Watercolour Class Day 4

Hello!  Here's a card I made using the Stamps Specifically for Watercolor technique in the On-line Watercolor class (link in sidebar).  I used a Stampin' Up two-step stamping set and Distress markers for the ink.  I sponged on some coordinating colours at the end and matted it on black.  I found a few coordinating scraps of paper for a quick and easy layout and it feels done.  I am thinking about adding some rock candy distress stickles to the main image, which would give it a bit of texture, but it might overpower the soft shimmer in the lavender piece.  I think I might just leave it as-is!

Thanks for stopping by.

Shabby Chic - CASE

Hello!  Here's a card I made, inspired by Nina B Designs here.  I loved her cards - the shabby chic feel was so pretty, and the soft colours and the beautiful stamps.  I didn't have any of the stamps she used, so I had to improvise (and add them to my wish list!).  I used a large flower stamp from Stampin' Up for the background, stamped in Hero Arts Soft Pink.  Then I added solid leafy stamp at the top (Stamping Bella) and the border stamp at the bottom (Papertrey Ink).  These were embossed in Seafoam white before sponging the card with Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Victorian Velvet.  The ribbon is silk, from my stash and the dotted accents on the border are Orchid liquid pearls.  The main image is matted on kraft, then vanilla, and the card base is a pretty pinky purple from Papertrey Ink, and is stamped with the same flower as the background. Sauron the Scanner squashed the ribbon, but in real life it has a nice lively bounce to it.

Well, I'd better sign off for the evening.  I have to get to bed - I have two very special stampers coming over tomorrow morning for a stamping playdate!  I can't wait.  I've cleaned off my stamp table to make room for visitors and tried to remind myself where everything is.  I have my stamps in all different places, paper in all different places, it's a bit of a crazy system but it's a combination of where things will fit and what things I need to keep separate, etc.  Also, the time I spend looking for stuff helps remind me of what things I have, so I find that helpful.  And enjoyable.  It's not the sort of stamp room that someone super-organized would like.  If you are the kind of person that files your stamp according to the Library of Congress system, then you would be horrified and/or baffled by my system: Stampin' Up boxes in one cupboard, other wood mounts in a drawer cabinet.  Cling stamps hanging by clips, in binders, in Tupperware boxes, in DVD cases, in more Tupperware boxes, in a vintage metal card catalogue.  You get the idea.  The cling stamps are the wild card, but also the most fun to rifle through.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you get some time to stamp this weekend too.

Chirpy Thank You

Hello!  Here's one of a number of "the same only different" cards I made for my daughter to use as thank you cards for her recent birthday.  All stamps are from the Stampin' Up set "Friends 24-7".  The bird is stamped with sepia brown Versafine ink on Very Vanilla paper and the flower is stamped in Baja Breeze.  The image is matted on chocolate chip and arranged with some scraps of designer paper and Baja Breeze on a Crumb Cake card base.  The damask stamp on the card base is also stamped in Baja Breeze.  A few accents of Dark Chocolate liquid pearls finish off the card. These were quite quick to put together and using the designer paper scraps made it easy to pull the colours together, plus it felt good to use some of the scraps for a quick project.  The layouts are all very similar, but vary a little depending on the shape of the scraps.  Some have torn edges, some are vertical.  It all depends on what the scraps are.  I'll use this "formula" again - find some coordinating stamps, designer paper scraps, and coordinating cardstocks and have a happy stamping afternoon!

I hope your December is going well.  Ours is - November birthday has been wrapped up, December birthday is taking shape.  Hubby wants us to have a party so I am planning that - the fun part is going through the cookbooks deciding on the signature drink and appetizers.  Maybe I should also be auditioning the signature drinks too!  We've been doing our shopping and everyone is busy hiding packages and being mysterious about errands.  There's a cookie exchange planned at work and I think this weekend will see us putting up the Christmas tree.  The Advent activities are preparing us for the feast of Christmas, which is now only weeks away.  This past weekend we went out to the Living Nativity, which is well worth a visit next year if you are in the Ottawa area.  On a more secular note, the Jacquie Lawson Advent calendar this year has an Edwardian theme, which is lots of fun for all fans of Downton Abbey.  I hope you are enjoying your preparations for Christmas, and taking time to enjoy the moments of preparation.

Best wishes and happy stamping!

October Stamping Challenge #7

Hello!  Wow - has a week gone by already?  Must be, if this is #7 of my stamping challenge.  This card was really quick to put together, since I found that lovely tag ready-made in my scrap box.  It features some Distress Ink resist and sponging through sequin waste.  That nice quote is a Stampin' Up stamp and the scrolls and flourishes are Stampers Anonymous.

