October Stamping Challenge #3

Hello!  Here I am with the third installment of my October Stamping Challenge.  In real life it looks much better.  For some reason, the file is saving as 83 kb, so no wonder.  My husband was using my scanning program and obviously changed the settings.  I don't have time to fix it now, but I will try to get a better scan, because this card is really lovely.

Edited to add:  hubby showed me how to fix the file size issue.  This one has come out much better!  I can stop blaming Sauron the Scanner now that I know it was a box that was selected three layers deep in the Save dialogue box.  Silly me for not finding that!

I used a die cut for the ginger jar, and stamped it in gray flannel Memento ink using a pretty little floral stamp (newly inked) from Impression Obsession.  I coloured it with Copic markers and added some shading with Stormy Sky distress ink around the edges.  Then I gave it a good coating of Distress Crackle Paint in Rock Candy and set aside to dry.  When it was dry, I sponged on more Stormy Sky into the cracks.  The background pieces are all scraps.  The background panel is stamped in Hero Arts Shadow Ink (Soft Olive) using a Local King rubber stamp.  The card base is a lovely dusty green textured cardstock.  I accented the card with a couple of dots of Viva Decor dimensional paint.  This morning I realized the jar needed gold trim so I added it, using the outside of the die cut paper as a mortise mask so I didn't get any on the card itself.  The card is 4 1/4" square.  This challenge did take a little longer than 15 minutes, but only because of paint drying time and I am also not counting the time it took to colour the first ginger jar which I stamped upside down. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Father's Day

 Hello!  Now that Father's Day cards have been distributed, I can blog about them here.  The top one was for my husband, and the bottom one was for my dad. 

The top card is done with a coloured panel that has a Hero Arts background stamped on watercolour paper and embossed in white and then coloured with Distress markers and blended with a brush and water.  I gave it a small accent strip on one side, from my treasured stash of iris cardstock, which is now discontinued (can you believe it?  I couldn't - it was the best almost purple-almost blue cardstock ever).  It was mounted to a blue linen card base (which Sauron the Scanner has auto-corrected into something very peculiar) and stamped with "Happy Father's Day" (A Muse).  I stamped it in Chipped Sapphire and accented it with a Sakura Glaze pen.  It turned out that it was a white Sakura Glaze pen, and this treatment rendered the stamping almost invisible so I traced over with the Chipped Sapphire Distress Marker and took the liberty of adding some kisses underneath.  My younger daughter felt strongly that there should also be "o's" with the "x's", but I wasn't really seeking design input at this point.   I added white opal liquid pearls to the dots at the circles' intersectins. 

The card for my dad was a fun one. We used this stamp (Impression Obsession) in Krista's classes recently, so I did a different take on it and stamped it in white on kraft cardstock and coloured it with Bryunzeel pencil crayons.  I put it on a Bordering Blue card base with some Stampin' Up paper that coordinates with these two papers.  Some mushroom adirondack dimensional pearls completed the look.  I asked hubby if it was too feminine and he said, "It's just feminine enough."  You would think I would know better by now than to ask him, but there you go.  I might just have learned my lesson. 

We've had a great Father's Day - a trip down to Brockville to see the tall ships, and a lovely dinner out. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you got some stamping in this weekend too.

Faux Batik butterflies

Hi!  Here's a card we'll be making at Heather's Stamping Haven in August for her anniversary celebration make and takes.  I'll be running this class on August 25th, but it may run during the week as well.  Keep an eye on Heather's calendar for the schedule.  The stamp I used is a butterfly image from Impression Obsession (copyright Hannah Davies/Impression Obsession Inc) and I did a number of these in different colours over the past few days.  It was fun!  I like how this looks like faux batik.  So colourful!  The colours in the top card are: spiced marmalade, seedless preserves, salty ocean, peacock feathers (card base More Mustard).  The middle card: mowed grass, shaded lilac, salty ocean (card base Cool Caribbean).  The bottom card: peacock feathers, mustard seed, spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon (card base Bermuda Bay).    Thanks for stopping by!

Holy Holly Batman!

Hello!  Here's my card for the December challenge at Inkurable Stampers, theme of Holly.

Well, here's where my near fetish for holly stamps came into its own.  I used a Penny Black brush stroke holly stamp for the main image, a Stamping Bella holly stamp for the background, and on another version of this card I used the Heather's Stamping Haven solid and open holly stamps. 

