _very_ simple!) Regular w/c paper doesn't work great with copics, as it sucks up too much ink. I'll let you know how this works out. I surely wish I'd bought more than 10 sheets of it!

8/21/2013

All Occasion

Good evening & welcome. It's been rather a busy day for us. This afternoon I had to visit an orthopedic hand specialist for a trigger thumb. I'd been having some problems for a couple of months, thought it was just arthritis. Then the knuckle joint began to make a 'clicking' sound, so thought perhaps best get it looked at. My GP told me what he thought it was, referred me to the specialist. So I got a shot of cortisone - oh boy! - which I hope works. If not, then it will be repaired surgically. I'm told this is not big deal so I'm ok with that idea. Don't think I want another shot - although it was not as bad as getting one in the hip.

I had seen a video done by Peggy of Cropstop so last night, I tried my hand at watercolor - {sigh} - once again. Had purchased some very good quality-weight paper when I was in Absolutely Everything during our July New England trip. Kate, the owner, assured me it would be good for 'everything'. Since it was nice & thick (but not so thick as 140wt water color paper), I thought I'd try brushing some watercolors across the surface of a folded card. (should have shielded the interior, cause I got ink on the interior edges. Lesson learned). Kate didn't tell me the name of this paper, but I had gotten 10 loose sheets of white & cream from the paper rack. Wish I'd gotten more now because it worked very well with the watercolor - no pilling.

 
 
I smudged DI peacock feathers, mowed lawn, and squeezed lemonade onto a craft sheet, spritzed with water. Using a damp brush, picked up the wet ink from the mat & stroked across the folded card until I liked the look of the colors. It's streaky, but I rather liked that. Let the cards air dry (I made 2, will show you another one tomorrow). The paper didn't warp, as regular paper is prone to do with watercolor.
 
Embossed the cards with Darice Grass embossing folder.
 
Diecut Memory Box Moonlight Butterfly with a chartreuse snippet, then used MB Kaleidoscope Butterfly to do an overlay from another snippet that I had made using black & gold sprays. The body was diecut from a snippet of Elizabeth Craft black velvet self-adhesive paper (snippet is from a future project. Stay tuned!)
 
I may put a sentiment on this card, but I may just leave as is, and put the sentiment inside. I liked this one. Hope you do too.
 
I have a few snippets on this card, which is all you need to be admitted to the Playground. I think I'll just zip on my magic carpet via the internet & fly across the pond to the Playground and sneak this card in the lineup. It's Week 86, and our favorite little Pixie has a sweet water theme stamp that you might win. Hop on the carpet and fly along with me. It will be fun!
 
As always, thanks for stopping to visit, come again when you can. Many cyber hugs.
 

8/20/2013

Friday Fun Day at Jo's Scrap Shack - FFC #13

Hello everyone, and thanks so much for stopping to visit. I'm sharing my first card done with a digi image from Bugaboo Digi Stamps, one of the sponsors at Jo's Scrap Shack for the Friday Funday Challenge #13, Anything Goes. Isn't this little bear the most adorable creature?


- Digi was printed on Copic Xpress paper, colored with my trusty copic markers. It was so much fun to color him too. Airbrushed the blue background after diecutting with S/Binder Label #4.

All Occasion, Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground Week 86

Hi there, and let's take a little trip over to Pixie's Snippets Playground for Week 86. This card has a lot of snippets on it, so here goes:

- main image was recycled from a card (snippet) we received some years ago. I have saved pretty cards for years, with the thought that one day I'd decoupage a trunk with them. As with so many of my 'great ideas'...this one was a no-starter. Got the cards & the little trunk up in our attic room (trunk was a salvage from our daughter's college days).  I found a good use for the cards at least!

-The image was diecut with S/binders Label 5 - primarily chosen because the image would fit into the die and not cut too much of the motif.  The paper is a bit glossy, so when I tried smudging around the edges with a DI Faded Jeans, it took a lot of effort, as the ink didn't adhere well.