I cut a fresh piece of card for the base,but used scraps of textured mustard and brown linen for the accent strips. The ribbon was also a scrap that was loitering on my desk.  I used an as-yet uninked background stamp (Stampers Anonymous) on the card base, but I think I used too light an ink (Pale Tomato Hero Arts Shadow Ink) because it doesn't seem to be showing up.  I also used a little spiral clip that was in my stash of spare odds and bits.  I think they might be a bit out of style, but then again, so am I.  I am justifying it on the basis of legwarmers coming back into fashion.  (I know - I can't believe it either.)  Here's my rationale:  if legwarmers can return to fashion, then anything can make a comeback.  So there - my spiral clip is not out of style, it is ahead of trend! 

Thanks for stopping by and a happy long weekend to my Canadian readers.

Artichoke Birthday Card

Hi!  Here's a card I made recently for my husband's birthday.  I needed a quick and easy masculine card, so I cast  my eye over my stamps and cards on-hand and threw out that notion.  It was 11 pm and a long day and I really just needed some stamping therapy, not a "requirement".  My eye lit upon a Stampin' Up stamp set called Homegrown, with beautiful line art vegetables. Instantly I knew I needed to colour some artichokes, so I stamped them on a card base (naturals ivory) in India Ink and coloured them with my Bryunzeel pencil crayons in lots of different shades (green, yellow, brown, red, blue and purple).  I also added a bit of shadow with a soft grey.  I didn't blend with anything, just the pencils.  I find if I don't get too carried away, they blend well together, and if I do get a line, I can cover it up with something darker or assist it with my finger and some firm rubbing.  Besides, I wanted the variegation of the different colours to make them look more lifelike.  I needed a birthday message, and once again, my eye lit upon just the thing, a wonderful script stamp by josephinekimberling for Impress Rubber Stamps.  That got stamped in India Ink too, and then it made my card lopsided, so I trimmed off some "white space" at the top to get the proportions I wanted and I was away to the races.  I normally like to make a card with the person in mind, and in this case I don't really have any cause to associate DH with artichokes.  Instead, this card was all about just following what felt right and taking the chance that I could give it to someone who would appreciate that aspect.  And failing that, not really mind if he got an artichoke card for his birthday. 

Well, I'm off on holidays now, and my wenting is done for the morning.  I went to my daughter's class to help them sew felt ornaments for a little bit, then I went to an electronics store to return something, then I went to get groceries.   Now I'm home and about to the fruit I soaked overnight in rum into fruitcake and then do some wrapping and maybe make some peppermint bark.  We'll see how long the other things take me.  I'm taking two days off before Christmas to do my baking and wrapping and general getting ready. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Have yourself a merry little artichoke!

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.

Radish Delight and other recipes

Hello! Radish Delight sounds like something Letitia Cropley on Vicar of Dibley might have made. I hate to disappoint you, but the recipe will be for a card. If you have a delightful radish recipe, please do let me know.

I stamped the radish (Stampin' Up) in India ink and watercoloured with shades of distress ink, including some mustard seed on the leaves to tie in with the yellow coloured paper. I made this a radish, though it could be a beet or a turnip/swede as well. I'm out of touch with what the leaves are like on all those veggies. I think this could likely be a beet. Radish leaves I think are smaller and smooth. Any botanists and or rabid vegetable enthusiasts, please forgive my artistic license, expressed in the desire for a hit of red. The paper is from the Farm Fresh line by October afternoon. The "Homegrown" oval is from the same SU set and is also stamped in black. The card base is Summer Sunrise, which is a great match in real life to the paper. Not as much on the scanner. I used this card to send in payment for our summer veggie box. We've signed up with a local Community Supported Agriculture farm and we will get a box of farm-fresh veggies every week all summer and into the fall. I am very excited. One of the farmers is a stamping friend of mine, so a veggie-stamped card seemed very fitting for sending in my payment. I'm looking forward to the challenge of some surprising vegetables, but we generally like veggies in our house, and my pickiest daughter likes veggies best. I can't wait for green bean season to start!

Well, I should dash and get ready for work. I woke up to the first thunderstorm of the season today. It's quite the doozy. Hope the Little Blue Jellybean doesn't blow off the road on my way in! (That's what I affectionately call our Prius, blue. As the Top Gear boys would say, "Naught to 60 in 320 seconds." Not a traditional super car, but it's our supercar - great on gas, fits all our gear on camping trips. Though as the girls get bigger, we'll need to take less stuff or get a pod for the roof.)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

PS If you type in www.thedaleystamper.blogspot.com/view, you can get different view options for my blog. So you can see more pictures and less text and not have to hunt through the archives or my peculiarly categorized key words if there is something you're looking for but don't know what it is.

? of butterflies

Hello! Does anyone know what the collective noun for butterflies is? Flock? Swarm? I have no idea. If it were up to me, it would be "a drift of butterflies". What do you think?

