Where in the World Has Dee Been?

Greetings from Kansas! I've been here on a quilting retreat with a group of like-minded friends. Why Kansas, you ask? Well, first of all two of my friends live here, and secondly, I like excitement. And, there's nothing quite as exciting as tornadoes! We've been lucky and nothing has come close to us where we are staying. So far my only encounter has been with a pet tornado my DH bought me for a souvenier...kind of a tornado in a jar kind of thingy.

Anyway, it's high time I post a few new pics on this blog o mine. Here's a card I made just before I left. The stamps are from Starving Artistamps, and the technique is Rock and Roll done with Fluid Chalk inks. The striped background uses the Cuttlebug Smoosh technique from one of the recent Technique Junkies Newsletter.

The second picture is me with the quilt top I pieced this week. I haven't had time to do much sewing lately, and I really have enjoyed having this time. It's a simple pattern to be sure, but I wanted something I could finish while I was here. All of the fabrics are batiks, and my plan is to quilt it with an all-over meander pattern. I'm really going to try to get in done in the next few weeks. Feel free to keep me honest by asking about my progress often!

Have a safe and pleasant Memorial Day.

The Hurrier I Go, the Behinder I Get

I'm sure you've all had weeks like that. Well, I'm right in the middle of one and all I can say is, "Come on, Saturday!" I'm posting this quick during my lunch break so I don't have time for all the details. But, here's the major stuff: the stamp is the large Silhouette Poppies from Starving Artistamps, paper is Scarlett's Letter from Basic Grey. The technique is just simple stamping with Fluid Chalk Ink.

See you this weekend!

And the Winner is...

I asked random.org to pick a number between 1 and 5 (inclusive, of course) and the lucky number is: 4! That means that Janean is our winner. Email me with your address, Janean, so that Tracey can send you your stamps. Congratulations!

Just One More Day!

We're getting down to the wire...you only have until midnight tomorrow to enter to win the Starving Artistamps Lily and Sunflower sheet. Click here for details on how to enter!

Here's another card I did with the Happy Sunflower. For this one, I stamped the image with Stazon Timber Brown and did some very simple watercoloring with Lyra watercolor crayons and a water brush. I trimmed the image "out of the box" style, added a doodled border, and mounted it on a piece of very dark brown cardstock with foam dots. The sentiment is from Sun Spirit Studio and is available from Starving Artistamps. The background paper and ribbon are scraps from my ever growing stash.

See you tomorrow!

Remembering Daisy

I used to have a cat named Daisy, and this image from Starving Artistamps reminds me so much of her. She's been gone for almost 2 years, but I still expect her to pounce on me from behind the door or swat at my feet from under the couch. Half Maine Coon Cat and a calico to boot, she had quite the personality, that's for sure. Making this card reminded me just how much I miss her.

I used a simple layout and soft colors so that the image would take center stage. Using Tattered Rose Distress Ink, I stamped the Cracked Tile Mosaic background on a piece of white cardstock and on my card base which I made from a piece of pink parchment cardstock. The Cat image is stamped with Chestnut Roan Fluid Chalk ink. I matted the image with brown cardstock and distressed the edges. The only embellishments I used were some dew drops and those only because I had just gotten them.


Don't forget to enter to win this Starving Artistamps Lily and Sunflower sheet I'll be giving away on Monday. Click here for details on how to enter!

I'm Late for My Own Party!

Today is smARTworks Design Team Tea Party day, I'm the host, and I'm the last one to post. Sheesh! It's been a rough week computer-wise...the hard-drive on my laptop croaked AND I've been having mega problems with my DSL service. Since I still don't have all my software reinstalled, I have no way to edit my photo. So here it is in all of its unretouched glory.

My challenge to my fellow Cookies this week was to make a card with no glue, no paste...no adhesives of any kind. At first I thought I was putting them in a sticky situation, but there really are a lot of possibilities. No reason to come all unglued!

I sat down to make my card with no particular direction in mind, and this is where I ended up. I rarely make one layer cards, but the few I've done were fun and quick (always a bonus). I've also been seeing some really lovely cards lately that use embossing as the main design element. And, I had yet to use this cute Borderflies stamp from smARTworks. (Which, just in case you need some enabling is 35% off right now along with all the other border stamps.)

My base for this card is a Fabriano Medioevalis note card (available at smARTworks). I partially embossed the front with my Cuttlebug. I then stamped my image with Stazon black ink and added a couple of scored lines below the image. You can't see them in this fabulous photo, but trust me, they are there. The image is colored with Derwent watercolor pencils and an aqua brush, and I also painted between my scored lines with yellow. I tied some yellow ribbon above the butterflies for a finishing touch, and voila! The whole card took about 20 minutes. Lightning fast for me!

I've already taken a peek at what Dina, Heidi, Susan and Trish did, and I can tell you...they were certainly up to the challenge! Nobody...ahem...got stuck on this one. Be sure to take a look!

Time to Spread a Little Sunshine!

I have the coolest news for you guys! You know those great Starving Artistamps sunflowers and lilies I've been using? Well, Tracey is letting me give away the Lily and Sunflower sheet as blog candy. That's right! You could win this whole sheet of stamps, which includes both sunflowers, three lilies, a tree branch, and a bunch a smaller accent stamps.

All you have to do to be in the running is visit Starving Artistamps and have a look around. (If you see something you want to buy, don't forget that you can get 10% off by using the code donadis when you check out!) Then, come back here and post a comment letting us know which images are your favorites. And, if there's something you'd like to see in the future, let us know that too!

You have until midnight (EDT) on Sunday, May 11 to post your comment. I'll pick a someone at random and post the lucky winner on Monday. Oh, just one more thing...completely anonymous comments will be disqualified, so make sure you sign in or at least leave your first name and last initial somewhere in your comment.

These are some of the cards I've made with these stamps: Good Morning Sunshine, Autumn Sunflower, Stargazer Lily, and Here Comes the Sun{flower}. There are lots more great examples from my very talented fellow design team members on the Starving Artistamps Gallery blog, so be sure to check there as well.

Good luck!

Garden Gate

It's cold and damp and overcast here today so we'll just having a lazy, hang around the house kind of day. For my DH that means puttering in the basement. For me, that means stamping, of course!

I was in the mood to watercolor today, so I inked up this stamp I got from smARTworks a few weeks ago. I also got to break into my new bottle dew drops...I'm in love with those little things already. Why, oh why, did I only order one bottle? What was I thinking?

OK...back to the card. I stamped my image onto watercolor paper using Stazon Black ink and colored with my Derwent watercolor pencils and an Aqua Brush. The background paper is from the Basic Grey Infuse collection. I Cuttlebug embossed just the bottom half inch of my green mat, and glued on my dew drops with Crystal Effects.

Thanks for looking!

Good Morning, Sunshine!

It's the first day of May, and bright sunshine is streaming into my windows. Seems like the perfect time to share this sunflower card I made the other day.

The stamps are from Starving Artistamps, and the technique would be considered paper tole, I think. I stamped the sunflower onto several different shades of yellow cardstock and added some shading with Prismacolor pencils. Then, I cut out the various layers and assembled them using foam dots for dimension. The background is stamped with sage green chalk ink over aqua blue cardstock.

Happy May!