I've Been Published!

Actually, I've known for some time that I would be, but I never did post anything here. So, if you'll forgive me (well, even if you won't), I'm going to brag just a little bit. I submitted a bunch of cards to Stampington for the Winter Take Ten and miracle of miracles, they published three of my cards. This one featuring a gorgeous butterfly stamp from Starving Artistamps is on page 84, and I also have cards on pages 108 and 113.

Thanks for indulging my need blow my own horn. Just for being such patient readers, I'm going to offer up some blog candy. Yup, you heard right...BLOG CANDY! Just post a comment here before midnight (EST), and you'll be the lucky winner of....shhhh, it's a secret! But don't worry one bit...you will NOT be disappointed.

Oh, and although I'm certainly not trying to discourage you, please don't feel like you have to post a comment saying how wonderful my cards are. I'll be choosing the winner randomly, so you'll have just as much chance to win if you just say "Gimme candy"! I'll choose the winner sometime tomorrow, and if you leave me your email addy, I'll be sure to notify you. Otherwise, make sure you check back here.

Happy New Year!

Patriots Game Tonight!

Just in case you didn't know, the big game is tonight! If the Pats win tonight (and why wouldn't they?), they'll be the first team to go undefeated for and entire season since the 1972 Dolphins. Good luck, Patriots!

I've been spending the week doing whatever I want, whenever I want. Returning to work on Wednesday is going to be such a shock. But in the meantime, I plan to pretend that I don't need to work for a living and squeeze in as much carefree stamping time as possible.

Today's card uses stamps from Starving Artistamps, ornate tooled leather BG, fern leaf tooled leather BG, the heart from the scalloped ornamentals set, and a sentiment from Sun Spirit Studios (also available at Starving Artistamps). The dark blue background uses the Faux Denim technique from the Dec. 07 Techinque Junkies Newsletter with the ornate BG stamped over it with Prussian Blue Marvy Matchables Ink. The hearts are embossed with silver EP and I filled them in with clear embossing liquid to make them look like enamel. Sketch Challenge 155 at Splitcoast Stampers provided the layout.

Aaaaah!

I don't know about you, but as much as I love Christmas, I love the day after even more! We had a wonderful holiday with our kids and grandkids -- I hope yours was wonderful too.

Santa was very, very good to me this year. I am now the proud owner of some new Magenta and Penny Black stamps, Fluid Chalk ink pads, and a couple of paper punches. Still on the way are a set of Prismacolor markers, Lyra watercolor crayons, and some pearlescent acrylic paints. Yes. Santa was very, very good! I've also got piles and piles of new rubber from smARTworks and Starving Artistamps. Can you guess what I'll be doing the rest of the week?

Here's my first non-Christmas card in what seems like forever. These stamps are from Starving Artistamps -- one of the horses from set 6012, P14.09 grass, and the ornate tooled leather background. The layout for this card comes from Splitcoast Stampers Sketch Challenge 156. I stamped the background with Brilliance Graphite Black ink and added some highlights with a cream Prismacolor pencil. The horse is embossed with black embossing powder, and to ground the image, I stamped the grass with red dye ink. I sponged the edges of the pieces with black ink just to grunge them up a bit and embellished with natural twill tape and a piece of chenille cord. Not my usual style, but I really had fun with this one. Hmmm...what should I play with next?

Season's Greetings

With all the last minute preparations, holiday parties, and life in general, I haven't had much time to stamp and don't have a new card to show you. Instead, I thought I'd share this picture I took during the snowstorm last Thursday. It snowed heavily for hours with no wind at all -- one of the prettiest snowfalls I've ever seen.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

We're Snowed In!

We've got 10 inches on the ground, and it's STILL snowing hard. I really have no choice but to stay in and stamp tonight...darn!

This is a card that I made for the Ways to Use It Challenge on SCS. The challenge for today is to use a monochromatic color scheme. I don't often do that, and I'm not sure why because it's FUN! I just might have to try another one...or two...or three.