8/19/2013

Birthday

Howdy all, and welcome. Welcome also to my newest follower, Anjas.  If you're even remotely intrigued by these Dylusions sprays (_and_want to see some fantastic use of Ryn's stamps), take a few minutes to follow the link for some pure art enjoyment. You won't regret it.

Here's a tag card for this afternoon ...now remember, I am not really a 'tag person'. I was trying to work with inking an acrylic block, spritzing, to get some watercolor effects. Hence the tag. I didn't accomplish what I was trying to achieve. After stamping the spritzed block on the paper and not especially liking the results, then I put the swipes of color directly on a craft mat. Spritzed the inked mat..started dragging papers through the inky spots. Then got some tags and played with those for a while. Here's one of them. I don't ever know what to use tags for, as I don't do altered art, so I made a card.



8/18/2013

Christmas

Hello & welcome. Hope your weekend has gone well. Here's another experiment to share & perhaps you've tried this process to make a card. It was a new one for me.


- Used plastic packaging material from Spellbinders die to emboss in a Darice snowman EF

8/17/2013

Thinking of you

Top O' the Morning & it's an overcast, much cooler day here in our South Carolina area. We're loving the cooler weather that we're supposed to have this weekend. Yesterday morning as we left for the eye clinic about 7:30 am, our car temp showed 63F outside. And it was pouring rain when we came outside to return home. A day for napping, which is exactly what we did, as we were up and out earlier than our normal routine.

OK...here is today's card share. Again with the Dylusions sprays. Another salvage as well.


8/15/2013

Watercolor

Hello & thanks for popping by to visit. My morning got started very late and it was delightful to just doze as long as I wished. Talk about lazy.

There's a water theme going on this week at Jo's Scrap Shack for the Friday Funday Challenge #12 and I wanted to play along. I also wanted to use the Rising Bubbles stamp on the project. I like the look of all the water color cards that I see done with different w/c media, so pulled out the Ranger Distress Markers to give it another go. Slightly wet the water color paper and laid down some blue, lavender & greeny shades as I saw on this video. Unfortunately my attempt didn't turn out so well as Darlene's did!  I made this card instead, with my trusty copics to submit to the FFC #12.

My usual practice with an effort that I feel was a total failure is to let it hang around on the desk for a few days. Decided to cut this watercolor attempt into pieces to see what possibly be salvaged.
 
 

8/14/2013

Dylusions Card

Hi everyone and welcome to 2 new followers. Ryn and Charlene.  I would invite you to visit both these fantastic blogs when you have a moment, for some serious art inspiration!

I have another of the Dylusions experiments that I finally made into a card - not sure what occasion it will be used for. This one has quite a few different techniques I was just experimenting with, and I had to look at it, think about it for several weeks. Last night, I decided to make a card with it.


8/13/2013

Friday Fun Day Challenge #12, Birthday

Hello everyone and welcome. Today's card is themed to fit in with the Friday Funday Challenge H20 over at Jo's Scrap Shack and also will be used for a birthday for my #2 brother, who will be 83 next week. He was our Dad's birthday present many long years ago, as he was born just before midnight on the day before Dad's birthday of August 21. Some birthday present, huh? Joking aside, I would say that a baby was just about the most wonderful gift a parent could ever receive. Or should be!!

So here's the card:

- image is Impression Obsession F1762, Rowboat, colored with copics on Marcos Paper, Solar Crest. This paper works well with copics, but doesn't have the same buttery 'feel' to me that Copics Xpress paper does. However, that said, lots of my friends prefer this paper when using copics, and it does handle the alcohol inks very well. I airbrushed the sky background and tried to emulate some clouds. Die cut with S/Binders Label One, Die #5, sponged DI Stormy Sky around the edges.

