Precious Sketch

This is the card I made for Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch
I picked my image, a Precious Moments image from Stampendous. Then I tried Lauren's process by choosing patterned paper and taking my colors from that. The hard part for me was picking the paper! I originally didn't have the yellow striped layer in the back, and the white with pink square was actually white with green. My daughter said she preferred the pink on white to the green on white, so I went back to that. And she is also the one who suggested the yellow striped piece. I NEVER would have thought that would work!



















I put little flower buttons that I tried to color darker with my copics, and adhered them to the second patterned piece which is some of my new DCWV pattern pack. I added a bow at the top. I am slowly getting better at tying bows, but it takes me forever and I am so clumsy at it!
Overall I like this card a lot. And now it's got me into my other Precious Moments images!
Thanks for looking!

Triple Challenge

Well I told you I hope you liked the Magenta bird stamp my daughter bought me, because I'm using it again. This card combines three challenges in one; Wednesday's card sketch, Thursdays Way To Use It challenge, and Friday's Limited Supplies Challenge. I may have cheated a bit on the limited supplies challenge because I did use some stickles on my card. I paper pieced the bird, the heart on his body (which I guess is his wing), and the flowers. The paper on the flowers and heart go with the paper squares on the background, and they are all from a sample sheet of the papers at Papertrey Ink. I love that Nichole lets us print out a sample to try before you buy! If anyone in my family is reading this blog and you are wondering what to get me for my birthday, some of Papertrey Ink's cardstock and papers are at the top of my wish list!






















I used yellow brads in the center of the flowers. Not a very inventive way to use the brads I know, but it's all I could come up with at the moment. I used black as the back because it really makes the individual squares pop.
I love the brightness of this card! Thanks for looking!

Summertime

Well, it is definitely summer time here! Temperatures and humidity are high. I love this image my daughter drew, and I thought maybe I would feel cooler while coloring it. It's a very relaxing picture, and I enjoyed coloring it but I'm not sure I did it justice. I think others could do more with it than I have, but I still like it. What do you think?



The words in case you can't read them, say "Summertime and the living is easy". The font (Carpenter) is one I really like a lot, but sometimes it can be hard to read unless you print really big. It reminds me of the Wonderful Words from Stampin Up! I thought the font went well with the theme of the card though; relaxed and easy.
I colored with copics (are you rolling your eyes?) and chalked the sky using my torn paper for clouds. I added a little pink and yellow to the sky too. The main card base was speckled with a brown blow pen. Hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for looking!

Faithful Bird

The Ways To Use It Challenge at SCS yesterday was to use birds! It just so happened that I recently asked my oldest daughter Ashley who lives in Tennessee to pick up a Quickie Glue Pen for me the next time she was near a stamp store in her area. She has a wonderful stamp store there! Anyway, she did get me the glue pen, but while she was there she saw a stamp that she thought I would like and she bought it for me! (Thanks Ashley!) It's a darling Magenta stamp and it has a bird on it. I colored the image with copics and mounted it on a scalloped square that I cut with the nestabilites. I colored the scalloped portion of the square with the same color marker as the bird. I found what I think is a lovely quote and printed it out and cut that out with a nestability die also. Some background paper, a teal ribbon tied in a bow and voila! I really like this card despite the fact that you can see the place where my teal copic leaked when I was coloring the bird, and the little black spot in front of the bird where I put too much pressure on the stamp.



Would you have noticed if I didn't tell you? I have more plans for this stamp, so I hope you like it too because you will be seeing more of it in the next few days. In case you have trouble reading the quotation, it says "Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark" It was printed in Anime font.

Be sure to come back tomorrow. I have another of Chesney's drawings I colored to share! As always, thanks for looking!

Want Fries With That Shake?

LOL! How many of you have seen that new Sonic commercial? Well when I saw this image that my daughter drew that commercial flew to my mind. I love this image! I don't think I've seen one like this anywhere. I thought it would be a cute one to use if you were giving someone a gift certificate to a restaurant or something. It sure was fun to color too. Also, I added a new label to my blog that says "Chesney's images" Chesney is the daughter who is doing the drawings that I've been using. So, if you are ever just wanting to see cards with her images, you can just click on that label! Now, on to today's card.


