A Question for You

I don't have much time to post right now, but I do have a card I'd like to share and a question to ask. I made this card to send in for the latest Take Ten sketch challenge. But here's the thing...I never did get my free copy of the magazine from being published last time. I've followed up a few times and have gotten no response. I'm not terribly upset because I do realize that things happen. But still, I haven't mailed my submissions in yet. What would you do?

Some quick deets on the the card: stamps are from smARTworks, coloring is done with Prismacolor marker, paper is from my ever growing stockpile. I know for sure that the stripe is Basic Grey Romani, and the the pink BG is Lasting Impressions.

Is it too Soon to Think Spring?

Probably it is, but I'm doing it anyway...especially when I stamp! Here's my latest card. The background is a piece of polished stone that I thought I'd ruined. Rather than throw it away, I put it in my pile of rejects. I've found that I end up using most of them eventually, AND that I'm usually very pleased with the result, as is the case with this card. So that's my little tip to you -- don't be too quick to toss something in the trash!

I used cardstock and printed paper from my scrap pile, so I can't give you any deets on that. The ink is Brilliance Graphite Black, the flower is from Starving Artistamps, and the sentiment is from Sun Spirit Studio (available at Starving Artistamps).

Think Spring!

Tea Party Time

At least I remembered that much. This week's sketch, courtesy of Trish, and apparently she also issued an extra challenge to dig deep into our embellishment stash. I completely, and I do mean completely, forgot about the extra challenge when I made this card. (It's a middle-age thing, and I'm sure some of you can relate. You know who you are.) I didn't dig into my embellishment stash at all, which is kind of weird because I almost always add an embellishment of some kind...not a lot, but something. I even pondered that point after I finished making this card and decided that it was OK to make a card with only paper and ink. What can I say? Well, I don't know...I can't remember!

Anyway, here's my card -- complete with invisible embellishments (tee hee). The techniques I used here are very basic, some simple coloring with Prismacolor markers, simple stamping, and a bit of paper piecing. The more challenging part for me was the style of the card. I really like it, and I had fun making it, but it's not exactly my comfort zone. Perhaps that's why I like it so well and had so much fun making the card. Something to think about the next time you reach for the same old, same old!

The stamps I used for this card are from these smARTworks sets: ABC-Dance Duo, ABC-Spirit Itty Bitties, and ABC-Drumbeat. smARTworks is on vacation right now, but Susan will be processing orders again on the 25th.

The other Cookies will all be posting cards throughout the day so make sure you check them out. As always, we'd love for you to join us!

Quit whining, would'ya?

Me...not you! We're under a heavy snow warning from midnight to 7 p.m. tomorrow. Do you have any idea how much I hope it snows so much that they cancel work tomorrow? It won't though, of course. What it will do is snow enough to make tomorrow a royal pain. And on top of that, I'm coming down with a cold. I think I'll have some wine with my whine.

Things aren't all bad, though. I did manage to make a card today, and I really kind of like it. I used a stamp from the Starving Artistamps Scalloped Ornamentals set and just stamped it over and over on a piece of cardstock. You definitely need a Stamp-a-ma-jig for this, and if you don't have one, I'm not sure how you're living without it. After I got everything stamped, I colored in the images with Prismacolor pencils and added some snaps to the centers. A little distressing, a simple mat, and there you go...a nice little all-occasion notecard.

Hope your Monday is better than mine is looking to be!

Cute is OK Every Now and Then

Normally I'm not a big fan of "cute". Cute does have it's place though, especially if you have little ones on your card list. So I purposely got some cute stamps, and I'm making myself use them. Guess what? It's kind of fun! I don't think it will ever become my defining style, but a little bit of cute is OK every now and then.

I made this card thinking it would be a nice little Valentine for one of our DGD's. The background technique I used is Dry Embossed Wash from the Dec 07 Technique Junkies Newsletter. The kitties (ABC-Have a Heart set available from smARTworks on catalog page 88) are colored with my new Prismacolor markers, which I am officially in love with. I don't have a ton of colors for shading, so I've been making good use of the colorless blender -- so cool the way that thing lifts color! You do need to be a bit careful to stay away from the edges though, because it also makes colors bleed right outside the lines.

Have a great evening! I have GOT to go play with those markers some more!

The Tree is Gone...

So it's official...Christmas is over at our house. DH and I have been putting Christmas stuff away all day, and he just got through dragging the tree the woods in back of our house. The family room looks so empty now, but at least I don't have to water it!

I did find some time to stamp early this morning, so I tried my hand at the Inspiration Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. This week's inspiration piece had a lot going on, so I concentrated on the colors and mix of textures. All of the stamps I used are available from Starving Artistamps, including that cool crackled mosaic background. If you'd like to see how made the background for this card, check out Tracey's tutorial on how to use her mosaic stamps.

The inks I used on this card are Yellow Cadmium and Dark Moss Colorbox Fluid Chalk, Cocoa Colorbox Pigment, and Vintage Photo Ranger Distress. I also added a bit of highlighting to the daisy with my Prismacolor pencils.

Tea Anyone?

Ugh! My vacation is over and I went back to work today. Oh well, at least it’s Wednesday and not Monday. And, it’s not just any old Wednesday…it’s a Tea Party Wednesday! Our host for this week is Heidi Kingery, and she’s come up with a pretty cool sketch.

My card uses the Queen Anne’s lace from the Purpose set from smARTworks. I also got to use a couple of the new toys I got for Christmas: my new watercolor crayons and new Cuttlebug die. I’m really having fun with the watercolor crayons – they are just so easy to use. For this card, I just colored right onto the rubber, spritzed the stamped a couple of times with some water, and stamped onto a piece of watercolor paper. Way cool, if you ask me. The rest of the card is pretty self-explanatory, except that I did add some Stickles to the flowers for just a little bling.

My fellow Cookies are posting cards made with this sketch too. Links to their blogs are on the right over there >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

We’d love it if you tried the sketch too and shared a link with us!

Thanks, Susan!

Susan Trask, owner of smARTworks and all-around nice person, sent each of us on the design team a Christmas gift packed with goodies. The way cool printed paper I used on this card was included with my package. Thank you, Susan!

This was a super simple card to make. I pieced the panel on the left to use up some scraps (yeah, like that was going to make a dent in my pile), but you could just use a different paper pattern. I stamped the flowers (from the smARTworks Purpose set) with Brilliance Pearlescent Olive ink, rounded a couple of corners, added some mats and ribbon, and voila!...my card was done.

See you tomorrow for tea with the Cookies!

Happy New Year!

Hmmm...I only had two comments yesterday. I guess everyone was out partying like me! So guess what? Faith and Sheila...you BOTH win! Please email me with your address so I can send out your surprise.

I've got one more day of vacation left to spend in my stamp room, so I'll be posting another card later. See you then!