The Technicalities
Stamps: Magenta Poinsettia Tile, Inkadinkado - Season's Greetings
Papers: Digital paper from ScrapGirls, white and brick red cardstock
Ink: Fluid Chalk - Warm Red, Blush Rose
Accessories: Brads, Ribbon, Red Stickles, Prismacolor Pencils

Let it Snow!

That right...storm Alexander is on its way to Connecticut bringing plenty of snow so I thought this would be the perfect card to share with you.

The cute little snowman and all the silver accents on this card are Magenta Peel-off stickers. I colored the snowman with glaze pens and a Stardust Silver pen. The snowflakes (Inkadinkado) on the background are stamped on vellum with PearlEx interference blue/gold ink and the blue patterned paper is from Heidi Grace. Oh yeah, and I used Splitcoast Stampers Sketch Challenge #152 for the layout.

Partridge in a Pear Tree

Every two months we do a designer's challenge at smARTworks. Susan sends us each a stamp set, and we don't know what it will be until it arrives. We each have to make "something" with the stamps...anything we want. But, and this is the hard part, we can't talk about it, and we can't show each other what we've done until everyone is finished. This time we all worked with the Pear Tree set (page 37 in the catalog), and I was very surprised to see how similar our projects were. Then again, they are all very different! See for yourself: smART Cookies Design Challenge #2

My projects are both colored with Prismacolor pencils. The shiny black "enameled" pieces are done on black cardstock and embossed with clear EP. I used Brilliance gold ink to stamp the images on black, and Fluid Chalk Olive Pastel for the images on green. The gold linework is done with a Sakura Stardust gold pen.

TGIF, and enjoy the weekend! We're putting our tree up this weekend, and hopefully, getting the Christmas cards ready to mail. I think I have a few more to make so I could be burning some midnight oil!

It's Tea Party Time Again!

It seems that I start every one of these Tea Party posts with "I can't believe another 2 weeks have gone by!" But, it's true...time just flies by this time of year. I wouldn't change a thing though; I love the holiday season.

This is our 4th Tea Party Challenge, and this time Susan Liles is hosting. She joked in a email to the design team that her sketch was "lame-o", but I totally disagree. I tend to use alot of straight lines in my designs so I found the wave in the background very refreshing...what a simple way to add interest!

The stamp set I used for my card is Tree Quartet from smARTworks (of course). The blue patterned paper for the snowy sky is from Heidi Grace, and the white snow hill is made with shimmer paper that I embossed with my Cuttlebug. It's very shimmery and sparkly in person. In fact, everything shimmers on this card...I stamped the tree with Pearl-Ex blue/gold ink and highlighted with Stickles. The scalloped square is cut and embossed using Nestabilities dies and I added extra fine glitter to the edge.

Be sure to check out the other Cookies' blogs to see what they did with this awesome sketch: Susan Trask, Dina Kowal, Trish D'Antonio, Heidi Kingery, and Susan Liles.

Skinny Trees and Starving Artistamps

I really wanted to post yesterday but I was just too beat when I got home from work so we have a double post today. I'll start off with a Christmas card since, well...it is that season!

The papers are from S.E.I. and I think the collection is called Holly Lane. The tree stamp is from Great Impressions and the sentiment is a Studio g dollar stamp...don'tcha just love dollar stamps? The tree is stamped with Black dye ink and colored with Prismacolor markers and Sakura Glitter gel pens for some glitz. And those aren't brads in the corners -- they are snaps that I set with my brand-spankin'-new Cropodile!


This next card is one that I made for the Starving Artistamps design team. Pretty simple stamping, but I really love the way it came out. I stamped the handmade paper background with green chalk ink. I inked up the flower with purple, ochre, and olive green chalk ink and stamped it over the background. The photo corners are hand cut from some scraps. The stamps, of course, are available from Starving Artistamps.

Tis the Season

I've been busy this week working on Christmas projects so I have lots to show you over the next several days. I'll start with the Santa portrait that I did in my painting class last weekend. Actually, since I'm working in colored pencils, I'm not sure whether to call my pieces paintings or drawings...I'll have to remember to ask next time I'm at the studio! I know there is a lot that could be improved with this painting/drawing, but since it's my first portrait I'm pretty darned happy with it. We used Primsmacolor pencils on Mi Teintes paper with just a bit of white pastel on the beard, so technically, I guess this is a multi-media piece.

