Arch #18 Flowers

Here's Arch #18, theme of Flowers for the Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge. I've been working away on these challenges and had this one done for some time, but didn't get to photographing and uploading it till today. So do you like my very artsy shadow effect? Purely accidental and I couldn't figure out how to photoshop it out. This photo was the best for showing the shiny beads and the shimmery Perfect Pearl stamping. This arch started out life as a card base, which was rejected for its original purpose. I had stamped it with this lovely agapanthus image (Stampendous) using Perfect Pearls and white/embossing. The brown strip at the bottom was also in the scrap basket (edged with a Tim Holtz border die) and I felt it worked perfectly here. The quote (Paper Inspirations) is on vellum embossed in gold. I glued on some purpley browny beads for some extra embellishment. I'm not sure that purple and brown will be my favourite colour combination, but for an arch it's ok. It makes a change from the usual distress ink backgrounds or Adirondack colour washes anyway!

Only a few more arches left! If you want to play along and are up for a marathon of arches, you still have time.

Arch 20 - Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Here's Arch #20 for the Inkurable Stampers' Gothic Arch Challenge. The theme was Planes, Trains and Automobiles. I hunted high and low for my vintage truck stamp that I won from Darkroom Door. You will see from the arch that I failed to find it that day, when I had some open time to stamp. I went with this gorgeous Hampton Art image (London Diva), stamped in India Ink on smooth cardstock and inked with Crushed Olive, Broken China, and Vintage Photo. I accented the bus with red pencil crayon, dropped on some water, and bleached the lady's face, veil, cuffs, collar and tummy-medallion. The side of the arch was unstamped, so I went over that with some text, didn't like it, stamped a flourish over top, embossed in Garnet. Still not loving it, but it was time to make supper so I was finished. I added a rhinestone brad to the top, since the point felt a bit empty. That's it, that's all! Thanks for stopping by. Only a few more arches left! The next one is Mythical Creatures. I have some goldified wings that seem like they might need using for that one :-) They have been hanging around on my desk for a while, so I'd like to try to work them in. How's that for a cliffhanger?! My blog meets True Blood/24/MI-5! ha ha.

Arch #19 All About Me

This is Arch #19 - theme "All About Me", for the Inkurable Stampers' year-long Gothic Arch challenge. This was such a tough one. I really struggled. I decided that rather than go "deep" on this one, I would just go with the flow, which I guess is really very much "me" after all. Just realizing that now! (Also very much me!) Anyway, the main image is a Stampotique one, and is me as the reluctant office worker (with bad hair and questionable sartorial instincts, if only I was that tall and thin though!). I am sleep-deprived, and in a partial zombie state most of the time (see the greenish pallor?), have to wear the 'office uniform' of blouse, etc., but usually try to have something colourful like a scarf knotted like a tie, or a shawl or something. I even have a blue blouse like this one, but no red polka dot tie, sadly. I don't wear mittens at work, but I do have some mittens that I knit for myself, and can usually only find one of any given pair, so that's about me too. I guess if I did want to go deep on this one, I would usually rather be outside admiring the sky and air than be inside at work. In fact, I would like to be a farmer (small multi-animal self-sufficient farm in remote, but idyllic location with bees and flowers and a Canadienne cow for our milk and cream), but my husband continually talks me out of it citing trivialities such as lack of money and vacation and the extreme likelihood that I would immediately lose interest in farming once I had to clean out the barn. Our plan is to take a farm vacation to 'cure' me of this dream, which could be a rather risky plan seeing as I could realize my true calling. Another thing about me - addicted to colour, colour wash, colouring, colour flinging, colour spritzing, colour sponging, colour-using of any kind. All of these are found somewhere on this arch. I also have a sense of humour and love to laugh. And I have a million stamps. Which explains the yellow joke panel (Stampin' Up stamp). Another thing about me is that I can never bear to throw away interesting scraps, so I have used some on this card to make the grass and the flowers and the yellow joke panel. Another thing about me is that I love Japanese paper, but can never bring myself to use it because it might get used up. I did get out some nice Japanese paper in shades of green to use as the grass. Do you see the watercolour paper grass that actually got used? hahaha. That is so me.

Also one last thing about me that you can't see directly on the arch - I lost her for quite some time, mid-project. I put things down on my desk and then they vanish, mid-project. I spend time hunting and cursing and vowing to improve my organizational abilities, then I find the thing and immediately abandon tedious activities such as tidying and organizing. One more last thing about this arch: the circles around my head symbolize all the balls I have in the air, but please also note all the ones that have fallen on the ground! So that's this arch. All about me.

Christmas card

Hello! Here's a Christmas card that I've been working on since August. That is to say, I coloured up the main image on holidays and recently put together the card itself. I did up a dozen of them, which is a good number to get efficient use of paper, design time, but not get sick of doing them. (I don't like mass producing things - I get bored of doing the same thing over and over.) The main image is Sunshine Designs, stamped and embossed in Espresso and coloured with Tombow markers, accented with stickles. The blue panel is stamped with another Sunshine Designs stamp, sort of a holly/mistletoe sprig in the same vein as the focal image. I stamped it in white, then a Cornish Heritage Farms Christmas greeting in Van Dyke Brown. The mats are chocolate brown, and the card base is a lovely rich, deep red. The accent panel is vanilla linen, embossed with snowflakes. All the bits and pieces are edged in Memories Art Print Brown. This card came quickly together once I got the layout and 12 cards are now in the stash ready to be filled out, addressed and mailed.

No jokes today, I'm afraid. I'm feeling very sombre today, as it's Remembrance Day in Canada. We Canadians pause to remember and give thanks for all those who stand, and stood, in harm's way to defend freedom and peace. Nameless in their multitudes, but each named and known and cherished by their Maker and their loved ones. Lest we forget.

