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!