Stay tuned...I have more to come!

Now, it's time for tea!

It hardly seems possible, but it's already been two weeks since our last smART Cookie Tea Party. Susan Trask, our fearless leader, issued the challenge this time. Looks like a pretty simple sketch, right? Check closer. She made it quite challenging by requiring that the focal point be the text.



I fussed over this one quite a bit, but I'm pretty happy with the end result. Black, white, and red has always been one of my favorite color schemes. The stamps I used, of course, are from smARTworks. The sentiment is from the My Heart set, and the little flowers are from Tiny Touches #6.

Be sure to check out the other Cookies' blogs to see what they did with this cool sketch: Susan Trask, Dina Kowal, Trish D'Antonio, Heidi Kingery, and Susan Liles.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

And the winner of my blog candy is...

Michelle Adams! Congratulations, Michelle! Thanks to all of you who played, and thanks to everyone for the Birthday wishes. I had a lovely day yesterday; hubby treated me to a day of shopping and dinner out. He spent over an hour with me at the LSS and even bought a couple of things for himself. Hmmm, I think he's a keeper!

Happy Birthday to Me!

And you know what that means, right? Yup! Blog candy!!! Just post a comment to my blog today (any time before midnight EST) telling me what you love most about the holidays or this time of year in general, and I'll enter you in a random drawing for the Tree Quartet stamp set from smARTworks. Cool, huh?

Here's a card I made with my Tree Quartet set. It's a real honest-to-goodness 10-minute card, perfect for producing in quantity and not too bumpy as to require extra postage. The printed paper I used in from s.e.i., but you could use scraps from your stash. I did the gold highlights with a gel pen.

Drumroll, please...

I received my first batch of stamps from Starving Artistamps, and here it is...my first card as a member of the design team! Tracey has some gorgeous images in her inventory, so be sure to check them out. And if you happen to live anywhere near Long Island, she'll be at the The 7th Annual Greater New York Art Stamp Show in Smithtown on Saturday, November 17th.

For this card, I used the large flower stamp 18.04 and tile 38.13. I stamped the flowers with Chestnut Roan Fluid Chalk Ink and the tiles with Burnt Sienna Fluid Chalk Ink. All coloring is done with Prismacolor pencils.

It’s Tea Party Time!

It's my turn to host the smART Cookies Tea Party challenge, and I chose this sketch. Just to spice things up a bit, I asked everyone to do something interesting with the strips in the background. Be sure to check the other smARTworks Design Team blogs (Dina Kowal, Heidi Kingery, Susan Liles, Trish D'Antonio, and Susan Trask)because I’m sure they’ll come up with some really cool stuff – they are smART Cookies, after all!

For my first card, I used some ribbon from my rather extensive collection. I happened to be in touch with my inner girlie-girl when I made this card so it has plenty of bling…well, for me, anyway. I used a few different smARTworks sets for this card: the puppy dog is from Dog Daze, the dog bone is from Pet Stuff, and the sentiment is from To Life! I doodled the dream cloud around the dog bone and used Prismacolor markers and pencils to color the images.

My second card also has plenty of bling! I bought my first alcohol inks last week so I just had to play with them. The strips for this card are made from tin foil that I colored with alcohol ink and embossed with my Cuttlebug. The images are from the smARTworks Kings set.

We’d love for you to play along with us! If you make a card, be sure to put a link here or on one of the other smART Cookies Design Team blogs.

Of course, after you’ve seen all the great smARTworks images we used, you’re bound to fall in love with them. Well, I’ve got good news for you! Susan has some great specials this month, including 12% off your order. Check out all of her specials on the News page and make sure you check out all the great new stamps she just released, including a few designs from DT member Dina Kowal!

Whew! I finally got some actually stamping done this weekend. I've been fooling around with things all week with nothing to really show for my efforts...just experimenting with things and trying out new ideas. That's a fine way to work unless your NEED something DONE! I had a couple of deadlines that were starting to concern me, but thank goodness, my muse let me finish a couple of things!