Don't you love it?!
As usual I used copic markers and chalk for the background. I used my computer to print out the saying (girls are weird font) and then cut it out with my nestaibilites and also embossed it. Used the chalk to add a little color to it before taking it out of the die too. Originally I had planned to have the uniform white and apron red, but when I went to add a little gray to shade the white it was too much, so it became a gray uniform! LOL! I'm also not sure about the bow. What do you think?

Watercolor Technique Challenge

Monday's Try A New Technique challenge on Splitcoast Stampers was to watercolor using re-inkers. I haven't done this in a while, and it was fun getting out my inks and aqua brush. I chose a stained glass iris image by Rubber Stampede that's always been one of my favorites. I stamped in black and embossed with clear embossing powder. I find watercoloring to be so much easier if I've embossed the image because the embossing holds the color in.



I computer generated the wording (Scriptina font) and embossed two lines going across the card to sort of frame them. I did this on my score-it board. I added some dew drops under the embossed lines and used a blo pen to add some speckles to the card. The iris image is matted with two colors of cardstock and then popped up on dimensionals. The colors I used on this were Stampin Up! colors in Glorious Green, Green Galore, Lavender Lace, bliss Blue, Yoyo Yellow, Cameo Coral, Almost Amethyst, and Pretty In Pink.
Be sure you come to my blog tomorrow because I have a really cute card to show you using one of my daughter's drawings that I just love!
Thanks for looking!

Whoo Loves Ya!

Hi there! Recently while blog surfing I ran across this card by Frances Byrne and just thought it was the cutest thing. I realized I had that very same owl stamp, so I set out to CASE her card and this is what I came up with. I popped up the layer with the holes for some added depth. The words were printed on my computer (Backhand Brush font). I colored the cute little owl with copics. The ribbon is some that was wrapped around a candle jar that I saved from the trash.


Didn't it turn out cute? And really fast to do!
Thanks for looking!

Baby Giraffe

I hope all of you had a happy weekend! I did! I spent the better part of it indoors out of the heat stamping and coloring! My daughter drew yet more images and this one just looked like a darling baby card. So, even though I don't know anyone who is expecting a baby I made a baby card! I think it's so cute! Now I'll be ready when someone is having a baby girl!


I colored with copics, lightly chalked pink around the upper background of the giraffe, and cut it out with my coluzzle. I printed the words on my computer (Kayleigh font) and mounted them both on top of a piece of yellow that was embossed with my swiss dots folder. I added a little pink and white gingham bow and mounted it all on a pink card! Really simple, but really sweet!
One other thing about this card; I showed it to my daughter and she informed me that what I thought were eyes were cheeks! His eyes are closed! LOL! I thought he had a wrinkle in his forehead, eyebrows, and then eyes! It's still cute, and I'm not changing it!
Thanks for looking!

I just had to show you what I got this weekend! Yesterday I went to a friend's house, and I went to get a cup for some coffee. I reached in and grabbed this cup and said I had to have it. It didn't belong to her, but to the woman she rents a room from so I had to ask her about it. She said I could have it! I so love this cup! Isn't it just the cutest thing? Now, I'll always be reminded of my puppy dog while having my coffee! :)

Birthday Kitty

I'm sure having fun with images my daughter has been drawing. It's really nice hearing all the compliments on them too; I know she enjoys it. One thing she really loves is cats, and here's one she drew that I thought would make a cute kids birthday card; well really anyone who likes cats would like this card for their birthday!



I colored this one with watercolor pencils and then ran my aqua brush over it. The wall is chalked and the floor was done with a copic marker. Notice the little rhinestone on the collar? Isn't that just too cute?! (You may have to click on it to see it, but that works now!)
I printed the words out on my computer (fgJayne font) and cut it out and the scalloped white piece with my new rectangle megabilities. I jut love finding things to cut out with those dies!
Thanks again for taking time out of your day to visit my blog!

tagged again

I was just tagged by Sarah
The "rules" of the game: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

Here it goes:

Ten years ago: We had just moved into the house we presently live in. My oldest daughter was getting ready to go to college.

Five things in today’s 'to do list':
1. Grocery shop for the week.
2. Finish stamping a car for Lauren Meador’s Saturday Sketch.
3. Take our dog for a walk in the park.
4. Water my flower beds.
5. Take off my fingernail polish and re-do my nails.

