Bluebelle

Isn't she cute? Bluebelle is part of the DoodleFactory Easter collection from Starving Artistamps (she also has a couple of sisters, Rose and Violet, who arrived with the Valentine Remix collection).

Bluebelle is colored with Copic markers with a few highlights added with a white gel pen. The background uses paper from the Basic Grey Two Scoops collection. I stamped and clear embossed the green and blue panels with the Starving Artistamps Fern Leaf Tooled Leather background for some added texture.

I also have some jewelry to show you today. I attended a wire wrapping class with my friend Joan yesterday and had a wonderful time. I learned a couple of new wraps and got some good tips and info, so it was definitely time well spent. I started this necklace during the class and finished it up when I got home. I love the look of the wire, and I have lots more ideas I want to try!

See ya!

A Bunny Fiesta

I didn't realize it until after I finished this card, but it really has a Mexican feel, and these two bunnies look like they are at a fiesta. I guess my brain was still in San Diego, which is understandable since I'm going back to San Diego for a conference on Monday.

Just like my life lately, this card is crazy busy! The bunnies (DoodleFactory Easter from Starving Artistamps) are colored with Copic markers. I had watercolor wash background in my stash that was the perfect color to use behind my bunnies, and just because watercolor paper embosses so nicely, I ran it through my Cuttlebug. Next, I created a mitered frame with some striped paper on red cardstock and glued my watercolor background on top. The cool ribbon frame was the Try a New Technique challenge (TLC212) on Splitcoast Stampers last week. And last but not least, I put my bunnies on top of everything with some pop dots.

Ole'!

Tea Time!

Time for another smARTworks Tea Party challenge and this time, Donelda challenged us to use Inchies.

I only have time for a quick post right now, so I can't go into alot of detail about my card. My inchie tiles started off with some pretty cool looking Copic marker backgrounds, which I'll show you how to do in another post. I stamped my tiles with small stamps from several smARTworks sets and then highlighted some of the images with a white Prismacolor pencil. Finally, I embossed each tile with 2 coats of clear EP. The background is made by sticking Magic Mesh (remember that stuff) to a brayer and then using it to apply a light coat of Gesso.

I'll try to come back later and post the missing details, but I didn't want to be late to the party! Check out the other Design Team blogs for more inchie fun:

Susan (and Sarah)
Dina
Donelda
Giovana
Trish

Yoop! Yoop!

This is Yoop from the new DoodleFactory Easter collection available from Starving Artistamps. Isn't that name just a hoot? Sounds like something you would shout at a basketball game, "Yoop! Yoop! Aaaaaw Yoop!" And, speaking of basketball....GO UCONN HUSKIES!!!!!!

But I digress...big time, lol! The spring flowers on this card are also from the DoodleFactory Easter set, and the sentiment is from the Starving Artistamps All About Easter sentiments set. I colored my images with Copic markers and used the Card Positioning Systems CPS108 sketch for the layout.

Thanks for looking, and I just can't stress it enough...GO UCONN HUSKIES!!!!!!

A Tutorial and Something Cool

I just posted a tutorial over on the Starving Artistamps Gallery that explains how I made the button on these cards.

Shrink Plastic Buttons Tutorial

And, now for the something cool--I attended a Copic certification class with Marianne Walker on Thursday, and I am now officially a Copic Certified Designer. I learned lots of neat techniques and I plan to share them with you here as tutorials on my blog. So sure to stay tuned...

Home Again

It feels good to be home again, if only for a few hours. I'm off to Copic Certification class tomorrow, and you can just go ahead and color me excited! I'm sure I'll have lots to tell you after tomorrow's class, but in the meantime, I'll leave you with a new card.

The stamp is from Great Impressions, and the paper is from Memory Box. I colored the image using a Technique Junkies technique called Marker Watercoloring. As you might guess, the technique is done on watercolor paper and involves partially coloring your images with waterbased marker and then using a waterbrush to blend the color. It's not my favorite way to color, but it was fun for this little image.

See you after class!

Over Already

I'm always amazed by how quickly time flies when you are on vacation. It seems like we just got here, and our vacation is over already. Here are a few pictures of what we did the last few days:

The first photo is of the African elephants at the San Diego Zoo--Mom, her 2-year old female, and her baby male who was just 3 days old. He weighed 225 lb at birth, but doesn't he look so tiny compared to his mom and sister?

Next we have a lion sunning himself...

This is the view from the patio at the Orfila Winery in Escondido...

And these are some of the orchids inside the Botanical Building at Balboa Park in San Diego...

Be back soon!

Greetings from California

I'm on vacation this week in San Diego, and I fully intended to show you some new cards while I'm away--except that I forgot to load the pics onto this laptop. I suppose it could have been worse...that seems to be the only thing I forgot to pack!

Since I don't have any cards to show, I thought I'd share a few vacations photos instead. The first was is the view from the park in La Jolla. The second photo is the famous Hotel Del in Coronado, and the last was taken at Seaport Village in San Diego.

Enjoy!

Tea Party 13: CASE Us!