I did this card for the sketch challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. The Berry and Vine stamp is from Magenta. I picked it up cheap (and all stained and yucky) on eBay a couple weeks ago. The stamp is in pretty rough shape, but as you can see, it still works just fine. I stamped the main panel with Brilliance Moonlight White on black cardstock and colored with Prismacolor pencils. For the black background piece, I stamped the image with Versamark and colored it with a couple shades of grey Prismacolor pencils. You can't see it in the photo, but I went over the pink berries with a clear Glaze pen just to add a little sparkle. The green mesh is SU magic mesh.

Make sure you check back here on Wednesday. It's the second edition of the smART Cookies Tea Party Challenge. It was my turn to pick the sketch, and I added a little bit of an extra challenge. It should be great fun, so don't miss it!

Happy Halloween!

I can't believe it's Halloween! I had intended to post this pic on Sunday, but here it is Wednesday already...where does the time go?

This is the project we worked on at the Art Tea on Saturday. What a fun afternoon! This is done with 7 colors of Prismacolor pencils and nothing else -- no Gamsol, no baby oil, no blenders -- nothing. I'm just amazed at what you can do with those pencils! I have another workshop coming up in November and in that one we're doing an old-fashioned Santa's head. I can't wait for that one!

Now that the World Series has been convincingly won by our beloved Red Sox, maybe I can get back on my normal schedule and get some stamping done. I'm kind of pooped tonight, but I'm going to give it a go. Hopefully I'll have a new card to post in the next day or two!

Try not to eat to much candy tonight!

Another Tea Party Today

Today's Tea Party is a bit different than Wednesday's -- this is the real deal. I'm going to a fundraiser event with a couple of friends this afternoon. We'll be doing a colored pencil drawing of a tulip and we'll be treated to tea and sweet snacks. If all goes well, I'll have a piece of my own artwork to hang on my wall. I'll post a pic tomorrow for you all to admire {grin}.

I did get some stamping time in early this morning, and this card is what I came up with. Pretty simple and really quick, and I love the way it came out. I'll probably make more of these to use for my Christmas cards this year.

The Season's Greetings stamp is from Inkadinkadoo and the brocade background is an unmounted from Stamp Camp. I used Marvy Matchables Prussian blue ink and Brilliance Silver embossed with silver embossing powder.

Enjoy your weekend! It's kind of rainy and dreary here, but hey, a Saturday's a Saturday!

It's Tea Party Time!

It's time for the first smART Cookies Tea Party! Our first challenge comes from Dina Kowal in the form of a sketch, which I've included at the end of this post.

For my first version of the sketch, I used the smARTworks Chickadee Wishes and Bough and Cone sets along with a sentiment from Inkadinkadoo. I heat embossed the pinecones and boughs on the top and bottom panels using embossing power that looks just like copper patina. It's really pretty IRL...I just wish it showed up better in the photo. The papers are all from Basic Grey, and the ink I used for the chickadee is Ranger Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

For my second card, I used smARTworks Dog Daze and Woof. Don't you just love those little doggies? They are actually three separate stamps...I just stamped the little guy first, then masked him off so I could stamp the other two. I colored the little guys with Prismacolor pencils and used a piece of paper from a huge stack of Wild Asparagus/My Mind's Eye paper I picked up at Costco.

The other smART Cookies, Dina Kowal, Heidi Kingery, Susan Liles, Trish D'Antonio, and Susan Trask (the head cookie herself), will be posting their cards throughout the day today, so be sure to check out them out. We'd love it if you played along with us too. If you make a card, post a link on any of our blogs so that we can all ooooh and aaaah!

Look what I learned in class!

I took a class at my LSS, the Stamp and Scrap Nest in Simsbury, CT, on Saturday. If you're in the area, be sure to stop in...Susan and her staff are so helpful, and she's always got something new to try (and buy, of course)!

OK, back to the class. Theresa Winters from Dreamweaver Stencils taught us several different techniques using the stencils with embossing paste. Theresa is an absolute riot and a darned good teacher too. She kept the class moving along, answered everyone's questions, gave us a million great tips, and kept us in stitches the entire day. If you ever have the chance to take one of her classes don't pass it up!