I woke up early this morning (coughing, not personality transplant) and thought I would spend some time stamping. I had this panel leftover from various stages of trying to find something to do with it. Much like a butterfly, it has gone through many stages before it emerged onto this card. It started out as a page in my new booklet for a class at Heather's Stamping Haven, but it wasn't going to work for that purpose. Then I stamped some more on it. Then I stamped some more on it, then I stamped words and tried some distress crackle paint (rock candy). Then stamped the butterflies. Then it was time to go to bed last night. This morning it found a home on a black mat, some sequin waste really spruced it up (man, that stuff can rescue any project), as did some punched butterflies from another discard from the class project. I also doodled a border with my black Micron (also another guaranteed rescuer of ailing designs). I quite like this now - lots of texture, colours, etc.

Some details: I stamped that grungeflower frame (Hero Arts) and embossed with Old Paper Distress embossing powder, sloughing off the release crystals. Then I sponged on various colours of Distress Ink with my ink blending tool. I stamped on the ship's register stamp (Heather's Stamping Haven) and the butterflies (Stampers Anonymous) and the words (Stampin' Up!). The punched butterflies were from another image (Sunshine Designs hydrangea) that had been sponged and crackle painted, also with rock candy. The butterfly punch is the one with three butterflies on it (Martha Stewart). The ribbon is the two-tone kiwi kiss/vanilla ribbon from Stampin' Up. The card base is PTI (#enchanted evening).

Well - now it's time to click on "publish post" and go get ready for work! This was definitely a better way to spend an hour than lying in bed coughing and trying not to sleep in.

NSR: So, here we are, two weeks into January. How are your New Year's resolutions holding up? Mine are hit and miss. I have been hitting the sack before midnight (usually with just minutes to spare, but sometimes as early as 11) and eating more fruits and vegetables. I have been more patient with the children, but it's early days yet. On the miss side, we haven't had any friends over, I have one basket, two hampers, and one dryer full of clean laundry and #flashmobs seen=0, though apparently there was one at daycare when the kids had a big dance party to "I gotta feeling" by The Black-eyed Peas (I cringe as I write that, even though this blog isn't exactly good grammar's last bastion). BTW, the muffins from last post were disliked by the children, despite the chocolate chips. Apparently they took exception to the fig seeds, which, I thought was the best part (other than the orange-spice-chocolate-fig taste). Sigh. Good thing I resolved to be more patient! In other news, I'm reading a very interesting book about the history of the English language (The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way, by Bill Bryson). It's a fascinating collection of facts about English and how it got to be the way it is, and if history is anything to go by, there is no last bastion for good grammar and "I gotta feeling" will soon worm its way into the canon by virtue of popular use. Ain't nothing like the English language!

Scrap Sunday 10

I had a few minutes this morning since DD2 and I were home from church with sore throats and a cough. She was sneezing a lot too, so I thought we would just stay close to home. She wanted to do some "blending" (the kids' words for colouring with Tombows and blending with a paintbrush), so I had to clear off a spot for her at the stamp desk. In the pile of scraps I removed, there were these pieces of patterned paper and the embossed velvet piece. They looked nice together so I hunted in my scrap basket for something to go with them and this pear image fair leaped into my hand. Seriously, it was the first thing I touched and I couldn't even see what it was. Spooky! Anyway, I stamped it "collage style" (ie crooked and uneven, adding more to make up for it) and matted it on some coordinating cardstock. I used the light blue (Baja Breeze, SU) to coordinate the pear with the paper. This pear had been my first foray into flocking and had been waiting for an occasion to appear on a card. I finished off the card with a few PTI buttons from the stash. Presto, change-o, done! Today will be a day of tidying and putting away Christmas decorations, so I'm glad I got some stamping in when I could.

Thanks for stopping by.

NSR: We went out to see Harry Potter last night. It was pretty good, and I'm looking forward to the next one in July. We rented a great movie on Friday night too, called In the Loop. It was really funny (though the language was pretty extreme, so consider yourself warned), but in a dark sort of way. Apparently it's based on a BBC Television series (In the Thick of It), but it's not one that's made its way to Canada yet. If it does, I would certainly watch it.

Also apropos of nothing, yesterday I made some muffins to use up some languishing buttermilk and oranges. I found a recipe for date bran muffins, and in the absence of dates, substituted figs. They turned out to be delicious! I also added a bit of cloves and nutmeg, and those flavours with the orange zest and juice were very nice. I also used the ends of two bags of chocolate chips (in my experience muffins with chocolate chips get devoured by the children, regardless of how much bran, etc. I have sneaked into the muffins). Altogether, it's quite a pleasing combination, though it was a bit of a gamble. So: figs, orange, chocolate, cloves, nutmeg. Not in any recipe book, but made for a tasty, tender muffin, with the added benefit of putting dried-out oranges and last-day buttermilk to good use.

