Groovy bus

Hello!
I'm back, well sort of. I'm trying out our new set up. We have a new monitor and DH has not been able to adjust the settings so the colour looks anything like real life on the screen. I'm hoping that once this goes out through cyberspace and appears on your screen, it will look right. (Our old monitor died and DH said it couldn't be fixed.) Now we are stuck with a new one that he claims works fine. It is driving me crazy, however, and the only thing I like to do on the computer is a big drag now. So, the down side is less blog surfing and blog posting for me because it's a big pain. The upside is more stamping.

Enough moaning! In real life this is very bright and cheerful. The hearts are bright pink, the bus is bright purple, and the flowers are turquoise. The card base is a nice bright pinky purple, a bit brighter than SU's Orchid Opulence.

I couldn't resist this cute little bus from A Muse and I coloured it up in a yellow and orange scheme using crayons and odourless mineral spirits. I thought this bead garland background (Judikins) would be the perfect thing for it, and I was busy stamping it with my bright Big & Juicy pad, when I dropped the bus on the inky stamp. So much for my yellow and orange bus. It has a happy ending, though, since I really like this colour scheme much better.

The message stamp is by Stamp Barn and the hearts are A Muse too. The bus is festooned with stickles in a whole bunch of colours to match the colours on the bus. Very twinkly. It's popped up too. This will be a great card to cheer up someone who is already quite cheerful. I think if I gave it to someone who was a bit down, it would be a bit too overpowering. I'm thinking about adding some stickles to the background. Too much???? Maybe just Stardust (see through).

Well, I will try to overcome my aversion to the new monitor and post every so often, but it's this awful big flat screen contraption that's too bright and the colours are all washed out. I hate it. Oops, I was supposed to stop moaning!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hoo Loves You?

I just couldn't resist these stamps last week when I was in my LSS. They had gotten some new A Muse stamps in and I couldn't help but think that if I got these new ones I would be able to make cards like Julie Ebersole. [Like that could ever happen! Still, it can't hurt to try, right???]

I stamped these images in black India Ink and coloured them with Prismacolor pencil crayons, blended with odourless mineral spirits and a blending stump. I would love to know how to do this better. The colouring is ok (other than under the lidless eye of Sauron the Scanner), but I really don't know what to do with the stumps. I have been cleaning them between colours on this soft sanding block I have, but it seems to be softening the tips so they are getting feathery. I may try to get some sandpaper and see if that works. I feel like there is this whole body of stump lore out there that I am just unaware of. Kind of like those contestants on Amazing Race this week (two pairs of them!!!!) who didn't know who Joan of Arc was and thought he (!!!!) was the one who ferried animals around (!!!!!). I am still shaking my head.

Anyway, if anybody reading this has any stump lore they would like to share with me, or a link to a great blog with tips/instructions/secrets of the stump coven, I would really appreciate it.

More about this card: the white paper is SU's whisper white, and it's matted on basic black. The card base is soft suede, the buttons are PTI, the thread is crochet cotton, and the patterned paper is BasicGrey, Granola line, which I love. So funky!!! I loved how the big circles evoked those dear little owl eyes. And I love that owl on the branch making eyes at the other owl. And I just love the boy owl's expression, so charmingly stunned. (You probably noticed I used the classical Greek technique of colouring the male darker and the female lighter. Sauron the Scanner didn't really pick it up as well as I would have liked.) I wonder if I am brave enough to ink in a little heart between the two owls. It could ruin the whole thing, which, being glued together with Tombow Mono Multi, could never be pried apart. I think I will go for it.

------- (mentally sing the final Jeopardy jingle to yourself if you wish) --------------------

I'm back now, and have added some hearts and am entirely too pleased with myself. What do you think? Is it better with hearts? I channeled Her Royal Rubberness and inked them in. (Julie HRR often adds her own sentiments, pictures, etc. and is a wizard with the Micron. I am not even a wizard's apprentice, but I am pleased with these hearts!)

I think I will try to find a way to sneak this into DH's coat pocket or something so he will find it unsuspectingly. I did show him an early stage of colouring, but I don't think he'll remember. And he said his aversion to ribbon is wearing down, so the little brown felt tab (SU) shouldn't be too overwhelming for him. I was originally going to make this for my daughter's lunch box, but it's a bit sombre for a little girl. I think I will make a sunnier version for her. But that will be another day's project.

Thanks for stopping by!

Prismacolor Pencils

Do you ever have a card that you just love! This is one I just love. The scanner couldn't quite pick it up, but the petals are so softely shaded. I just love looking at them. The paper was a perfect match too (Hot Off the Press Cardmaker kit). I've had that in my stash for a while and use it now and then - it's wonderful shades of blue and purple and pink.