The technique I used for this card is basic paste embossing with gold leafing applied. In a nutshell, you do the paste embossing and let it dry. Then, you realign the stencil and dab on some Palette Stamp & Stick. Next, remove the stencil and heat the Stamp & Stick until tacky and apply the gold leaf. The leafing I used here is a gorgeous varigated green available from Dreamweaver.

I'll be back tomorrow with more cards because tomorrow is the first posting of the brand new smARTworks smART Cookies Tea Party. The design team members will be taking turns issuing challenges, which will be posted every other Wednesday starting tomorrow. I'll be posting my cards and the challenge, which happens to be a sketch this time, tomorrow afternoon so be sure to stop by and join the party!

More Halloween

Here's one I made today for Sketch Challenge #146 on Splitcoast Stampers. The ghost stamp from Outlines, and the words at the bottom are a stamp from Sugarloaf, the crosshatch background is Stamp Camp rubber, and that cool candy corn paper is from Paper Salon.

I started off by stamping the ghost on white and then masking it off. Next, I stenciled the oval with Brilliance Silver and masked that off as well. Then I stamped the crosshatch pattern with SU Brocade Blue and colored in the background with cerulean blue Prismacolor marker. Finally, I colored the bag and added some shading with Prismacolor markers. The scalloped rectangle is actually two Nestabilities scalloped squares overlapped to form a rectangle. The blue paper is Cuttlebugged and sanded slightly to bring up the pattern.

Tracey has officially announced the her new Design Team at Starving Artistamps, and I still can't believe I made it! I mean seriously...did you check out the other names on the list? They are all very talented stampers. I'm really looking forward to working with the team!

Enjoy what's left of your weekend. It's been a real beauty here in southern New England.

Oh yeah, and ... Wahoo! Go New England Patriots!!!

As Promised...Pumpkins!

Here's the card I promised! This is a card from my first batch of Design Team cards for smARTworks. Because of my bad habit of buying stamps and using them only once...maybe twice, I wasn't sure how I'd like having to make lots of cards from the same stamps. Turns out I love it! I've made 5 cards with these pumpkins and this one, the last one so far, is my favorite. It was also one of the easiest. Go figure!

I stamped the pumpkins (smARTworks Pumpkin Blessings) on white cardstock and colored them in with Prismacolor markers. Then, I added just a bit of highlighting with a Prismacolor pencil in a lighter shade of orange. For the hills, I darkened a piece of light green paper with some olive pastel Fluid Chalk ink and then tore the edge. The hill in the back was also darken up with some warm green ink after I tore the edge. The sentiment (also from the Pumpkin Blessings set) is stamped with Brilliance Graphite Black. The swirls in the blue sky are Cuttlebugged, of course!

Enjoy your weekend!

This week was MUCH better!

Wow! What a difference a week makes! I got some wonderful news this week: I've been selected to join the design team for Starving Artistamps! The other members of the team are exceptionally talented stampers, and I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have a chance to play with them! I'll share more deets later (I'm posting this REAL quick on my coffee break), but I just had to say something before I burst!

I'll be back later to post a new card too, so don't touch that dial!

Spooky?

Ever have one of those weeks when you just couldn't seem to get out of your own way? That was my whole week last week. Everything I picked up, I dropped. Everywhere I went (if I remembered I needed to go in the first place), I was late. Everything I tried to do, I messed up. Needless to say, it was one loooong week!

Things seem to be going much better this weekend. I've had this card on my desk all week, and this morning after many failed design experiments, it finally came together. I should have taken a picture of all the scraps this card generated -- it was a pretty impressive pile!

For this card, I used the layout for Sketch Challenge #145 over at Splitcoast Stampers. I'm happy with the end result, but I did find the layout a bit challenging, which is the point I guess. The cute little ghost is from Holly Berry House. He's stamped on shimmery white paper for extra spookiness. The striped paper is from DCWV, the dots on the orange mat are Lime Green Stickles, and the tag and embossed panels are Cuttlebugged.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

...but I can't show you what I've been working on! I've been stamping this weekend, but I can't show you my projects because they are (hopefully) for publication. I can show you this card I made a couple weeks ago, though. It's a pretty simple card, but I really love the way the colors work together and it's currently one of my favorites.