8/11/2013

Birthday

Welcome and Happy Sunday afternoon. I'm back with a quick share, of yet another lady image that I colored with copics last summer. I'm trying to go through some colored images and use up some of the UFO's, so I hope you won't get too bored with the same ole. I'll go on to something else with the next card - hopefully!


8/10/2013

Vintage

Happy Saturday and welcome to my effort at making a somewhat vintage card. Before sharing the card, let me say a warm welcome to Dawn -  http://www/designsbydragonfly.blogspot.com  -
  & Roberta -  http://queenbeepapercrafts.blogspot.com/  2 new followers. Thanks so much for joining as followers.

Here goes:


- Rubbernecker stamp - Alexandra - colored with copics. I did several of these images last summer while chair-bound, trying different color combos on her attire. It was a fun image to color. Some months ago, while browsing our local Hobby Lobby, I came upon a set of papers in a small package..it's called Mixed Media (101) Fashion Plate Collage Pack. Remembered these images colored in the UFOs, so thought this paper might go well with the ladies.

8/08/2013

Dylusions Card

Good morning and welcome. Here's another card that started out as something else, fizzled out, and I sprayed some Dylusions over it just to see what the colors would do. Covered up my boo-boos for one thing. Left it for a couple nights, then added a little Distress ink sponging around on the edges (most of which got trimmed off as I was framing for the card). I've got some unmounted stamps in plastic binders, so was looking for some Halloween themed ones that I know DH bought at a convention. Found this pretty butterfly - not sure what vendor made it. I recalled a beautiful Dylusions butterfly card seen here  done by Shirley - who enabled me with the Ryn water stamps and {sigh} now with the Chocolate Baroque stamps. (You'll see why I succumbed if you look here.) After placing the order, I realized I had forgotten to order the Gothic window.

Anyway, once I found the butterfly, stamped it on the sprayed piece using Ranger Archival Ink, I added the wonderful Ryn water droplets stamp. Just to see how it would look, as this was the first chance I've had to ink it. I think it is fabulous. There's a rain drops stamp that I'm drooling over, but I have to wait to get my Chocolate Baroque angel set first. (budget, don't you know!) Now if DH would just hit that big lottery...

Sorry this picture looks skewed. We were busy on errands all day, and by the time I could photograph, it was late evening, raining, so I had turned the card to get best light. Not sure why the right side of yellow mat looks white. My lousy photography probably!

8/07/2013

Thinking of You

Good Morning. I've been seeing a lot of hexagon motifs lately and recently purchased one of the Fiskars squeezeable handpunches at the new JoAnn's store that opened in our SC city.(on sale!) Also got a DCWV 12x12 pack of Butterfly Garden paper (half off). Hunted through this pack trying to find motifs that would fit nicely in the punch so that the design would be centered. (not as easily done as it would seem either). Finally punched out a bunch. I saw a tip at Stamping with Loll about giving the cutout motif more stability, so also punched out some very lightweight cardboard hexagons to glue to the paper. (the cardboard was leftovers from the magnet sheets I used in my Art Bin S/binder project). Then had to try to think of a pretty way to arrange some of these hexagons on a card.

I had been air brush experimenting recently - on an evening when I was not in the mood to make cards. Used a piece of white cardstock, different light shades of pink copics, and a piece of scrap lace as a stencil. Added some Tattered Angels gold spritz; not too impressed with the effort, so set aside. Another day I headed upstairs to the attic sewing area, dug around through a lace bin which has been collected over the years. Found another piece of lace that had a 'looser' weave, trotted back to the basement. Good exercise, going down 2 sets of stairs, 15 steps to the set! This lace worked better for what I hoped to achieve. Resprayed with the pinks, then the gold. Set aside. Later retrieved the piece to try to arrange the hexagons on it...thought if I embossed one side of the piece, separated with some score lines, placed the hexagons, it would work. So here it is:

 

8/06/2013

Penny Black and More, Outlawz Friday Copic Challenge

Good evening, and it's been a really lazy day at our house. Late this afternoon, I finally got myself together & went downstairs to finish up some cards that I worked on last night. Penny Black and More at Allsorts has a challenge going on for August with the theme of In the Garden. As I was digging through some UFO images, I found one that I thought would be perfect for this challenge, so off I set to make a card.


