DeeDee's Digis - Stitchy Fall

Good evening! First - help me give a big welcome to Amanda of Flutterbies and Heffalumps. Amanda has a new blog (which I found via another blog friend), so please pop over to welcome Amanda to this wonderful community of friends that we enjoy. You're in for a nice treat.

Also, check out the Cards by Friends tab, to enjoy 2 lovely card received this week. Did they ever brighten our day. I've been fighting a cold all last week, so not feeling like being on the computer much. Doing better this evening, but will probably get behind in commenting again, so will say Sorry up front! These cards were a happy spot on days that I felt miserable! So thanks to both sweet & talented ladies.

This evening the card has a DeeDee's Digi image, called Stitchy Fall. (pssst....there is a TERRIFIC sale going on at DeeDee's just now. If you want some fantastically cute images at a super price, do go check it out!). Not only are the designs cute as can be, there's pre-colored, line art - so you can choose your own colors, sentiments, and many sets include digi papers. This set had it all, but I chose to just use some of the precolored images, resized to fit what I wanted, and easy-peasy card. What is so nice about these cute sets, is you can combine images from sets, picking & choosing just what YOU want to use, how you want to use the elements.

OK..printed the pumpkin twice, cut out one, did a little shading and shaping with a stylus after fussy cutting. Bottom layer was cut with a S/B classic circle, edge sponging done while in the die. Leaf & acorn sized accordingly, with a little additional shading added with copics, fussy cut, some glossy accents added to the buttons on all the images, which makes each button look very 3D I think. Glued the fussy pumpkin over the circle punkin,... done.

- Background created with brusho-s (a brown - would you b'lieve brown can look like this?). Wet the paper, sprinkled the brusho crystals, let it spread around. The sprinkled some very scant amounts of the crystals & used a pipette filled with water to move around. This was something I'd seen done in a youtube - works great to fill in spaces where more color or pattern is desired.

The blue swirly piece at the top is another created background - forget how I did this one - but decided to use the leftover shapes - fit together to add a little pop of color behind the leaf & acorn. (snippet!). Still have some swirly pieces that will show up on other cards.

- sentiment was cut from a thin piece of chipboard that came from a package - used a ?Taylored Expression? set of dies. Wasn't sure how well this would cut since the media was thick-ish, so added the Sizzix Precision Plate to the sandwich. Did a few passes, checked. Cut ok for the most part, but helped just a tiny bit with Cutterbee scissors that have a fine point to get into tiny places. Used copic markers to try to get to the same shade of the blue snippety piece. Not exact match, but worked ok.

Easy card, and much fun to make. Ooops, forgot to say that after the background piece had dried overnight, used a Sheena Douglas Chevron EF to emboss.

My next posts will be scheduled posts. Thanks for coming by to visit, and big hugs & blessings to you.

Northwoods Fall & Pumpkins

Hi, and welcome! Today is all about Fall. And another Northwoods image, which was fun to color with copics.

- If I think about it first - as I start to color, I find that coloring the background with the BG0000 or B0000, whichever I think will look better with the colors I plan to use, makes it easier to do the background. The blues are light enough, if color gets into the motif, it's easily covered by other later coloring. So it's faster to do it before anything else is colored and not worry about getting the 'sky' ink where it doesn't belong. A white gel pen added some highlights.

- Die cut with the S/B Deckled Mega Rectangle (not certain if this S/B set is still available), matted with a matching scallop rectangle.

- created a background using a small flourish & WOW Champagne Gold heat embossed, then sponging DI Scattered Straw, Shabby Shutters and Wilted Violet over the embossing. Die cut this with a S/B D-Lites Reflection Oval (S2-145)and split the die cut to form a top and bottom embellie for the rectangle piece.

- Taylored Expression sentiment die cut the word fall from the same piece as the medallion, and that's it!

Even though these Northwoods stamps have a lot of detail to color, they are usually fun & easy to do, as the image stamps out so distinctly. Some images I have to peer at to decide "What is this...is it part of that or is it supposed to be ????". Then after coloring it, then I find it really wasn't what I first  _thought_ it was, and have to try to fix it.