The stamp is from the Peeking Posies set by Hero Arts. I stamped the image on a scrap of Basic Grey Perhaps paper and colored it with Prismacolor pencils. As with most of my colored pencil pieces, I did my blending with a colorless blender pencil. The script background stamp by Inkadinkado is stamped with Ranger Distress Vintage Photo and I added speckling by flicking a wet brush over the tip of a watercolor pencil. I used Basic Grey Stella Ruby paper for the background and finished the card with some velvet ribbon I picked up at Michael's.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I'll try to have something new to post during the week. Promise!

The Big Reveal!

Yesterday was the big reveal for the first ever smARTworks Design Team Challenge. We all got the Scarecrow stamp set and were instructed to "do something with it". What fun!


I took one look at that jacket, and something about the cut and fit if it reminded me of a paisley Nehru jacket I made myself when I was about 14. At the time, I fancied myself a flower child...very Bohemian, and oh so very hip. Anyway, that jacket and that carefree time of my life provided the inspiration for this card, which I call "Boho Chic".

Be sure to check out all the great stamps and other products over at smARTworks. And, if you'd like a chance to win a free scarecrow set, check out Susan's blog, In the Works, while you're there. Better hurry though, the first person to answer her contest question wins the prize!

Christmas in September

This is the card I was working in when I shot the photo for my banner. I thought you'd like to see it finished! I work on my Christmas cards year round, but you can be sure that I'll still be scrambling to make a few more at the last minute!

Those of you who are familiar with Outlines Rubber Stamps will recognize this a one of their designs right away. I find the geometric designs very appealing for some reason. It must just be the way my brain is wired because I'm also an avid quilter.

Anyway, this card uses three stamps in all: an Outlines geometric background, an Outlines greeting, and a polka dot background stamp from Stamp Camp. I think the Outlines stamps I used have been discontinued, but they have very similar ones available if you're interested in making one of these cards. The technique is simple, just stamp your images on different colors of cardstock, emboss and/or color as desired, cut out the different elements, and finally layer everything using mounting foam for dimension. On this card, I used Prismacolor markers for coloring, embossed my images with clear embossing powder, cut some of the layers with scalloped scissors, and added a few rhinestones for some glitz.

Party!

This stamp really struck my funny bone when I saw it at a stamp show this Spring. After I got it home though, I wasn't quite sure what to do with it since it's not my style. Besides, haven't we put party hats on enough things yet? But hey, at least it doesn't have wings!

Anyway, now that I've finally inked up this stamp, I'm thinking that it was a whole lot of fun to work with. The coloring was super easy with Prismacolor pencils. I just colored in the image, grabbing whatever color jumped out at me. When I was done, I burnished over everything with a colorless blender pencil. I added some ribbon, a Cuttlebug diecut ribbon slide, some Basic Grey paper and scraps of cardstock, and voila!

The only thing I can't tell you about this card is who makes the stamp. I bought it unmounted and there is absolutely no marking to tell me who the vendor was. If you recognize it, please leave a comment so that I can give proper credit.

10-1-07: Michelle Adams left a comment to let me know that this stamp is from Lost Coast Designs. Thanks, Michelle!

Flight of the Monarchs

A friend of mine in Kansas had a backyard full of Monarch butterflies during the week. What a beautiful sight! All those Monarchs made me think of this card that I made awhile ago.

This gorgeous butterfly stamp is from StarvingArtistamps. I first inked up the stamp with some SU classic Certainly Celery and Apricot Appeal. Then, I stamped the image on watercolor paper that I had misted with water until it was quite wet. After the colors ran to my satisfaction I blotted up the excess water and let the paper dry thoroughly. Finally, I stamped over top of the first image with Palette Noir Black ink and cut out the image.

The printed papers are from the Basic Grey 6x6 Scarlet's Letter collection, the printed acetate strip is cut from a sheet of Hambly On-Edge Screenprints, and the acetate tag is from the Making Memories Funky Vintage self-adhesive Clears Tags and Shapes pack...boy, that's a mouthful!