Farewell Card II

I made this card for someone at work who is leaving for Paris very soon, so I chose a French theme. The Eiffel Tower is a Stampin' Up stamp, as are the filigree puffballs and floral sprigs (blue). The sentiment is by Darkroom Door, and was really my only stamp that had a suitable message that fit that spot. There are some background stamps by Stampin' Up and Stampers Anonymous (Tim Holtz). This is my go-to technique for a fancy card - lots of chalk ink brayering, lots of stamping over top, embossing, hits of black, a coordinated tag. This is a heavy card, and large, and I made it with an insert so that lots of people could sign it. I went with blues and golds, which seems like a very French colour palette, and the ruffled ribbon, gold cord, and swallow brad add some texture and interest. I like to frame things with some lines drawn with the bullet tip of a marker and a ruler. I tend to do a few lines, with ruler at different angles, which makes a nice border without having to be precise. Since it's the last step, any imprecision would show and ruin the whole thing, so I go for the feel of straight lines, but ones that are actually crooked. How fiendishly clever! Another tip is to use Heather's 130lb cardstock. It really accepts the chalk ink beautifully and withstands all manner of embossing and ironing and stamping without any ill effects such as warping etc. I love that stuff, especially for projects like this. You can see that I stamped the flourish in gold ink, which adds a very nice rich effect.

Thanks for stopping by!

October Challenge at Inkurable Stampers

So, do you find yourself blinking and rubbing your eyes? I am. I wanted to do the October challenge for Inkurable Stampers (sketch with three stamps) before October whizzes past me. I saw this technique in a stamp magazine and the way that other person did it, it looked very cool. This looks not so much cool as out of focus. What you do is ink and spritz a solid stamp, then repeat with another colour. I used Deep Turquoise and Van Dyke Brown (Nick Bantock line). I like the turquoise and brown combination, which I accented with the colour base (a greenish navy) and the textured paper in shades of brown. I also stamped a sketchy flower (SU) and the message (SU) for my three stamps. The ribbon is a better colour match in real life, and it's a bi-colour silk ribbon from my stash that I believe I got from Stamp and Scrap Canada. They have some cool collagey things, but lots of stuff is out of stock since I think they are trying to sell stuff off. Still, every time I go there, they are still in business and I always find some treasures.

Well, I'm not sure how happy I am with this project, but it was fun to try out a new technique. It might just need a bit of work to get it right. The stamp that the other person used was more solid, which lent itself better to the purpose I think. Anyway, it is what it is. And it freaks me out every time I look at it, like I'm losing my vision or something. I'm losing something anyway, may not be my vision, but I am definitely losing it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer flowers

This stamp was love at first sight for me. I just love the old fashioned charm, and of course I love colouring-in. It's a retired hostess set from Stampin' Up, possibly called Country Morning. This was previously coloured-in and kicking around my desk so I decided it was time to get it on a card before it got paint or ink on it or too dog-eared to use. I coloured it with Bruynzeel pencil crayons and blended with odourless mineral spirits. Under the unforgiving eye of scanner the I see that the "haze" is blowing downwind a bit. Let's just call this a new "technique". Any suggestions as to what to call this?

This country image just called for some fresh country paper, so I went to some October Afternoon (Fly a Kit pack) and chose some coordinating blue and yellow patterns to go with the Baja Breeze cardstock. I dithered a bit about the layout, and found a nice piece of marigold morning already scalloped. Again under the harsh light of the scanner, it's not the best match (I had picked out a PTI yellow that was better, but this scrap was cut and trimmed already). I found a cute little sentiment "You are my sunshine" (A Muse) and that was the perfect thing to finish it off. In retrospect, I would have liked it stamped higher, but as usual I was stamping kamikaze-style, so that's where it landed.

A special thank you to the ladies who came out to my make-and-take class at Heather's Stamping Haven today. She's celebrating her fourteenth anniversary this August and is running her traditional fundraising classes for Victims of Violence: It Shouldn't Hurt to be a Child. We did emboss resist and I had a lovely time with the delightful people who came to the class.

Speaking of classes, I finished up my October class samples for Heather. We're going to be doing... [drumroll please].... zombies! More specifically, how to make zombies out of otherwise cute stamps (e.g., Roly Polys and Magnolias). It's a bit of a risk - I'm not sure how many zombie lovers there are out there, but there is a certain appeal, to me anyway, in the element of the absurd. In the contrast between the almost saccharin-sweet Magnolia images and colouring them up grubby style. It's also nice to have a change of colour combination for skin tones, nothing like good old green and purple. And best of all it doesn't matter if you smudge! For more traditional folks, my next class will be Sept 18th, in the afternoon, and we will be doing a Magnolia (Lady Tilda), ol' skool. (Except for the face - I will show you how to add a mouth and nose, if you want to. Nu skool.) (Can you tell I learned to text message over the holiday? Yes, it's true, I joined the 2000s and learned to text message. I still refuse to type the ancient Sumerian city for "your" and "you're", or "U" for "you" (and presumabley "ewe" and "yew", though these arise less frequently in text messages).) We could get a cell phone signal from the top of the hill behind the cottage. Well, DH could with his arm fully extended upward. I'm too short for cell service. I got endless amusement providing the soundtrack for these electronic communications, lustily singing the theme song for Hercules alongside DH on the hilltop, with his arm high aloft, cell phone pointed heavenward. (Hercules was a cartoon on when I was a kid and Herc would encounter various monsters, who roared with one of two sound effects, and put on his magic ring, raise his fist in the air so lighttening could strike the ring, charging it up so he could smite his foes, who were waiting, patiently roaring/hissing, in the wings, to be smitten. Not one of these simple-minded beasts ever discovered they could have taken Herc out while he was getting his ring zapped. And Great Zeus!, why was Helena blonde? Perhaps I was overthinking things a bit.....)