Snacks I enjoy:
1. Oatmeal cookies.
2. Peanut butter Cap’n Crunch dry from the box.
3. Chips and salsa.
4. Ice cream.

Things I would do if I was a millionaire:
1. Pay off the remainder of the mortgage.
2. Hire someone to paint my craft room instead of doing it myself.
3. Hire a professional landscaper to do our yard
4. Invest more.
5. Make a large donation to American Cancer Society.

Places I have lived:
1. Houston, TX
2. Chicago, IL
3. Independence, MO

Now, here are the five people I have tagged.
Tracy Leggett

Lisa Silver

Wanda Hentges

Debbie Bankston

Anna

Top Dog

I always love to try to do Lauren Meador's Saturday Sketch and this card is for her sketch today. This stamp is a rubber stamp made from a photo of my dog, and it looks just like her! She was one of the winners in a pet star search Rubber Hedgehog had and I received this stamp made from her photo as a prize! If you've never been to their site, I highly recommend you do so. They have lots of realistic animal stamps, and their artist is unbelievable.
Anyway, for my card I stamped the image in black and embossed with clear embossing powder. I colored her with copics and then cut her out with a rectangle nestability. I left it in the die and rubbed some chalk around it. Then I cut out a scalloped die and mounted the image on that. The paw prints were stamped in black on a buff colored vellum and embossed with clear embossing powder. The paper with the "woof woof" on it is some scrapbook paper I had. I stamped and embossed the dog bones on some tan cardstock and cut them out and mounted them with some dimensionals and mounted the dog image and the words with dimensionals as well.



The dog bones are from All Night Media and the paw prints are from Stamp Craft. Here's the picture the stamp was made from so you can see how great the artist is.

Thanks for stopping!

Mama Said

If you read the seven random things I told about myself when I was tagged the other day, then you know that I love puns. My kids know this about me, and I just cracked up when my daughter came up with this one. She also drew me a picture to go with it, and I've made a card using her drawing and her pun idea!




Isn't that hilarious!? I colored him with colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The clouds are chalked, and the rain drops are outlined with a glittery blue gel pen. I also pulled out some handmade paper I've had in my drawer for years but haven't used. I thought the colors in the paper were perfect, and the texture of it went with the tropical rain forest look which is where I'm guessing marmosets live! LOL!
Thanks for looking today, and have a great weekend.

Links working!

Thanks to the comment left by
Sarah I now have clickable photos! Go check 'em out! Thanks Sarah!

Sweet Dreams

This cute elf girl was drawn by my daughter and I just had to color her up and add some bling! Isn't the little rhinestone on her cheek cute? :) For some reason the photos on my blog appear to be clickable but don't do anything when they are clicked on. They are supposed to take you to a larger photo, and I'm working on finding someone who can help me with this. Anyway, you probably can't see how cute the rhinestone is without the close up! :( The background paper is painted with some shimmery radiant pearls that I've had forever and then I embossed it with a texture sheet from Ellison. There's a little yellow stickles in the center of the flower behind her ear (notice that little pointy ear - sweet!) I printed the wording on my computer and then cut it out with my oval nestabilites and embossed it. While it was still in the die, I rubbed some chalks on it. Then I added a wedding flower from Michael's (thanks for that tip Lauren!) that I also chalked and added a little pearl drop in the center. The oval is popped up with dimensionals. The white flower on the card is from Papertrey Ink's Text Boxed set.




Isn't she cute?! Thanks for looking!

Winner!

Well, it was great to see all the comments! I asked my husband to pick a number off the top of his head, and he said 7, which makes Wanda H. our winner! Wanda, I hope you enjoy the card. I'm leaving it blank on the inside so you can send it to someone if you wish.
Thanks everyone, and there will be a new card to give away on July 2nd!

A card of errors

I will be back this afternoon with a winner of yesterday's card, so you have until noon to leave a comment on yesterday's "Whee!" post to be elegible!

First, I have today's card. I wanted to make a thank you card and had this one in mind, but nothing went right! First off when I added flocking to the bear, it made the eyes not show up very well so I drew more eyes, a nose, and added a mouth with a black pen. Then when I went to add the wording, the printer roller smudged the lines I drew AND the paper went in crooked so my saying was at an angle rather than straight like I had in mind. I really didn't want to re-do the whole thing, and the angle didn't look so bad so I decided I could live with the smudged eyes and I added more bees above the saying to make it look more balanced. Then when I went to punch holes for the brads, I used the wrong punch on my first corner and had to glue the brad on and I got a little glue on the corner of the card. Then I smeared the stickles on the bees wings when I was putting the dimensionals on the back! Oh well, even with all of that I think the card turned out pretty cute! The bear image is from Penny Black and the little bees are from Embossing Arts.