This stamp (Penny Black - Gossamer) is a recent acquisition and I thought I would try it with Prismacolor pencils. I have tried them now and then and not really spent a lot of time experimenting. I watched some you-tubes on them and got some tips and tried them out. I have odorless mineral spirits and a stump to blend them out. I didn't find that the blending with pencils alone worked for me, but I have the Scholar variety of pencil and I don't believe they are as soft as the more professional pencils. The centres of the flowers have some stickles for a bit of sparkle on the card. The sentiment is a Stampin' Up rub on from the Chit Chat pack, punched out with a Stampin' Up punch. I edged with a bit of warm violet chalk ink (Colorbox). The flowers were stamped in India Ink (Memories) on whisper white. I didn't have any trouble with smudging, etc. and it is a very true black, great for the detail lines here. I used coordinating ribbon (also HOTP) and some lavender eyelets. The card is 5 1/4 by 5 1/4. I'll be needing a farewell card at work soon, and I sort of had this in mind for that purpose. Thanks for stopping by!

Colourful Birthday

I am on a colourful card kick these days! I needed a card for a little girl's birthday party so I thought I would do one using some as-yet uninked rubber. This is Kenya Ketto - so cute, and really lends herself to multiple colours. Uncharacteristically, I found the papers first and then coloured her to match. (Usually I do it the other way around, but I was in a hurry tonight. I have a hot date with DH, Survivor/The Office and the couch.)

She's stamped with india ink, coloured with prismacolour pencils (unblended because I like the texture, and also too rushed/lazy to root out the OMS). Because it's a flower theme over at SB this week, and because it's for a 7-year-old girl, I added some flowers, embellished with rhinestones. Also a rhinestone on her wand. I will add some glitter now, but wanted to scan it in and I will be in trouble if I get any more glitter on the scanner....

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: I am not allowed to post most of them here under the rules of my demonstrator agreement but if you want to know, email me and I will answer. Paper: whisper white, basic black and rose red (SU).

Baby Mobile

Isn't this a darling image! I fell in love with it when I saw it at my LSS, and there was a beautiful sample with it too. Our neighbours had a baby boy recently and I made this card to take over to them along with some muffins and stew that I made. (I'm home with DD2 who has an earache, hence the domestic flurry. The winter coats are even on the line drying! Lest you think I'm some sort of spring cleaning domestic goddess, the winter boots are still languishing in the hall closet.)

The mobile image was stamped with Palette noir and coloured with Prismacolor pencil crayons. I added a line to frame with a certainly celery marker. The image is mounted on celery, then a charming piece of patterned paper (Urban Prairie) in turquoise and celery. I found the perfect match in textured matting paper in a DCVW pad. A few buttons (from stash) and some Stampin Up rick rack finish it off. The rick rack is one of those embellishments (as in all ribbon) that I often get out, but usually put back because I can't figure out what to do with it. I'm pleased with myself for actually using it here, especially since it's from my stash of hoarded Cool Caribbean accessories. The background papers and card base were edged in French blue fluid chalk ink for some interest, and because I am seemingly incapable of making a card these days without some form of chalk ink on it somewhere. The brad on the mobile is bashful blue, and I'd rather it was celery, but I used all my celery brads on a class I think so blue was left. I tried it with a dewdrop, but I liked the brad better, just wish it was green. Rats, it now occurs to me that I could have embossed it with celery ink and turned it green. Oh well, that wasn't really on the schedule for a quickie card between running upstairs to hang out laundry, make lunch and soothe fitful child with earache. Hope they don't read this blog to discover the fatal flaw in their card! Yikes! Heaven forbid!

So has anyone else been watching Lost in Austen on TVO? It was so good! I loved it. That pond scene was the most marvellous nod to the Pride and Prejudice miniseries. I had to rewind the pond scene several times to appreciate fully the richness of its cinematic merit. I've also gotten hooked on In Treatment. I think I might be developing a crush on Gabriel Byrne. It must be the Irish accent, because I don't really watch the, I just listen as I feverishly cut and sort projects for 24 stampers this Sunday (3 cards x 4 styles x 24 stampers = lots of cutting and sorting). Also, 99% of the scenes are in his apartment/treatment room and there is only so much brown I can watch at a time. Maybe that's why his eyes look so blue - it's the backdrop of a thousand shades of Forest Floor.... Anyway, 15 episodes of In Treatment and one teensy crush later (well two if you count Mr Darcy dans l'eau), I am finished cutting, sorting and bagging all 2652,69922,32q0q projects and am looking forward to a great big Stamping Extravaganza on Sunday!

Thanks for stopping by.







Anyway, back to the card. It's a

Remembrance Day

My daughter wanted to stamp with me and I wanted to try my Prismacolor crayons. I stamped her this flower, which she wanted to make into a poppy. We're wearing our poppies these days, in honour of Remembrance Day and the war veterans and soldiers, sailors and airmen and women serving overseas. She drew the artwork and found the cardbase herself and put it all together. I only helped with blending the p'colors as the OMS seemed too a little too risky for a Grade 1 helper.

Didn't she do a good job! I'm so proud of my little stamper.

Supplies: Stamp: Stampendous, Ink: Stazon, Other: prismacolor crayons, odourless mineral spirits, blending stump, ballpoint pen.