Thanks for stopping by! Time to go do something worthwhile like a load of laundry before I cuddle up with DH to watch a movie. I love holidays!

Compliments to the Chef

This weekend, we were invited to the most wonderful dinner. Our hostess was so gracious, and provided a delicous meal, each course presented beautifully. The company was interesting and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I wanted to make her a special thank you card, and I had just the thing in mind.

Some time ago, I had seen this card and tutorial on Michelle Zindorf's blog so I thought it would be just perfect. I changed up the colour scheme and the plate (didn't want Christmas effect in July!) and I chose red since our hostess had some red in her decor - seemed like a colour she likes. (Of course the fact that I like it too also comes into it!)

I won't go into the construction of the card - Michelle Zindorf (said in hushed, reverential voice) explains the technique very well on her blog. However, basically, you do the cutlery with emboss resist and brayer on the background colour (Riding Hood Red). I stamped over with Toile background (SU) in Aged Mahogany, except where I used Versamark and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't show up. Now my Versamark is quite...well....mahogany. Will have to browse all those threads on splitcoast on how to clean off a versamark that someone got coloured ink on. Doh!

The other variation was in my china pattern. I really, really, really wanted to do a china pattern for this card. I dug out one of my very first SU sets, Noteworthy, because it has some tiny china-ish patterns on it. I did one plate and decided I didn't like it. Then I remembered Fancy Flexible Phrases has a bunch of small images that would make a great china pattern, and I was right! I stamped this one around the edge of the circle (4 1/2" in diameter, cut on my Cricut), and accented with some Prussian Blue Bruynzeel crayon and gold leaf pen. I added a bit of red Tombow marker, to bring in the red of the card. The sponge-mask in the centre is 2 1/4" (cut with Nestability). The plate is also edged with gold leaf pen. I almost feel like I should name my new china pattern!

I used my Position-it by Cathie Allan to stamp the sentiment (it's all one row on the block), with my signature errant smudge of ink. I briefly (as in nanosecond) considered redoing the plate, but by now I was far too committed to this plate to re-do it. (I figured that Sir Jasper Wedgwood-Doulton wouldn't fire me for messing up just one plate.) I mounted the whole thing on a Buckaroo Blue card base. A bit of navy ribbon (forced myself to leave it on!) completed the card.

This was a fun card to make. I really enjoyed it. Thanks for the inspiration, Michelle, and for the great tutorial!

PS. I watched the World Cup today - it was a good game, wasn't cheering for a particular side (hunky footballers being evenly distributed across the teams), other than for a slight bias towards the Netherlands because I had a Dutch penpal when I was in school.

Rustic Rooster

When I saw this hostess set in the Stampin' Up catalogue (Country Morning), I fell in love with it. Now that I don't need to save sets for give-aways anymore, I could very selfishly ink this up for myself! The inspiration for this card came from the yellow polka dot panel - I was half-heartedly trying to tidy things up and I found this scrap at the top of the pile. I thought that I would turn it into a card rather than put it away, so I rummaged through the rest of the trimmings and found the veggie strip (with red gingham on reverse), brown and olive bits. With all these treasures in hand, it would have been wrong to keep tidying so I turned them into a card. All these rustic papers called for this rooster image, which is stamped on vanilla and coloured with pencil crayon. I wanted to keep the lines showing so I didn't blend it. Roosters have lovely glossy plumage (at least they do in my imagination), so I added some scattered straw distress stickles to his tail for some sparkle without glitter. The buttons are PTI coconut shell rustic buttons, with some linen or jute twine in them. The sentiment at the bottom was bolder looking in my mind's eye, but once it was down (after whole card finished), it was too late to do anything about it. I'm a bit of a kamikaze stamper that way. (However, this trait has honed my skills at peeling apart layers and hiding mistakes!) Anyway, the olive piece is the only other bit with stamping, where I used the scratchy stamp by Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) in Forest Moss and rubbed in some more Forest Moss to deepen it a bit. I'm quite pleased with how this turned out. It doesn't show in the scan, but the front of the card is actually half an inch narrower than the back panel, and the red gingham is mounted on the back panel for an accent. I don't usually plan far enough in advance for this sort of thing, so I was feeling quite pleased that I thought of it in time to do it. Upon reflection, to be totally truthful, the yellow piece was a smidgen too short, so I was trying to solve that dilemma and stumbled on this as a solution, and it actually worked out quite well!