Enjoy, and Happy Fall!

Trick or Treat!

Autumn is right around the corner, and we've been having some nice crisp Autumn weather here. There are so many things to love about Autumn in New England, but Halloween if one of my favorite things. What's not to love? We all have an excuse to be kids again playing dress-up and eating too much candy.

So here's my card for today, which I hope is at least a little bit of a treat! The layout I used is from Sketch Challenge #141 over at Splitcoast Stampers. Most of the papers are from my scrap pile and the stamps are dollar stamps that I picked up at Michael's last year.

Happy Fall!

Rustic Chickadee

I've been fiddling around with this one for days and have finally decided to call it a card. My vision when I started out was to recreate the look of hand-tooled leather. I think I did get some of that feel, but now that I'm looking at it I think some debossing would have helped.

I stamped the chickadee (smARTworks Chickadee Wishes) on celery green cardstock with brown chalk ink, colored it with Prismacolor pencils, and blended with a colorless blending pencil. Then, using a scalloped circle as a mask, I sponged on two shades of brown ink and then embossed the frame with clear EP. The clear dots are Crystal Effects. The pinecones and pine boughs are from the smARTworks Bough and Cone set.

I'm hoping to get some stamping time in tomorrow, but that will probably be it until next week. Hubby and I are going to Gillette Stadium this weekend to see the New England Patriots home opener on Sunday. It's a night game and since we were going to need to stay over on Sunday anyway, we decided to make a long weekend of it and stay over on Saturday too. That means that I get to spend some time at the outlet mall in Wrentham. Hey...it's only fair!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blue Wildflowers

I really should be cleaning today, but I decided to do the Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers just to get me in the mood. I'm not sure how I thought rubber stamping would inspire me to clean, but it sounded good at the time!

My Prismacolor pencils are fast becoming my favorite way to add color to an image. Talk about easy! For this card, I stamped the flowers (a beautiful set from smARTworks called Real Stems and Blossoms) with Alabaster Fluid Chalk Ink using Post-It note masks to keep them from overlapping. Then I colored over the white flowers with my pencils. The little bit of blending I did was achieved simply by using one color on top of another.

The blue background panel is a piece of Basic Grey paper that I embossed with my beloved Cuttlebug and sanded just a bit to bring up the design. The background paper is from Paper Adventures.

And now, about that frisket I used on the Winter Chickadee card...

I've had a few questions about the Grumbacher Miskit Frisket (yes, Dina, it is fun to say!), which I'll attempt to answer. Frisket comes in two forms that I know of; film and liquid. I've never used the film, and I've only used the liquid a couple of times now. I bought mine at Michael's in the Art Supply department, and it goes for about $8 regular price in my neck of the woods (CT, USA). Michael's sells a couple of different brands, but I went with the Grumbacher because is was the least expensive and it's tinted. The slight tint means that it's very easy to see where you've painted it on. The frisket cleans up with soap and water while it's wet and forms a waterproof film when it dries.

The label on the bottle says that you can only use the Frisket on hard-finished, dry paper. I've only tried the frisket on watercolor paper, but I imagine it might also work on coated cardstock. I'm assuming that if the paper has too much tooth, like regular cardstock, you wouldn't be able to remove the mask. So there you have it -- Grumbacher Miskit Frisket -- fun to say and cool to use!

Winter Chickadee

This is a card I made for the smART Cookie Design Team over at smARTworks. I used two stamp sets for this one: Chickadee Wishes and Bough and Cone. Don't you just love that little chickadee? My backyard is filled with them in all year round, and I find them completely irresistable.

To make the center panel, I stamped the chickadee image and then painted over it with Grumbacher Miskit Frisket (a liquid latex masking material). I did a simple blue watercolor wash over the whole piece, and once it was dry, I stamped the pine boughs. After that, I removed the mask and colored the chickadee with watercolor pencils. The light blue mat has a pierced border, and I embossed the dark green mat with my Cuttlebug.

I hope you like this first offering from Dee's Studio. Stay tuned because there's plenty more to come!