- PB stamp is Garden Treats (4134K), colored with copics, diecut with a S/Binder Label 2, sponged with DI Scattered Straw & Tea Dye while still in the die. Used some Glossy Accents on the hat ribbon and the shovel.

- cardbase is textured medium weight paper from a 12x12 DCWV Old World stack. It has a rather mottled look but it reminded me of sunshine.

- Prima 6x6 Zephyr Collection for the floral S/B deckled rectangle diecut, and for the MS Teardrop border punch trim

- Memory Box watercan diecut, from pearlized silver paper - then smudged with different black inks to get a weathered look. At the last minute, decided to use a MB Geneva Vine die to get a couple of posies to stick in the water can. Shaded just a tad with some red copics for the blossoms, then a green pen on the stems and hanging leaf.

- Fiskars bird wings squeezeable hand punch to get the teardrop sentiment, which was computer generated after I hunted for a Summer stamp...I have other seasons, but apparently no Summer!

I'm going to submit this to the Penny Black and More Allsorts August Challenge.

Thanks for joining me this evening, hope your day was pleasant (or lazy & relaxing - whatever you needed it to be). Come again soon. Hugs

Edit: Just found out this meets the Outlawz Friday Copic Challenge of  Hot Summer Fun. I saw lots of beach & water cards that are wonderful, but hey, some folks enjoy summer fun in their gardens. (Regretfully, I am NOT one of them! I have a SIL who says gardening is therapy. I say No, it is WORK!) Check out this challenge, perhaps join in...at least see some lovely cards.  

8/04/2013

Thinking of You, Miscellaneous

Aren't bloggers just wonderful? I've posted cards from blog buddies in the past, and here's another one from my very sweet & talented buddy, Candee . Candee & her hubby are always busy with one thing & another - they've remodeled a house, landscaped their yard just to name a couple of things. She is the queen of finding good bargains. Yet she takes time to think of me and send lovely cards. Here's the latest:




Thinking of You by Candee
 
I have been so humbled, yet so uplifted, by the well wishes from so many of you on this recent little eye deal I've had. It was a pleasure to open this card yesterday, and enjoy the beauty that Candee creates on all her cards. Isn't the image lovely? Perfect diecut for the image - and you know I'll be tracking down this EF! Thank you Candee.

Christmas

Happy Sunday. I'm trying to finish up some UFO's and the positive side to that is I'll have some Christmas cards ready. Also need to start on Fall & Halloween cards. Have gotten DH to agree to help with the Halloween efforts as that's _his_ holiday.

In the meantime, here's today's card:


8/03/2013

Birthday

Good morning, and welcome to 2 new followers. KathyK  and MagsB. Hope you'll give these delightful blogs a lookin...each has some beautiful projects to enjoy.  I believe there are more followers in the Bloglovin section as well, but I don't know how to look at that to see who it is. So welcome to ALL the new followers. I'm so pleased you liked what I post enough to follow! Thank you!

Here's the card for today (which I meant to post yesterday afternoon, but took a very long nap instead! My early mornings caught up.)

-  Northwoods stamp, colored with copics, probably last year on one of our trips. The green fronds have Spica pen highlighting on the seed pods. After assembling the card, I decided to add some Stickles just on the fronds, and IRL it shows up well.