Stamps: Stampin' Up (Country Morning set), ink: India Ink (Memories), Forest Moss (Distress), Patterned Paper: Farm Fresh (October Afternoon), Cardstock: old olive, very vanilla, chocolate chip (Stampin' Up)

Alcohol Ink Splatter Card

Here's something I came up with after being inspired by Tim Holtz's video clip on alcohol ink splatter technique. I thought it looked like a really cool thing to try, so I got the few supplies together (compressed air, glossy paper -not photo paper - and alcohol ink), put on an old shirt, and sat down to play. I can't quite recall all the colours of alcohol ink I used, but if I were to guess: citrus, lettuce, denim, sailboat blue, red pepper, cranberry, lemonade, and currant. I am a big believer in using lots of colours! But you knew that about me already.

This background was my second attempt, since it does take a bit of practice. I used a variety of colours, some bright, some deeper, just fooled around a bit really. DH was not at all impressed with the initial (pre-stamped) background, and to be fair, it did look a bit blobby and messy (but to be fair back again, this is the point).

I thought my grungey-collagey stamps would be perfect for this. I got them in Victoria (BC) when I was there last year and my aunt took me to her LSS. They're Australian (Stamp-It) and are really useful for this kind of thing - very pretty background stamps in interesting textures and shapes. I used the corner mesh with a flourish and the large flourish and stamped with black India ink. The sentiment is embossed in black and sponged in yellows and greens, with a bit of navy around the edges. It's more vibrant in real life. (I couldn't get through a post without saying it looks better in real life, now could I!)

Normally I have a hard time figuring out what to do with this kind of background (generally being loath to cover up the splendid colour, but I took a deep breath and went for it. This one looked great on an early try with black and real red. I thought the sentiment panel being fairly plan balanced things nicely. I had some flowers in my stash, with some brads to finish it off. As an afterthought I pried off the sentiment panel and added the cord, and stuck it down again. This card also has a side hinge. If you're going to go outside the box, go all the way I say. Nothing says "wild and crazy stamper" like a side hinge card......

Here's a better shot of the alcohol ink (at the expense of washing out the sentiment panel and flowers). There's quite a lot of colour going on. It's so pretty that I want to try this again!

I highly recommend this type of card for late-night NVR (no vendor restriction) stamping therapy. The bright colours will really cheer you up and you will feel extremely clever and pleased with yourself for very little effort. Plus you get to use the canned air that has been kicking around the office for ages!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps: sentiment - Full of Life set (Stampin' Up), background - Laura Koh set (Stamp-It, code sisetoo8lk); Ink: versamark, India Ink, citrus, yoyo yellow (yes, I used yoyo yellow on a card!), gable green, tempting turquoise, night of navy (yikes - did I really use that many????); Paper: whisper white, glossy, basic black, real red; Other: Adirondack alcohol inks, black embossing powder, silver cord (SU), Making Memories flowers (Fifth Avenue collection), BasicGrey brads.

Quick card

Here's a quick card I threw together this evening. It was a loooong day at work. Not a bad day, just a long one. I also popped out after work to go to Gymboree for some kids clothes and redeem Gymbucks. Now I remember why I never bother to do that! It's a madhouse and involves a lot of decision making. Not a great idea after a long day at work. Luckily things took an upswing when I stopped off on the way home for my Christmas swaps (some gorgeous ones in there) and made myself a cup of tea and tucked myself up in my stamping corner and turned off the world. Aaaaahhhh. Maybe that's why this card turned out faintly zen-like. I just got these rub-ons in the mail this week and thought I would try to use them on a card. They seemed to call out for a simple treatment, so I didn't do too much here. The card base (5x7) is some wonderful tsumugi cardstock in a beautiful oatmeal colour (yes, oatmeal can be beautiful, if you would rather think of it as pearl barley or mushroom blush, feel free, just know that IRL it is a soothing, undemanding colour). The only non-relaxing thing about this card was the vigorous popsicle stick rubbing of the rub-on, but at least I got some exercise today. The card seemed to call for a sentiment in the corner, and I was able to use an uninked stamp that I got from a nice lady in a nearby town when we went in on a PTI order together. It's an old SU stamp, and I have always liked it, but so far have only admired it from afar. It was somewhat gratifying to ink it up. I used Vivid ink in Vintage Green for that purpose, and it is a lovely match to the rub-on. (Unfortunately this only reinforces my tendencies to get every colour of ink around on a just-in-case basis.) I added some of the smaller rub-ons on the inside to continue the theme.

Now I feel rested enough to go and make lunches for tomorrow and fall into bed.