I started off by using a layout and technique idea from my stamping friend Mary, but changed up the colour scheme a bit.  I coloured a panel of watercolour paper with Tombow markers in shades of light yellow, light blue, and many greens, just scribbling on randomly.  Then I spritzed generously with water and let it blend around by itself, getting a fair bit of green on my hands.  (It washes off eventually.  I don't want to say how long because it all depends on how much you wash your hands.  I guess if you are neither a compulsive hand-washer or a germophile, it will wash off in about a day, unless you are very neat and don't get any on your hands in the first place.  If you are that person, I would watch for other miracles too, like Virgin Marys in your watercolour puddles.)  Ok, let the watercolour panel dry, and help it along with a heat tool if you want, once it's stopped sopping and dripping.  I set it aside to drip onto my crafting rag, which helped contain the mess, and added a cheerful green to the rag.  Once it was dry, I stamped with the Stamping Bella solid holly in Evergreen Bough distress ink, and also some music (Cornish Heritage Farms) in the same green.  Then I ironed it to seal the deal and stamped the Penny Black brush stroke holly in black and embossed in black.  Next was the message (from the Darkroom Door Dear Santa collection), but I wished afterwards I'd embossed that too.   I accented it with my sparkle pen, but I still wish I'd embossed it - next time. The card base is a medium gray linen, stamped with the same Penny Black holly in Ice Jade chalk ink.  The front side of the card is cut short by about 1 1/4", and a gold edge strip applied.  On the inside of the card is a black linen strip, stamped with my current favourite stamp, a scripty background from Impression Obsession.  I am using that stamp on everything.  Everything.  It works everywhere!  It is the little black dress of stamps.  Not that I have ever had a little black dress, or needed one, but I use the term to indicate a wardrobe staple, that can be dressed up or down, go uptown, downtown, day to evening with the right accessories, etc.  Only the stamp version is much more gratifying and requires neither pantyhose or high heels.  Once everything was all put together, I put some Patina stickles on the holly leaves and some Xmas Red and Candy cane stickles on the berries.   Yay holly!  Yay stamps!  This will be a quick one to do a batch of, maybe later tonight. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Christmas Card

Hello!  It's been way too long!  Since I've last posted, there was the church bazaar, my daughter's birthday party, my daughter's family birthday party, my parents' visit, and the hurly burly of daily life.  Good things, all, but no time for blogging, and precious little for stamping.

I had gotten this stamp and the Christmas colours of Distress Ink at Heather's recently and I really wanted to try them out.  It's a gorgeous brush stroke poinsettia (Penny Black), with a holly sprig.  I've tried it a few different ways, but here I started with a piece of sage green, sponged in some Iced Spruce and stamped on the old script (Impression Obsession) in Memories Soft Gold.  Then, the poinsettia on top in Delicata gold (that stuff is fantastic!  dries instantly on porous paper - cue foreshadowing music here), the Merry Christmas (Heather's Stamping Haven) in black.  Doodled a frame with a Micron too.  I edged the panel in the gold ink too.  This piece is n a dark grey linen mat, then a lighter grey linen card base, on which I stamped the poinsettia again, this time in a sage pigment ink.  The accent bit is a piece of Ionize metallic paper (my new favourite since Krista's class this fall), which I zipped through the Cuttlebug (why don't I have a holly folder????) and applied more delicata ink.  Most of the ink is off my fingers now, the next day, and I found that delicata will eventually dry on metallic paper, but not quickly enough not to make a bit of a smudgy mess.  Next time I will set it aside to dry for five minutes or so.  The final element was some artful application of Champagne Stickles, mostly in the centre, but also here and there, as I've been seeing done with sticky-back pearls on lots of blogs.  This will mail more easily, and helps put a tiny dent in my stickle supply.  Well, this card has been percolating for a while, and it was good to get it out.  I might make a few more tweaks to size of panel, etc,., but I think this is in the running for one of my Christmas card batches this year!

Thanks for stopping by.

PS  Sorry about the wacky formatting - Blogger updated their interface while I wasn't looking and I don't have time this morning.  Really I should be getting everyone ready for the day and not blogging, but there you go.  We'll compromise with wacky formatting and a mad scramble for the bus.

Make a birthday splash

Hello! Here's a card I made up over the past couple of days for a friend of my daughter's. She's having an ocean themed birthday, so I thought I would continue the theme with the card. The main stamp (Outlines) was stamped twice on watercolour paper and embossed, and coloured in with Tombows and blended. I tried to keep to the same colours on all the panels, but some are lighter and darker, just adding more markers to deepen colour if necessary. The card base (3 1/4 x 6 1/2") is a bright green (retired Stampin' Up), with a red and metallic yellow band. I used a background cover-a-card stamp (Fluff, Impression Obsession) on the background to echo the dots on the image. I didn't have time for stickles to dry before this card went to the party so I added glitter with my Sakura pens. There was lots of shine from the embossing too. I did two bits for the "splash" and the seahorse, cut out and popped up the second ones for dimension. The scan doesn't quite do it justice - in real life it's very vibrant. That's what I really love about the Tombows. Now if they'd only make a nice navy.....

NSR: It's strawberry season here and we had lovely strawberries and whipped cream and angel food cake for dessert tonight. Yum yum. I hope to get out soon and pick some to turn into jam. I didn't get to last summer, so I hope to remedy that this year. Also, thank you for the well wishes about the new job. I'm staying with the same overall organization, but moving to a different department doing a different type of work. So a huge change. It's going to be a big learning curve, but I think it will be good for me to try something new. I'll also be downtown, closer to interesting places to poke around in over lunch time, and lots of nice places to try for lunch. Also a great organic bakery between me and the bus stop (could be hazardous!). So lots to do between now and then, new clothes, new glasses (need new prescription), clean out old office, do handover, finish up what I can, farewell lunch, and all that sort of thing. It will be hard to say goodbye - many wonderful colleagues and friends there and many happy memories.