Dina came up with a really fun challenge this time...CASE the Design Team. Those of us who are on the team were given assignments, and mine was to CASE Giovana. Her cards are ALL lovely, so I did have a bit of a hard time choosing. I finally settled on her Sending Love... card for several reasons.

I really like the clean and uncluttered layout and the almost monochromatic color scheme. I also LOVE the look of stitching on a card. And, she used Stickles and bling and ribbon. That clinched it!

So...for my version, I tried to keep the elements that attracted me to the card and changed the colors and the stamps to make it my own. Mine is done in shades of violet, and I used stamps from the Daisy Square and Friendship's Flowers sets. I was very tempted to actually drag out my sewing machine and do some real stitching, but in the end, I opted for faux stitching and piercing.

I can't wait to see what the others come up with, and I'm hoping to see some of you join us, too! Trish is having a very busy week and couldn't join us, but here are links for the rest of the team:

Dina CASEing Donelda
Donelda CASEing Donna (Me)
Giovana CASEing Peggy
Peggy CASEing Susan
Susan gets Owner's Choice

Thanks for stopping by!

Starving Artistamps is Sponsoring 2 Sketches 4 You!

Starving Artistamps is the sponsor for 2 Sketches 4 You this week, and this is my card using Twee from the DoodleFactory Country set. Twee is colored with Copic markers because that's how Twee likes to be colored...he does...really!

I didn't have a cool embellishment on hand that would work for the small rectangular element in the sketch, so I fashioned myself an egg-shaped button with shrink plastic. To create the polka dots on the egg, I stamped the Starving Artistamps Mini Circle background with Blazing Red Stazon and colored the dots with Prismacolor pencils.

The little plaid flowers are my creation as well. I used my Copic markers to add orange, green, and lavender to an old piece of red and white gingham paper. I glue the paper to a piece of chipboard, cut the flowers with my Cuttlebug and Viola!...madras plaid flowers! Let's see...what else? I put black crystals in the flower centers, the background paper is Cosmo Cricket Hello Sunshine, and the cardbase is WorldWin DoubleMates Graceful Geranium.

Glad you stopped by, and I hope you have a chance play along with the challenge. It's a fun sketch to work with, and you just might win a prize.

Neutrality

Usually I'm all about color, but every once in awhile it's fun to do a neutral card. I happened to have some scraps of kraft, natural, and black cardstock sitting on my table, and I knew I had this piece of Faux Handmade Paper (Technique Junkies) in my stash, so it seemed like a good time to go neutral.

The stamps I used are from Starving Artistamps, stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and highlighted with a white Prismacolor Pencil. I added some simple doodled borders and a scrap of ribbon and had the whole thing put together in 15 minutes flat. I can tell you...THAT doesn't happen very often in my craft room!

For those of you who want to follow along, I also have an update to my WIP. I doubt you can see in these photos, but I went back over all the white with a Prismacolor Lightfast white pencil, which made the whites whiter...in real life, anyway. I also finished the white bouy with the "X", added some ropes (those knots are harder to do than I would have guessed) and started on the blue and red buoy.

Ready for a Fun Challenge?

We have another smARTworks Tea Party challenge coming up next week, and Dina has come up with a really fun one...CASE us! The rules are simple: visit the Cookie Jar, our smARTworks blog/gallery, and choose a card to inspire your own creation. Change 2 things from the original card (color, image, etc). Be sure to credit and link to the original artist's card when you post to your gallery or blog, and add a link to your creation here on my blog so that we can all see your creation.

As always, you don't have to use smARTworks stamps to play, but if you got 'em, why not flaunt 'em? Post date for the challenge is March 11, and if I have your link ahead of time, I'll include it with my post.

And now for a new card. I used the Bloom On! set from smARTworks and a Technique Junkies technique called Background Smoosh Resist. I used several shades of pink ink and then sponged some purple on the flowers once I was finished. The stitches are rub-ons and the drops of dew are Heidi Swapp Rain.

Have a great Friday evening, hopefully full of stamping!

A Card for a Guy

Given the number of cards I make, it pretty sad when I don't have a birthday card to send to someone. That's the situation I've been in for several months now, so I'm trying to replenish my personal supply of greeting cards. I'm sure I'm not alone in that even when cards a plentiful, it's had to find one in my stash suitable for a man. So...I'm also concentrating on getting a few masculine cards into the mix.

I made this one using stamps from Starving Artistamps and this week's sketch on Card Postioning Systems. I stamped the background with Versamark on Kraft paper. The four corner panels are stamped with various Distress Inks. I dirtied them up a bit by wiping on some brown ink with a paper towel, and I also distressed the edges. For the main panel, I stamped the horse image with Walnut Distress Ink, then stamped the weave background with Versamark. I smudged on some pastel chalk to match the ink colors on the card and distressed the edges.

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy your day!

In Like a Lion

Winter storm Demi is upon us and we're forecasted to get a foot of drifting and blowing snow...sigh. Enough already! We can only hope that the old adage is true, and March will go out like a lamb.

Today's card has absolutely, positively nothing to do with snow. : ) This is one of the flowers from the smARTworks Bloom On set, colored with Prismacolor pencils. The background papers are from Basic Grey and are embossed and distressed.

Enjoy!