NSR: BBC Canada is showing new episodes of Hustle! I'm very excited. It's a bit of a new crew - Mickey Bricks is back in London and, with old partner Ash, has put together a new team of grifters. I'm not sure if Emma and her brother will be as good as Stacy and Danny, but I was not consulted on the casting. (I'm sure it was an oversight due to timezone or similar.) Mickey & Co can still pull off the perfect long con, to finance Eddie in a new bar of his own. It's on Sundays I think. And the Tudors starts this week (LOVE the costumes!), and the Office started last week (must remember to check out Dwight's blog - it's rotfl funny). Time to start banking up my video debt!

Thank you card for Marilyn Manson

Well, dear readers, this card is no Amy Westerman or Jenn Balcer ray of sunshine! But for all of you who were wondering what kind of thank you card you could make for the goths that are near and dear to you, this is it!

I started with the retired set, Fruit Stand, which I want to get some mileage out of before my retired stamp sale. I stamped with Encore gold and heat set with a hot, dry iron. I had also embossed it with antique gold, and that looked good, but I liked it better with the crisp lines of plain ink. Heat setting worked a treat, for any of you who are tired of Encore ink rubbing off and smudging.

The image is matted on brushed gold cardstock, and mounted on a background of basic gray cardstock, which I ran through the 'Bug and smudged with London Fog ink. The whole thing is on some nice woodgrain paper from the Granola paper pack (edged in black ink). It needed a little something, so I added a punched tab with "Merci" on it, from Carte Postale. This card is a little bit of a retired stamp party! (Could be the only festive thing about it...) The card base is basic black.

Anyone know of a goth in need of thanking? Better yet, a francophone goth? If you are one, leave me a comment and this card is yours. (I have no idea what my reader demographic is - relatives (all non-goth) aside - so this shameless trolling for comments is likely to fail, unless I have a secret readership of goths in need of thanking, which seems unlikely. Still, you never know when you post on the Interweb who yer gonna get...)

Thanks for stopping by!

PS Can you tell I had a really bad day? So bad that even stamping couldn't cheer me up and I wound up with a card I can only give to Marilyn Manson?

Supplies: Stamps: Fruit Stand and Carte Postale (Stampin' Up); Ink: Encore gold, Palette Noir Black, London Fog Memento; Paper: basic black, basic gray, brushed gold (Stampin' Up), Granola - BasicGrey; Other: round tab punch (Stampin' Up), cuttlebug and script folder.

Wedding Card

This is the card I made my cousin for her wedding. The nice thing about a homemade card is that you can make it in the wedding colours. My cousin's invitations were teal and ivory, so I went with a teal theme in the card. The inspiration for the design came from lots of different people on splitcoaststampers when I was looking through the Baroque Motifs gallery. I stamped the swirl and the little flowers and cut them out, and added lots of half-back pearls and seed beads. There is a layer of silver paper matting, so this was a very glamourous card in real life.

Must go and help DD1 make her birthday party invitations. DH carved some fish stamps out of potatoes and we will stamp them in Lumiere paint. I'll be back....

Well, we're done with the invitations. I'll have to post a sample when they're done. We had a great time stamping with the Lumiere paints. DH did a fabulous job carving fish - several varieties and lots of colours of Lumieres made for really wonderful fish.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies (All Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted): Stamps: Baroque Motifs; Ink: Taken with Teal, Night of Navy, silver encore; Paper: Shimmer White, Taken with Teal, non-SU silver, Night of Navy; Other: pearls - Pretties Kit; turquoise seed beads - Miss Priss, silver embossing powder.

Pretty, pretty butterfly

This has to be my current favourite card. I love the colours, I love the sparkle, and I love the beads. It's just so pretty! I had a very special person in mind when I made it and I can't wait to give it to her.



I was on a mission to get some mileage out of this set before I sold it, and making two of these cards with individual flowers all coloured in different (6!) colours fit the bill. I love the set, but I could bear to part with it :-)


I used Tombows to colour the flowers in shades of turquoise, green, pink and purple. When I had it done, I realized it went perfectly with my Euphoria pack of patterned paper. (I'd like to be the sort of stamper that plans this kind of thing in advance, but I usually colour away and then try to find something to go with it. Oh well, I cook like that to - assemble the ingredients I have on hand and then hit google to find a recipe for hamburger, Dijon mustard, pickled beets and frozen corn. Luckily this card worked out better than the average dinner around here lol.)



This little butterfly was so pretty, it needed to be accented with some sakura glitter pen and seed beads here and there. The other details were added with a lot of layers (why have one layer when you could have 7?) and some pretty ribbons. The opening was scalloped and some coordinating Eurphoria paper put inside (it's scalloped too). This was not one of those cards that was finished in 10 minutes, but it's not for an ordinary person.