Thanks for stopping by to visit today. Apologies for not getting round to visit last week, but it was a busy week for us...Additionally, we had some nice weather, and outside chores needed to get done before the nasties set in again. My 'return visits' list got behind so many days, that I knew I'd never catch up, so decided to just start again from scratch. This week _should_ be quieter, so I'll attempt to do a better job! But thank you to all who visited, and didn't get a visit back from me. I appreciate you all.

Big hugs & lots of blessings.

Christmas Card Club - PostBox

Hello, and it's time again for our Christmas Card Club to share our Challenge cards. It was our Mrs. A's turn to select the theme, and she wanted to see Postboxes (or as I would say 'Mailbox'). You probably guessed I'd have one with a cardinal on it, right? I won't disappoint - (in that regard anyhoo.)

- Heartfelt image, stamped with Memento London Fog. Colored with Copics, WoS, and then added some glossy accents in places. S/B Grand Scallop cut the shaped card. Background - Copic BG0000.

- Art Impressions birds were added (there's a bird boo-boo under the bottom guy. All finished, except his beak, and the orange Staedtler fine line pen blobbed. First time this has happened. Can't erase it, so had to cover it.) Remembered this cute birds set, and even tho it's a bit out-of-proportion to the rest of the image,  thought these lil guys would look cute. Tried to add some Polar White Flowersoft to their hats & pom-poms, and the stuff just wouldn't stick. Oh well...

- HLS Mixed Christmas Sentiments on the mailbox where the homeowner name would be. Inked only the Merry part since it just fit perfectly. Used Delicata Gold, hand trimmed & edged the sentiment & the card with this gold.

- SnS sparkling snow glitter applied on the trees for snow, using the SnS brushable glue. A useful product, very easy to spread & control exactly where it was placed, using a fine line brush. Just wash the brush when finished. The glitter looks quite nice as snow.  Now all that needs done is add the inside verse.

Do check out my fellow team members' blogs listed on the right sidebar. You'll enjoy all the inspiration.

Thanks for joining me today, and hope that your Sunday will be just relaxing & lovely. Hugs

Twelve Tags of Christmas Event at Stamping with Loll

Hello, thanks for dropping by to visit.  There's a Christmas Tag Event at Stamping with Loll and the challenge is Mixed Media on a Christmas tag.

For this event, Mixed Media is defined as stamps + ink, plus two other elements which add texture and/or dimension.

OK, I'm not great at tags, so I did some thinking, and here's what finally evolved.

PTI Basic Bookmark #3 die to cut 140# weight watercolor, because I wasn't just sure what mediums I would use in the progression of this die. First, inked a small Stampabilities Vintage Poinsettia die with versamark, heat embossed with Ranger's Queen's Gold. Used red & green Zig Clean Color Brush watercolor markers to color the flowers. 

Sponged around the flowers using DI inks - perhaps Scattered Straw and Spiced Marmalade. Just wanted a sort of goldy-glow around the flowers. Then used a small stencil (no name on it, got 3 in a pack picked up in travels), and spread some Viva Décor gold paste through the stencil. So far, so good, with the stamping, inks & EP - then 2 elements for texture: sponging and paste embossing. Sponged and embossed a purchased tiny stag with HLS Mixed Christmas Sentiments using Queen's Gold once again - (this set has large and small sizes to accommodate various projects). Decided to add tiny gold beads to the centers of the poinsettias (more texture) and tie the tag on with some neutral color twine, that has a gold thread running through it. Topped off with a small poinsettia purchased from local Hobby Lobby, 40% off their Christmas stuff. The tiny tag was on sale too but was white. There's another small area of paste embossing underneath where the tag is positioned, but when this goes on a gift, the tiny tag will be placed to cover the central poinsettia, and the stenciled embossing will show.

Why don't you grab a tag (or make one) and join in at Loll's Mixed Media Christmas Tag Event??

This is also a reminder that the Happy Little Stampers November Christmas Challenge is Tag.

Thanks for joining me today. Blessings & Hugs