Party invitations

Ok, I am not a very good blogger. I should figure out how to post these better, but I am in a rush. These are the three versions of the party invitations I mentioned in my last post. DD1 and I did colour washes (she picked the colours) using Adirondacks and watercolour paper. I love these! Then she picked some colours of Twinkling H20s and we flung and blobbed colour on top (our fingers are starting to get clean, but it's taken about a day and a half....v. professional look for me.... but I don't mind - it just means the outside matches the inside for a change, as in I am much happier to think about colours and ink and paint and my next design than I am to think about superpopulations and weighting data. One makes me smile and the other makes me shudder. I guess life is about balance, isn't it.) Anyway, we flung and blobbed our twinks, and then let them dry and I ironed everything and she picked out some embossing powder (Faded Jeans distress and White Gold) and I used the Tim Holtz splatter stamp for that. A quick "You're Invited" (Stampin' Up) and we were done. We picked out card bases together, she had the final say, and I added some stamping (Stamping Bella - I love that background!) and some rub-ons (BasicGrey and Stampin' Up!). And we're done!

I'm pleased with how these turned out. They're all different, all lovely, all full of texture and rich colour. Scrumptious!!! I should mention that the card bases are Memory Box (key lime, boysenberry and peony - what fabulous names!), so have white on one side. (And matching envelopes! I have those in the lime and boysenberry - double scrumptious!) I can't believe I am using my precious, hoarded Memory Box stationery on a bunch of Grade 3ers. Still, (1) it's meant to be used, not hoarded, (2) DD1 loooves this stuff and really gets it and appreciates it, and (3) who would love this better than little girls? I mean they keep everything! DD1 keeps shiny gum wrappers for pete's sake. (Does this cast aspersions on point #2?) Anyway, it's used, and I still have some in the stash. It's all good. If I ever win the lottery, I am getting one of every colour of Memory Box AND matching envelopes. My second thing to do with my winnings would be to bring Fred Mullett up here to do a class. My third thing would be to hire a personal assistant to clean and organize my stamp room. My fourth thing would be to build a stamping studio in the backyard, complete with loft and kitchenette, decorated by Ms Sarah Richardson. My fifth thing would be to do a stamping tour of UK, Netherlands, Australia, West Coast/Pacific Northwest/California, and the midwestern United States. And Japan for the paper. My stampy friends and I would hop a chartered jet and just do the rubber tour. I could blog about it, which would then turn into a movie deal, and I would get to do the casting for the role of DH (would probably offer it first to Mr Colin Firth) and I would also offer Mr Tim Holtz a cameo appearance. It's all falling into place. I can see it now..... [Note to self: start buying lottery tickets, DH's position that they are a tax on people who can't do math aside. Someone's gotta win, and who better than someone with a five-point plan!?!?!]

Thanks for stopping by! What would you do if you won the lottery?

Scrap Stash Sunday 8, part 2

Here's another scrap card I made on Sunday, and am just getting it scanned and uploaded now. I had a panel of chalk ink background that was all stamped and done up and rejected from another project. I used my poinsettia nestability dies and a couple of flower punches to cut out some nesting flowers. I used some dove gray flecked paper for the backdrop, stamped in Gray Whale chalk ink with a Stamping Bella background stamp, and in Azurite chalk ink for the words (Darkroom Door). The card base is the light yellow from Papertrey. The flowers are shades of blue and yellow too, with some gold thrown in for good measure. I like that sentiment - nice all-purpose one for a birthday or to mark some milestone achievement or similar. This will go in the bazaar stash.

I did some fling and blob backgrounds with my elder daughter last night. It was fun. We're making invitations to a party at a paint-your-own ceramics place, so I thought it would be fun to make artsy-fartsy invitations. Hopefully I can get those done soon. I need some stamping therapy. It's been a rough slog at work lately. I am quite ready for that to change, but it seems unlikely. Oh well, stiff upper lip chappie and all that. That and a good dose of punk rock for the drive home. In fact I am changing my theme song to The Ramones "I Want To Be Sedated". Speaking of music, the rousing strains of "The Maple Leaf Forever" are wafting to the computer room. My daughters have a CD of Canadian music that they play fairly often. It's quite delightful, and fortunately does not include that Ontariariario song (dreadful) by the same woman who wrote the Hockey Night in Canada theme song (iconic). I would definitely need to be sedated to be exposed to Ontariariaraio for any amount of time, never mind try to spell it.

Scrap Stash Sunday 8

Here's something I whipped up in my extra hour this morning between getting up to chivvy DD1 out the door to Junior Choir and remembering it's daylight savings Sunday.

I had made a few of these images for my entry into the Penny Black octoberfest contest, so I had some in my scrap basket, along with this snowflack embossed background. The bow was even pre-tied and on my desk demanding to be used. The image (Penny Black) was stamped in Majestic Blue versafine ink onto smooth white cardstock. I put a layer of double tack sheet on top and burnished in Glitter Ritz ultrafine (cool highlights). The effect in real life is so beautiful that it almost makes you feel bad that it was so easy. Almost! One shimmery white mat and a white card base later, and I'm done. And with time to spare to post! I love scraps!

By the way, a big thank you to the ladies who came to my class at Heather's Stamping Haven yesterday. I had a great time and it was lovely to see you, and I really appreciated that many of you travelled quite a distance.

NSR Hubby and I went to see the last movie in the Millennium trilogy last night, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. It was really good. I came out of the movie feeling like I could speak Swedish! Between the Millennium trilogy and a childhood spent watching the Swedish Chef on the Muppet Show, I should be able to trot out a few words. Sadly, no. And there was even time after the show to go out for a cocktail at Milestone's. It was lovely.