What follows is some chit chat from my life, so if you only want the card deets, skip to the bottom. If you want to read about our Thanksgiving weekend, keep going :-)

It's Thanksgiving weekend here and the weather is glorious. We had our big turkey feast yesterday at my brother's house. Mmmm it was fabulous. My sister-in-law's table was gorgeously decorated, she has such a flair for that sort of thing. Her meal was phenomenal, such a gift of time and love for all of us, as always. My mother made our family favourite, the world's best pumpkin pie. It puts all others to shame. Seriously. And I contributed the green salad. Lest you think this was a healthy contribution, it's a pale green foamy confection comprised mainly of cream cheese, marshmallows and whipping cream, with some pears and lime jello thrown in. For those of you who think you don't like jellied salad, you will be converted. But I can't share the recipe or my aunt's sister-in-law will have me whacked. The only thing I missed was stuffing with Mt. Scio savoury in it. I was an instant convert the first time I had it, years ago when my roommates from Newfoundland made it for me. DH is a Newfoundlander too so we always have Mt. Scio savoury in our stuffing, and I even add it to dumplings in chicken stew. (I'm actually not a bad cook, despite my earlier remarks.)



Today we took the kids to a local pumpkin patch. The car ride was hellish (DD2 should have been having a nap and was just rotten) but once we got there, the girls had fun. Their favourite thing was the pile of straw bales to climb on. (It did make me wonder why we bothered moving a van load of wood and reassembling the play structure when we could have piled up a dozen bales of straw instead....) They hoovered up a lot of apples and I turned a blind eye to the number of times DD2 (who is 2) dropped her apple and kept eating it. I figured the straw was a bit of extra roughage. We got some lovely squashes and the farmer assured me they would keep till Christmas if stored in a cool spot. I look forward to torturing my family with nutritious winter squash for several months to come....hehehehe..... (There do have to be some perks to motherhood after all! They can torment me in the car, but I am in charge of supper!!!! bwahahahaha )



Supplies: Stamps: Reason to Smile, Riveting; Ink: none - Tombow markers + SU marker in Rose Red; Paper: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Spring Moss (PTI), Euphoria (Basic Grey); Other: seed beads, sakura glitter pen, ribbon (SU, other), SU punches: scalloped edge, 1 3/8" circle, 1 1/4" circle.

I'm back - then gone again!

Hi! It's been too long since I've posted. There have been a lot of changes for our household. We are moved in now, and all the essentials are unpacked. I can cook and bake in my kitchen, and more importantly, stamp in my stamp nook! I have 95% of my stamping gear unpacked, in arranged to allow some usability. It's not the final configuration, but I need to give that a bit more thought before I purchase any furniture or storage arrangements. I did sort through my Stampin' Up sets to decide which ones will got to new homes since if I kept all my stamps, I wouldn't have room for any new ones (collective gasps of horror are then heard throughout the nations!). (And before you think I'm being presumptuous about my readership, I get hits from the US, and from all over the world. Not in enormous numbers, granted, but enough to justify the little "s" on nation.)

In other changes, we have started with a new daycare since the move (it was very hard to say goodbye to the old one) and DD1 has started in a new school (Grade 1!). It's very nice to be closer to family, and I took advantage of being closer to the cinema and went to see Mamma Mia (soo, sooo good!).

When faced with the big box of stamps to find new homes for, I felt badly about selling some of them since they hadn't been loved enough here. I decided that I would play with those in particular to "get them out of my system" and to see if I really couldn't part with them.

This card was the first set chosen, a hostess set from a couple of catalogues back, Reason to Smile. I have loved this set since I saw it, but never stamped with it. I remember seeing an awesome card done with it by Julie Buhler (blog - Paper Pleasing Ideas) where she coloured in all the flowers different colours. It looked stunning. Not one to take the easy route when stamping, I wanted to give that a whirl. I coloured each type of flower (and there are six, all very tiny) a different colour. Various flowers are accented with stickles and my glitter pen. Once that was done, pulling the card together didn't take that long (mostly because I was tired and it was time for bed). The background flowers are from Polka Dots and Petals, stamped in Platinum Brilliance. The ribbon is retired organdy ribbon that I had out to cut lengths as a little gift for my stamp club members for filling out my new catalogue Scavenger Hunt. It's the orchid colour, and it matched quite well.

Thanks for looking and don't hold your breath for my next post. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for Victoria for a family wedding this weekend, followed by a trip for work, also in Victoria. The work trip sounds really interesting and I'm excited about it. And who would turn down a trip to the West Coast!?! It will be great to see my family too, a rare and special pleasure. My aunt is a stamper too, so I hope to have a little time stamping with her in her fabulous stamping room. I hope once the wedding dust settles we'll get a chance.

Thanks again for stopping by.

Happy stamping!

Supplies: stamps: Reason to Smile, Polka Dots and Petals; Ink: chalk ink - warm violet, French blue, platinum brilliance; paper: PTI white, orchid opulence, cool Caribbean; other: orchid organdy ribbon, flower brad (Making Memories?), Tombow markers, stickles, glitter pen, deep well of patience.