Whee!

This was a fun card! It reminds me of me and two of my good friends. I won't tell you which one I am! LOL! The image is from Diamonds Rubber Stamps. I colored with copics and chalked the background. Getting tired of hearing that? I used a piece of torn paper to make cloud like shapes in the sky. The wording is printed from a computer. I thought it would be a funny card for someone who just turned 50. The top of the roller coaster could be the hill they just went over! LOL!

Right after I finished making it I had an idea, and I debated doing it but I tried it, and it made me laugh so I did it. Here's the revised version:

Come on, that's funny! LOL!
Well I mentioned something special I had planned for today and I decided every other Wednesday I will pick a number from the comments left and send that person that day's card! Doesn't that sound like fun? Now, go leave me a comment!

The Motherlode

I don't know how many of you know this, but when holidays are over and Hallmark, American Greetings, and other greeting card companies send people in to clear out the cards, they throw the envelopes away!

I've had people tell me this before and I've always looked for someone in the card aisle doing just this so I could ask. About two months ago I saw a lady at Walgreens and asked her. She told me she had already thrown the envelopes away that day. I gave her my name and phone number and asked her to please call me next time. Well, the other day my phone rang and she had three boxes full of envelopes for me to come pick up! This was so much fun! I have envelopes of all sizes and colors. Some are decorated, some are plain, but they were all free! It's been fun going to pick out different envelopes to match with cards. Plus, it's a great way to re-cycle!

So, how many of you noticed my new photo? That is courtesy of my daughter. She came over last night and we had a mini glamour shots session! I hate having my picture taken, so you'll probably get used to seeing this picture because it will be there for a long time! LOL! Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to come back tomorrow because I have something special planned! :P

In The Jungle

This isn't a normal card for me. I usually do quirky, funny, cute stuff; although this monkey is pretty cute! There's someone I know who is going through a rough time right now and I wanted to cheer her up a bit, so I made this card. The inside reads "Hang In There".

Image is from Diamonds Rubber Stamps. I have a hard time using decorative papers on my cards, and this one I'm still not sure about. It looks "jungle like" to me, but it's more giraffe like than monkey like. What do you think? I colored with copic markers and chalked the background. I have a birthday coming up next month and I plan on asking for one of the copic air gun things so I can try that instead of always using chalks! Thanks for looking!

I Was Tagged!

Man, it sure didn't take long for someone to tag me! I was tagged by Sue at http://www.stampndaly.com/. Here are the rules:

And here are seven things I came up with on the spur of the moment:


1. I am the fifth daughter of six daughters
2. I have never tried sushi.
3. I am allergic to the sun.
4. I have only lived in four different states my entire life and the first three were before I was 15 years old.
5. I love puns no matter how bad.
6. I don't think skunks smell so bad.
7. I've never had a dream where I fly.

Now according the rules I have to tag seven people. I have tagged the following bloggers: Please stop by and see their blogs!
http://www.stampingwithkimberly.blogspot.com/
http://micheleforce.blogspot.com/
http://reneevs.blogspot.com/
http://creativelenna.blogspot.com/
http://ericasartisticattic.blogspot.com/
http://stamphappy-tammy.typepad.com/my_weblog/
http://shadesofstamping.com/

Hoppy Birthday!

I make a lot of birthday cards. I belong to three different stamping lists and keep the birthday list for two of them, so I am always making birthday cards to have on hand. This is a BIG card! I colored the frog with copics, stickled the candle flame, added liquid applique to the cupcake, and brushed it with some glitter fingernail polish I got at the dollar store after I puffed it up. It's such fun watching that stuff puff up! I rubbed chalks around the background and pierced the corners. I loved this ribbon with this image! The image is a digital stamp from Pink Petticoat and the saying is from Stampin' Up! Do many of you use digital images? They aren't as versatile as rubber stamps, but they are a lot less costly than rubber stamps. Pink Petticoat has some cute ones. Their web site is http://www.pinkpetticoat.co.uk/

A tutorial and more cards!