Scrap Sunday 12

Well, my mojo is still missing. I can usually find it foraging in my scrap stash, but today I was only able to come up with this. The flower is a scrap (grungeboard, Tim Holtz die, Judikins mica gloss) that's been on my desk for a while. It had the button on it already, from its near miss on another project. The card base is another scrap, with a dragonfly cover-a-card background stamp (Impression Obsession). The sentiment (Stampin' Up) is on kraft paper with some black glaze pen written over it and a portion of it in red, slavishly bowing to the rule of 3 for the red. I think the kraft piece is too big, or the sentiment too small. There is also a background stamp of dotted swirls (Impress Rubber Stamps), stamped in Lake Mist on the kraft. On the upside, my five year old really liked it, but turquoise is her favourite colour, so I could be accused of playing to the gallery there.

In other news, I got my two days of all-colouring-all-day at Heather's Stamping Haven. It's that magical time of year when Krista Schneider comes up and teaches colouring techniques with Copics and Tombow markers. We made 17 projects in two days. She does all the assembly and stamping and we do the colouring. I didn't quite finish yesterday - hit the wall at about 4:30. Still, it was a great time and nice to catch up with friends who share a common interest. The only downside is that it's hard to come crashing back to earth. Still, it's better to have stamped and lost than never to have stamped at all. Isn't that how the saying goes???? Hope you've had a good weekend too.

Peeking Pumpkin

I made this card for an upcoming Impression-Obsession challenge, which is a colour challenge: coffee, pumpkin and nutmeg. I stamped the image (Peeking Pumpkin, H1792) in Memento black on Neenah white paper and coloured with Copic markers. It's been a while since I've had them out, so it was fun get reacquainted. This is a fun image to colour - all those leaves and details. I have another one stamped off that I want to try in pencil crayon. The pumpkin is accented with Spiced Marmalade distress stickles, the apples with Fired Brick, and the handle with Broken China. The card base is Bordering Blue (one of my favourite SU colours, now retired, and stockpiled in my cupboard). I stamped it with an I-O background (Fluff) in Palette ink (Burnt Sienna) for the nutmeg element. There is some dark brown in the border for the coffee element, and of course there is a pumpkin. I had meant to incorporate Early Espresso paper, but it didn't work out. I suppose the Bazzill paper that has the Happy Hallowe'en rub-on is the colour of instant coffee grounds. Whether those count as coffee is a debate for another blog. The final accent was some terra cotta dimensional pearls. Heather just got in some Viva Decor Pens, which are similar to dimensional pearls and I got a colour to try out. They seem more robust than the pearls, which tend to get squashed, no matter how long they dry.

Well, it's long past bedtime, so I should toddle off. Morning will come soon enough and I'll need to dream up breakfast for three kiddies before I swan off to a stamping class. I'm taking a neat looking one where we'll be playing with the metal stuff and all those tools from Ten Seconds Studio. It's going to be fun! I won't have my zombie class in the afternoon. Sadly, my gamble went bust - turns out there are not droves of stampers in town dying to turn Magnolia into a zombie. Oh well, it meant I could make this tonight instead of prepping for class so there's a pumpkin lining to that cloud!

I will be doing a class on Nov 6th, a gothic arch triptych Christmas card, which features exactly zero Magnolias and zero zombies.

Thanks for stopping by!

Seashells in Monochrome

Here's another card I made using a sheet from my Ecoline stash. (I had made a bunch of background papers one day in different colours - this one used blue and pickling salt.)

The main image is one I got at my LSS (impression obsession) with the coordinating sand dollar image. I stamped the main image in black (versafine I think) and accented it with white gel pen and glitter pen. I distressed the edges a bit and let it sit for a couple of days while I figured out what to do with it. The backdrop, which could probably be a bit bigger, is kraft and sahara sand, with a Pacific Point piece at the bottom. All the background card base is stamped with the sand dollar in Pumice Stone (Distress Ink) and the blue part is sprayed with Riptide Glimmer Mist. The vellum bit is stamped with a Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) scroll stamp, "inked" up with Snow Cap paint dauber. I thought the paint would be a nice quick-dry choice for the vellum, and it did work well. The sand dollar accent is stamped on kraft and highlighed with pencil crayon and stickles. Once everything was glued down, etc., I accented the card with Icicle stickles and little pearls (Hero Arts). This will be the perfect card for a destination wedding, don't you think? Too bad I don't move in destination wedding circles. I'm sure the perfect occasion for this card will present itself (e.g., "Congratulations Pearl Diving College Graduate" or "To my wife, for our first stamping cruise together" - hey, a girl's gotta dream!).

Thanks for stopping by!