8/02/2013

Summer

Good morning. It was another early morning for us (that's 3 in a row, and I don't _DO_ early!). Had to take our SUV back to the dealer for a fuel tank recall. They will have it all day; hopefully we'll get it back this evening. Otherwise we'll have to pick it up on Monday. I drove for the first time since the eye work. Dr. didn't say I could, but he didn't say I couldn't either. I've been seeing pretty well, I think, so thought I'd be safe on the road. I was a bit nervous though, and made sure DH stayed in front of me. No problems driving, I'm happy to report. :-)

Earlier this week, we received the cutest card from my blog friend, Candee. Thought I'd share it with you. We were delighted to open this, knowing Candee had thought of us. Sadly, I sent no summer cards. I'm keeping up with birthdays, get wells & thank yous, & didn't even think about doing any summer cards. But I surely enjoyed receiving one! So here it is:

Candee's Summer Watermelon
If you've never visited Candee's blog, I hope you'll find a few minutes to zip over. She has beautiful cards, wonderful organizing tips, good how-to instructions. She is the queen of finding the best buys of craft 'schtuff' at garage sales, Craigslist, eBay, etc.

So Candee, thanks once again for sending us this adorable watermelon card. It's probably the only watermelon I'll get this summer (and I love watermelon, but DH does not. So I seldom buy a whole melon, and the pieces/chunks that I've bought before, just don't taste the same!).

Ya'll have a good day, and I hope to get back with a post later in the day.

8/01/2013

Funday Friday Challenge at Jo's Scrap Shack

Good afternoon, and thanks for stopping in. Had my early morning post-op checkup, and the doctor said I was doing fine. The eye doesn't feel scratchy, just a tad blurry in the sight, but that's normal.

I had hunted up some UFO's, and finished one to schedule a post. Then I saw this Bling it Up Challenge over at Jo's Scrap Shack. Thought if I added some glitter dots that have been hanging around in the drawer for a while, this card might qualify.


The green paper is the negative from a Cheery Lynn flourish used quite some months ago. I nearly tossed the snippet, but then realized it looked rather nice put against the navy blue snippet that happened to be in the pile too. Glued the 2 pieces together, and put it in the scraps box. While making some cards to schedule a few posts, came across this UFO about the same time I had seen Jo's Challenge. Diecut the Memory Box Vivienne butterfly with some yellow snippet (same paper as the Robin card earlier). Diecut the matching solid M/Box Darla butterfly from a Chrysanthemum pattern paper. Had used the back of that 6x6 piece for a sentiment on another card...as it's a very subtle light blue pattern.

Added an MS border punched from the same Robin yellow paper under the green, then a second MS leaf punch from the Chrysanthemum paper, and placed the butterfly over it.

Adhered various shapes of the green glitter dots on the butterfly wings, the leaf flourish and center of the second MS border. Will add a sentiment at the top right when I'm ready to use the card.

So I hope the glitter dots will bling it up enough I can participate in the Bling It Up challenge over at Jo's Friday Funday Challenge.  Won't you join me in checking out some lovely sparkly cards? Maybe submit one of your own?

Have a great afternoon, and stay cool if you can. Hugs

Edit:  I've spent part of the afternoon playing 'catch up' on visiting at the Rudolph Day challenge  while also enjoying some beautiful cards; then over at the Playground doing the same thing, I thought I might just submit this card to the snippet playground, since it is made up pretty much of snippety things. I wasn't going to do that at first, since I was so woefully behind in visiting so many blogs. I was embarrassed to play and not pay! I'm pretty much caught up (I _think_!) and Miz Pixie is offering such a wonderful Ryn  raindrop stamp I think I'll just buzz on across the Pond. Mrs. A is probably in hiding behind the slide, waiting to spritz me with her water pistol. Well, that's ok, since they tell me it's hot over there too. Cool water will be welcomed. Com'on along & even if you don't get spritzed, you can enjoy some great cards. Even enter your own, and take a chance on scoring that lovely raindrop stamp.

Tulips

Good Morning & welcome. Here we are starting a new month. In South Carolina, August is usually one of the hottest months of the year. The air conditioning at our house has been running full bore & it will be lovely when we can open up the house once again.

This is another scheduled post, so here we go: