Sympathy Card

Hello!  A friend asked me to make a sympathy card, and this is the result.  The main panel is sponged with Distress Inks (Scattered Straw,Victorian Velvet, Seedless Preserves, Chipped Sapphire and a tiny bit of Black Soot) on very smooth cream cardstock.  Next, I misted a pretty damask background stamp (Hero Arts) with with water and "stamped" it on the distress ink.  It gives a very pretty, subtle effect, and the more ink you have applied, the more striking the effect is.  I heat set the panel before embossing, and stamped the flower (Penny Black) in black pigment ink and embossed it in black.  Where possible, I like to use the same colour of ink to stamp as emboss in case there are any gaps in the embossing powder.  Of course with semi-opaque and translucent powders you can use other colours for interesting effects too...but that will be a project for another day!  I added a few impressions of the same flower in Chipped Sapphire as well as a border stamp (Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz) on the bottom in Wild Honey.  The card base is Naturals Ivory (Stampin' Up) and the accent strips are two shades of purple (an eggplant, and Stampin' Up's Rich Razzleberry).  The eggplant strip has the same damask print stamp used with Hero Arts shadow ink in Raspberry Jam.  I like these inks for stamping on dark cardstock because they are semi-opaque, like chalk inks, and you see the colour interactions.  A pinkish dye ink would get lost on the dark purple, but the Shadow inks sit on top and add a luminosity to the paper that appeals to me.  To finish it off, I added three dots of Adirondack Liquid Pearls in Eggplant.  They went disastrously wrong so the whole effort had to be peeled off the card base and applied to a new card base and more care and attention applied to the squeezing and placing of the dots.

Thanks for stopping by!

Snowy scene Christmas card

Hello!  Here's a card I made last night when my mother came over for a stamping evening.  I had been experimenting with this stamp (Hero Arts) with different ink and paper combinations, trying a lot of different blues, mostly in chalk inks.  I settled on this one, in Blackbird Colorbox Fluid Chalk, stamped on Whisper White (Stampin' Up) and matted on silver mirror cardstock. I added a sentiment (Cornish Heritage Farms), embossed in silver. The card base is Basic Black, with a Brushed Silver accent strip.  There are some of the stars accented with Diamond stickles, but when I make this again, I will use Stardust.  Diamond has a hint of gold that isn't quite right here.

I know it's early to be thinking about Christmas cards, but I usually make them in batches over the summer holiday and I didn't this year, so I am feeling behind.  This card is a good candidate for a big batch - quick and easy but great results.  The secret here is to use a stamping mat to get a good impression.  Also, Sauron the Scanner is pointing out to me that the card would also benefit from a stamp positioner.  I don't often bother, but for a big batch, it would probably be worth it for the sentiment.

Can you believe it's September already?  I had a great vacation this summer and I hope you did too.  What are your plans for Christmas cards this year?  Do you send them?  Do you make them?

Thank you teacher #4

Hello! Happy Canada Day!  Here's another thank you card for teachers.  I started with a sheet of paper that some time ago I had spritzed and sprayed with Dylusions ink in shades of pink and red.  Quite often I make extra when I have my spray station in operation.  (My spray station is the top of the deep freeze in the furnace room, so it can't be a permanent fixture.) I also like to mop up the extra colour with scrap paper and keep it on hand for future projects.

Once I had selected my Dylusion-y paper, I chose this wonderful negative image poppy stamp from Hero Arts.  I stamped it in Blackbird fluid chalk ink (Colorbox) because I wanted a very juicy ink, but also the detail of a dye rather than a pigment.  I also didn't want to emboss it in this case.  I trimmed it out, mounted it on some black then spent quite a bit of time auditioning card bases for it.  This is the part I always find trickiest, because some papers wash out the vibrant colours and neutrals can be too stark a contrast.  I often find that Japanese tsumugi paper is the answer, as it seems to be richly coloured enough to balance out the intensity of the Dylusions.  This card base is a lovely warm smoked paprika colour.  (I got mixed packs of notecards at my local art store - Wallacks, but if you can't source it in your local store, check out The Japanese Paper Place - they have links to retail locations and on-line sellers too.)  To finish off the card, I added a few dots of Black Diamond stickles to the poppies with centres showing.

Do you have any plans for Canada Day?  I will be making strawberry jam (how is that patriotic?  it's red and makes use of the wonderful berries that are at their peak locally) and watching World Cup soccer.  And quilting.  Fun day!

Thanks for stopping by!

January Stamping Challenge #5

Hello!  Here's today's card for my January stamping challenge.  This card is made from a number of scraps as well.  The main panel was in my box of scrappy treasures, leftover from an experiment with watercolour paper, distress markers, and embossing.  I've done a gradient of various distress markers and blended with water.  The stamp I used is called Looped Flower (Hero Arts).  For this card, I added some clear Wink of Stella (caution - use of this product may be habit forming!).  The sentiment is a rub-on (Stampin' Up), mounted on scraps.  In fact, it's on a scrap left over from trimming the accent strip (scrap) down to size for the card.  The white mat is the last scrap from a scrap of white linen.  The card base is bordering blue (Stampin' Up) and I still haven't forgiven them for retiring this colour... still, they occasionally bring back favourites (hello again soft suede!) so I live in hope.

All in all, this is a fun little scrappy card.  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have time to do some stamping too.

October Stamping Challenge #9

This card for the October Stamping Challenge came together very quickly.  I found a leftover piece of 130 lb. smooth white cardstock, cut it down to size (card front is 3 3/4 x 4 1/2") and stamped this pretty floral image (Hero Arts).  I thought I was grabbing Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, so imagine my surprise when it came out purple!  It turns out I'd used Paris Dusk.  I quite liked the result so I went with that for my colour scheme and chose a selection of dusky purples for the flowers, with a hit of chartreuse for the leaves.  The sentiment banner is a Memory Box stamp, also stamped on a scrap with the same Paris Dusk and coloured over with the greens from the leaves.  It's popped up on foam tape.  How nice of the Memory Box people to size the banner to wrap the selection of stems of the Hero Arts flower!  Or perhaps it was the Hero Arts people planning the stems to fit in the banner.  Either way, I really like how it turned out!  The final accent were some Dark Blue stickles to go in the centres of the flowers.  This card was really, really fast and a lot of fun.

Happy stamping!

Edited to add:  I used Copic markers to colour the image, and the sentiment banner.  I don't recall which ones - just grabbed ones that looked like would work and went for a variety of similar tones.  

Class this Saturday

Hello!  Just a quick post before I head off to work.  I have a class at Heather's Stamping Haven (click here for link).  If you'd like to take it, give Heather a call at the store to register.

For a description of the class, time and other details, click here.  I love these fall colours!  The trees are just starting to change colour here.  I just love autumn!

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.

Floral card

Hello!  Can't believe it's been more than a month since my last post.  It's because of a few things like I haven't been stamping as much since I've rediscovered the joys of knitting (currently doing a scarf from some gorgeous Noro Furin).  Also, I have been teaching two classes per month in March and April, and coming up with twice as many samples takes a bit of time.  And work has been quite demanding, so in the evenings I tend to just collapse.  So that's why you haven't seen too many posts from me. 

Here are some cards I did, inspired by a sample Heather made at Heather's Stamping Haven.  She had embossed the floral background (Hero Arts) in white and coloured with Distress Inks. That's what I did here too, swiping my inks on a craft sheet and lifting the colours with a wet paintbrush.  The birthday sentiment is from Impress Rubber Stamps.  The image is mounted on a piece of citron cardstock and the card base is white shimmer.  This kind of makes me think of a china pattern or something.  I did a whole bunch of these in different colourways, and mostly thank yous and happy birthdays.  Once I came up with the layout I liked, it was easy.  Now I wish I'd matted the sentiment panel, but it's too late now!  I tried adding some stitching with a white pen, but it doesn't look great.  I think I will just live with them like they are. 

Hope all is well with you where ever you are!  Happy stamping :-)

ATC Class Nov 12th

Hello! Just a quick post this morning before I dash off to work. Here are the ATCs I made for an upcoming class at Heather's Stamping Haven. It's going to be from 2-5 on Saturday, November 12th. If you'd like to take the class, please register with the store.

I tried to make ATCs in several different styles, and I will also give people some sketched designs for how to use ATCs as card-starters.

I love all of them, but I think my favourite is the Snowy Day one, which has some surprises hidden inside.

Hope to see you on the 12th! In the meantime, I am going to be a parent volunteer on the kindergarten field trip. Naturally it's the coldest day we've had so far, 8 degrees, windy and rainy. Good thing I'm made of stern stuff. Then tomorrow and Saturday are the all-day classes with Krista Schneider at Heather's! Can't wait - two full days of colouring with Copics and Tombows, 18 projects over the two days. I love it.

Thanks for stopping by!

PS. Stamps: Heather's Stamping Haven, Sunshine Designs, Hero Arts (gold flower), Stampers Anonymous (butterfly ATC). Sorry about the formatting. Ran out of time and patience to get it any better.

Copic Poppies

Hello! It's been a while since I've posted - I've been busy cleaning out the stamp room, and the computer has been in use during blogging hours. But this week the stamp room got clean enough to stamp this poppy image (Hero Arts), and colour it while watching tv. I tried out some new things I learned at the Intermediate Copic class, things like shading and shadows and different colour families. I am still no expert on shadows and shading, but will claim that my main source of light comes from some direction, and then random other sources of light and shadow may also come into play depending on the backstory of my image. So, for example, here, the sun is coming from more or less above, except for the parts where there was a child playing with a flashlight, and another part where another child was casting shadows. You see, if you can imagine a light source, you can imagine all sorts of things. (You are beginning to see why I have not yet been plucked from Copic obscurity and brought to design team fame and glory.)

Anyway, coloured up the poppies while watching Strike Back and seeing Sgts Scott and Stonebridge shoot their way out of this week's (seemingly) certain death. Not normally my sort of tv, but Sgt Stonebridge is extremely easy on the eyes and they do a cliffhanger every week that brings me back. We are on Story Arc #51 of Plot #3 and it's only 5 episodes in. I tell you, not much time to dither between YR31 and R02 or you will lose the thread completely. Oh yeah, it's the hunk shooting his way out of a sticky situation. So far the main difference between episodes seems to be which country he is shooting his way out of and which babe his sidekick is tomcatting around with. So far it's been India, South Africa, the Sudan, and Kosovo (or brainbox, blondie, Irish exhibitionist, doctor, journalist).

Oops - got a bit side tracked there. Back to the card. I masked off the poppies (just the flowers) and stamped the background music (Cornish Heritage Farms scrapblock) in Antique Linen distress ink. I also sponged in some Linen and Vintage Photo around the edges to soften the white paper (too stark). Decided a poppy should be popped up and coloured up another one. It's trimmed to 4"x5.5" so I could have a strip of red fleck down the side (I believe the paper is called poppy fleck - meant to be!). The sentiment (Papertrey Ink) is heat embossed in black, and the accents are Cello Glitter Ritz (Art Institute). Clearly I am a philistine since when I ordered it, I thought it might be clear glitter, as in cellophane. It's a lovely rich brown, as in cello the instrument. Edited to add: Copics used for poppies: YR31, YR02, R22, R08, E19; used for stems: BG93, YG93, YG97.

In non-stamping related news, my five-year-old washed the dishes tonight. She loves being helpful, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. She did a great job. I did the sharp knives and really grubby/heavy things, but she did all the little lunch containers and things like that. I was so proud of her!

Thanks for stopping by.

Inkurable Stampers September Challenge

Hello! The September challenge at Inkurable Stampers is to use eyelets (link here). I had my new Twinkling H20s out, so I made another ATC, this time using a Hero Arts stamp embossed in gold. Once it was embossed, I painted it in shades of warm gold and brown with some magenta highlights (Golden Nugget, Desert Clay, Harvest Sol, Raspberry Wine). I matted it on some burgundy linen cardstock, and embossed the edges in gold. Then stamped "inspire" (Darkroom Door) on a torn strip of the same linen paper and attached it with eyelets. The finishing touch was to add some Gala Glitz (Art Institute) to the flower (little gold balls, and shards of gold glass). I really must get some gold Gala Glitz. I'm tired of winkling out the gold pieces out of my teal jar....

Thanks for stopping by!

Funky Christmas

Hello and happy long weekend! It's Labour Day weekend here, and we are enjoying the time off work, but it's not quite turning out how we pictured. I guess that's what happens when you're a grown up! Free time gets eaten up with responsibilities. Oh well, I still found a few minutes to stamp. The lovely Jennifer McGuire surprised me with a RAK gift of stamps (thank you!) and here is something I made with one of them.

The main image is a Hero Arts stamp, inked with Colorbox Fluid Chalk ink (Lime Pastel) and then embellished with several colours of stickles. Basically I selected all my shades of light green, gold, and red, with some burgundy too and dotted all the dots. (Though by the cold light of day, I see I missed some.) Then, the next day when all those dots are dry, I matted it on gold, then burgundy. The card base is olive green (Kiwi Kiss from SU I think), stamped with a funky snowflake stamp from Sunshine Designs (available from Heather's Stamping Haven) stamped in more Lime Pastel. I ran some Poppy sparkle paper (part of my treasured hoard now that it is discontinued, just like my Kiwi Kiss unfortunately) through the Big Shot using a dotty Tim Holtz folder. A strip of burgundy linen added a bit of oomph to that panel and I also matted some burgundy on the gold too, for some depth. The card was feeling like it was missing some depth of colour to anchor it, apart from the burgundy stickles. I can see cranking out a few of these for Christmas - quite fast and easy. I've made a similar card for Jennifer as a thank you, and will post it later. This is a fun stamp - outside my comfort zone for sure, but it's so quick and easy and I love the results. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend!

PS I'm entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog Hop - theme "Anything Goes". There is some great blog candy for the lucky winner. Now I'm off to do some hopping!

Thank you card

Here's a card I made for the girls' bus driver this year. He was particularly punctual and particularly patient when we weren't. Two excellent qualities in a bus driver. Bus drivers...they have the perfect job....all their problems are behind them! ar ar ar. Not my joke, but my favourite bus driver joke of all time.

I used the Hero Arts foliage stamp, inked with various shades of distress ink, misted and then stamped onto putty coloured linen paper. Then over stamped with a Cornish Heritage Farms text stamp (scrap block) in pumice stone. Sponged on some old paper and walnut stain around the edge and matted on brown. Dithered endlessly about layout, and eventually settled on this. I used a precious chunk of some paper a friend brought me from her summer holiday and one of her stamp store pilgrimages. It's beautifully textured, think of the seaweed you wrap sushi in. (If I weren't such a hick, I would know what that's called. If I weren't so lazy, I would look it up!) The bottom is card base stamped with the same foliage and tinted Rusty Hinge. I wrapped some linen thread and used one of my hoarded Asian coins. We must really hold this guy in high esteem - using up hoarded paper AND hoarded embellishments, all at once.

NSR. An emotional day at work. It was my farewell lunch, and some goodbyes to special people. It's not a big town and we may cross paths again. Indeed I hope so. Still, it's hard to say goodbye to somewhere I've worked for over ten years and step into the unknown. Wish me luck!

Inkurable Stampers June Challenge

Here's my entry for the June challenge at Inkurable Stampers, which is Spots, Dots and Circles.

I recently took a great class at Heather's, featuring Glimmer Mist and I used that technique here, misting and spraying and bleaching out selected portions. I coloured some back in with pencil crayon too. I chose the bird image (Hero Arts) for the circles on it. I also added some paint circles, and the background has a circular motif on the stamp (Stampers Anonymous). The message (also Stampers Anon) is embossed in black. The paper is from a Tim Holtz pack, two sides of one sheet. And a little round clock brad to finish it off. In real life it's quite sparkly. I'm not sure about it - maybe the square is too square. Still, needed to get my entry in before the end of the month, which arrives early due to time zones in Australia being several days ahead of us here in Canada. (I love to say things like that to hubby, who is an engineer and immediately starts to explain the quantum mechanics of time zones and how it's not actually time travel, it's to do with the curvature of the earth and Sir Sanford Fleming trying to catch a train. It's at this point I normally tune out so I can't exactly say how time zones work, other than it's either much earlier or much later somewhere else, and will always be the wrong time to call.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Hero Arts 50 Grand

Hi! Can you believe the weekend is over? I can't. Where did it go??? Yes, we moved our clocks ahead today, but it feels like I lost more than an hour. I'm not ready for Monday morning at all. Anyway, enough whinging about that!

Here's a card I made for the Hero Arts 50 Grand celebration. Their flickr group had close to 50,000 posts, so they are doing a giveaway and here is my entry. I stamped that lovely butterfly collage (Hero Arts) on a piece of paper I'd made a while ago using Adirondack colour wash sprays and pickling salt on watercolour paper. The salt is what gives those neat knobbly effects. I don't remember what colours I used, but pesto, lettuce and a watered-down denim spring to mind. There may have been mushroom and butterscotch too, but I can't really remember. It's going to be different every time anyway.

I stamped the image using the Fiskars board with sponge feet and it did a great job! I needed to spray the cling part of my stamp with window cleaner and wipe it off, since that is the only way I've found (thanks to Kim for the tip) to get Hero Arts stamps to stick to the blocks. They have the stickers on the backs that interfere with the cling. So I stamped it with black pigment ink and heat embossed in black and then stamped the big butterfly the same way on plain watercolour paper. That one got cut out and painted with (8!)Distress Inks and a coating of light blue Twinkling H20 for some shimmery sheen. (Distress inks used: Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans, Forest Moss, Pine Needles, Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord, Walnut Stain, Rusty Hinge - I am a hopeless case!) Then trimmed the image, mounted it on black, mounted to a piece of Spring Moss (? the light green PTI paper) card, trimmed to a 5x7 folded card base. The thank you is also Hero Arts, stamped a little too high, so the black dots were dotted in to "bring it down" visually. Then everything was happening at the bottom of the card so I fooled around for a long time with fibres and bows, etc. I settled on these two fibres from my stash knotted and glued down. I think they do a reasonable job of balancing all the action in the bottom part of the card, but still linking them visually. Doubtless there is an artsy term for this, but I just call it gut-feel.

Well, I am back to the stamp table. I want to do the Darkroom Door ATC swap this month since the next few coming up I don't have the stamps for. This month is Filmstrip theme and there were lots of lovely filmstrips in my box. I am doing an alcohol ink background since I took a class at Heather's Stamping Haven on Saturday and got all re-inspired to use those with a new (to me) technique. (Thanks Fran!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Japanese Doll

I don't know how the colours are showing up for you, but in real life, this is a fresh celery green (like celery hearts) and cameo coral for the pink. It's gorgeous and I love it!!!!! That's extremely immodest, but I love this card. And look at the acres of hoarded Japanese paper I used! Acres! It's a lovely background, and I actually coloured her to go with it.

I have happy memories of colouring this doll - DD1 and I made dolls together one happy afternoon. She loves to blend and make colours with Tombow markers. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree ;-)

The image (Hero Arts) is embossed in black and coloured with markers, and the message is Papertrey Ink. I struggled a bit with the layout, but settled on this. The card base is a lovely celery tsumugi square card, and the pale paper is more hoarded paper (Soft Sky). The girl is festooned with Stickles - yum yum!

Well, it's going to be a short post tonight. I've been slacking on my getting to bed early so it's time to fix that. Starting tonight!

If you're in the area, I have a class coming up at Heather's on January 29th called Lily Splendour. I also have my February class project done and it will be a great class - lots of fun. It will be Feb 19th.

NSR: I made a yummy dinner tonight - roast chicken with lemon and garlic. I got home, whipped it in the oven with a pan of potatoes tossed in olive oil and dashed out to work out. When I got home the kitchen smelled amazing, micro'd some veggies and dinner was delicious. I will have to remember that a roast chicken is that easy and self-minding. I used a great herby-salty-rub, Tuscan blend, to season the chicken. Very nice. I got it in the impulse purchase section next to the cash at LaPointe's (fishmonger) but I have also seen it at the Butchery. Great stuff to jazz up a meal. And really, nothing smells better when you come in the door than roasting chicken. Mouthwatering! As far as recipe went, I saw a bunch of variations on line and just did a version of those. If I were a Kitchen Jedi, I would say I used the Force, but then the Health and Safety vigilantes would close down my blog and start wittering on about inner temperatures and food safety. So I won't. (Besides, who are you going to trust - me, or the people who say leftovers only keep for two days?)

? 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!

Thank you card set

Hello! I mentioned in a previous post that I'm trying to build up a stash for the church bazaar this year. I thought some nice sets in a little paper box might sell well. I'm thinking under $10, perfect for teacher gifts, etc.

I had some scraps from a Basic Grey paper pack (Lime Rickey, I think), so I stamped them with a Hero Arts apple and paper pieced them. (I coloured the stems, though, absolutely do not have patience for paper piecing that x12! I made three sets, four cards each. The card base is So Saffron, with a Hero Arts shadow stamp also stamped in So Saffron. I edged it with a doodle line for emphasis using a Micron pen and stamped the little thank you (Impress) underneath. The three dots on the apples are accented with Diamond stickles.

I have gotten more mileage out of that stamp... I love it. It's the perfect all purpose font, and just the right size for this kind of clean-and-simple card. The other picture shows all four cards in the set. I found a template on-line for a box made with one sheet of 12x12, so I made those with decorative paper band to go around them. In real life these are quite cute and came together really quickly. This afternoon I was working on another set, but that one has taken more time since I am designing a new card for each of the four (mostly because I haven't found a layout I love for the scraps and stamps I'm using).

So much for "auto post". I had this set to automatically post on Monday. Oh well. Maybe I have a special, lazier less attentive version of Blogger.

Thanks for stopping by! I've been having fun stamping from my scrap pile this week. I even made a garish orange card for my bizarre stash. ;-)

Tilda with Ladybug and a Surprise

Here's a project I'll be teaching soon at Heather's Stamping Haven. It's called "Ladybugs Popping Up Everywhere" and it will run July 24th from 2-4. Call Heather if you're interested in signing up. (I can't link directly here as I'm still on the books with Stampin' Up.)

I had so much fun designing this one. It's quite a ways out of my comfort zone. It's cute, uses bright colours, Magnolias, lines and ledgers. Not the smudged or distress element to be found (well, not too smudgy anyway!). It was fun coming up with the little extras for this one. I can't give away the details as this a class project, but I will credit the stamps: Tilda with Ladybug (Magnolia), Ledger stamp and dot trail (Hero Arts), Sentiments (Heather's Stamping Haven), grass and ladybug on branch (Sunshine Designs, The Stamp Barn). I'll also be doing another Magnolia card in September. Good times!

Now for the surprise! It's a pop-up card with a ladybug inside. The wings even move! (That was a trick I learned from one of Krista Schneider's classes, and I thought it was so fantastic that I use it every time I make a project with this image.)

Hope you can join me for the class!