Wow! I owe a BIG thank you to Lauren Meador for mentioning my new blog on hers because it brought some people here and I thank those of you who left comments for me! It was pretty cool seeing them when I got up this morning.

I had a comment on SCS about the origami butterfly so I decided to make a mini tutorial on how to make one of your very own. They are super easy, and you don't have to have a lot of experience with origami to do one.

HOW TO MAKE AN ORIGAMI BUTTERFLY

First step is to start off with two squares of paper. The squares can be any size you want, but the one I made on yesterday's card used two 2" squares. You can decorate your squares any way you wish; I stamped mine with a speckled background. A fun thing to do is use tea bag folding papers because the different patterns in those papers can make cool butterflies!

Fold your square corner to corner so you have a triangle.

now take the top point of the triangle and fold it down so it extends a little past the folded edge.

The next step is hard to explain in words, but I think the pictures will show it pretty well. You take the right side and fold it up to the point you just folded. and do the same thing with the left side.

Do the same thing with your second square and place them together to make your butterfly wings!

You can stamp or draw a butterfly body. Yesterday's card had a piece of wire that I ran through two beads for the body and curled the ends for antennae. If you make one of these, please send a link to it!

Now for a card! This card is another image my daughter drew. I thought it was cute and I am probably the last person on earth to receive a swiss dots cuttlebug folder and mine just arrived yesterday so I had to make a card using it! I was going to add words on the front that said "Dance like nobody's watching" and then on the inside I was going to say "They'll all be busy watching the elephant in a tutu!" lol! but there just wasn't room on the front for it. I decided I need more shades of grey in my copics. I added some stickles to the tutu!

Since I seem to be showing cards with my daughter's drawings, I may as well show you one more of hers I did a while back. The inside says "It's the only time of the month I can be myself!"

Well, thanks again for the warm welcome!

Lauren's Saturday Sketch

I decided to try my hand at Lauren Meador's Saturday Sketch. Once I got started, my card only resembles the sketch in a small way. I learned how to make these super easy origami butterflies a while back and have never actually used any in any way so I thought it was about time. If you care to try your hand at Lauren's sketch, here's the link to her site.

http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/06/14/saturday-sketch-8/

And here's my card:

A Video!!

Gee, back again already! While I was learning more about creating my blog I saw where I could add a video. I have one that I put up on youtube after Christmas last year, and since it's craft related I thought you might enjoy it too. It shows how to make a Kirigami Christmas tree. Kirigami is origami with scissor cuts. I learned this from an episode on Carol Duval by Karen Thomas who is an extremely gifted origami artist! Anyway, hope you enjoy! If you make one of these, I'd love you to link a picture of yours in a comment post!

Here I Am!

I may be new to blogging, but I'm not new to stamping. I've been stamping since the late eighties! Stamping has come a long way since I started, but I've loved it the entire time.

Even though I just started this blog, I didn't want it to be "naked" so I thought I would add some pictures of cards I've been doing lately.

The latest coloring medium I've been working with is copics. I've never been very good with markers, but when the copics came out I was seeing so many beautiful things made with them that I had to try. After some practice, I think I'm getting a little better. Marianne, who works with copics all the time has a wonderful new blog too where you can learn all kinds of wonderful tips! Go take a look if you have any interest in copics.

http://www.ilikemarkers.blogspot.com/

Now, on to one of my latest cards!

I call this one "Super Sweetie". It was made as an anniversary card for my husband on our 32nd anniversary. The yellow around the image is chalk. I think I'm going to ask for one of the air guns for the copics for my birthday next month so I can do without the chalks.

The image is from Diamonds rubber stamps. They no longer manufacture rubber stamps, but the owner does have all of the graphics on CD's and sells them on ebay, which is where I got this image. The background stars are from Papertrey Ink's Text Boxed set.

This one I call "Be-otch" This is an image my youngest daughter drew and I thought it would make a perfect card. I'm actually looking for someone interested in buying some of her images to make into stamps, so if any one out there wants some new talent give me a holler!

The inside of this reads "like it's a bad thing". LOL!

I made another one like this that says "I used to think I wanted a career, but it turns out I only wanted paychecks."

There are a lot of different phrases that could go with this!

Well, I think this is a good start for a first post! Thanks for visiting, and I hope you come back!