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!