PS Apologies to all purist Magnolia stampers out there - I am one of those people that needs a face on kids. So, if you are a purist, picture Tilda in her natural, noseless, mouthless, lashless, creaseless form.

Hero Arts Poppies & Copic Markers

Wow! After spending a week colouring, I have to say that Copic markers are a lot of fun!!! I was recently away on a business trip for a week and reluctant to face a week's withdrawal pains from stamping, I brought some stamped images and my Copic markers with me. My early efforts in the week were quite .... bad. Really bad. I could blame it on the limited colours, but really, it was just limited skill. Still, any new tool takes some getting used to and in my down-time from my meetings, I would colour away in my little hotel room, happily absorbed in choosing colours and learning to blend. I also learned that the very best paper for Copics is Heather's 130 lb paper. I also used paper from another source, but was disappointed. It may work well for the experienced Copic-wielder, but for the novice, it didn't work. Copic novices, use Heather's paper and you will be much, much happier with the results. No matter how much I soaked it, it refused to bleed, and marker lines were quite easy to remove. I thought it would be a great chance to practice, practice, practice my Copics since that was the take-home message from my certification course. Also, it was easy to pack a SU stampbox full of my Copic collection and a few pages of stamped images. I did bring a few stamps with me (my Nuggitz cubes - perfect for travelling - 4 stamps, 1 block) and my black Memento dew drop for some on-the-spot stamping because sometimes I just don't feel like colouring what's there. (This happened a few times on the trip, so it was nice to have some options.) Are you ready call 1-800-LOCKR-UP yet? I do realize this sounds a bit nutty, and I will admit to being somewhat crazy when it comes to stamping (and knowing obscure words/facts/and other useless tidbits), but since I was allowed through airport security, twice, I can safely claim that I am not ready for immediate committal.

The card posted here was one of my later-in-the-week efforts, probably day 4 or 5. (It was hard to scan in the exact colours, the card base is Pacific Point and the pink cardstock is Cameo Coral, if that helps.) I felt a bit of trepidation turning it into a card (I always feel like that about images that really turned out well). However, I wanted to send a thank you card to the meeting organizers and it seemed fitting to send one I made when I was there. Not that they would know or anything like that, but it's sort of like I want to think about it a wider way to soften the blow of releasing one of my special cards to the mercy of international mail and the non-stamping world, it helps me with the separation anxiety to put some sort of meaning to the card-recipient.

About the making of this card: stamped fabulous Hero Arts poppy image in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink on Heather's 130 lb cardstock. Travelled to new city (not essential to card). Coloured with Copics and accented with stickles (Cinnamon and black in the middles, burgundy going out a bit from the middle.) I used several shades of red and pink and brown, probably 4-5 reds/pinks and 2 browns; I remember the blues, B00, B04, B24 - only blues I have right now - will have to expand repertoire as am getting tired of bright turquoise backgrounds as only non-brown option. Just to let you know, I will start as I mean to go on and not post photos of the ends of my markers. One, because I have some Ciaos and the numbers are on the barrels. Two, because it will mean I will never (a) take the picture or (b) get around to uploading it. If I think of jotting down my colours, I will pass them on, otherwise, just figure I used various shades of light and dark of whatever colour you see. If you want better instructions, come take a class at Heather's ;-)

I matted this on black, then cameo coral (SU) and then on a pacific point (SU) card base (5.25" square). I stamped a pretty dotted flourish (Impress Rubber Stamps) on the card base using New Canvas Palette Ink (PTI). I love that stamp - so useful for something pretty and whimsical but still kind of fresh and not too flourishy-bohemian. (I didn't realize I had such definite ideas about my flourish stamps! I guess I do!) I think this poppy stamp would be great done with fiery oranges (sorry Mum!) as I'm seeing lots of lovely poppies around right now in those colours. Also some beautiful pink ones are blooming in the church garden at the moment. I love poppies!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you find a way to travel with your stamps too.