Saturday, May 30, 2009

Saturday Ramblings

We went to see Star Trek last night, and I absolutely loved it. It didn't think I would, but sometimes it's good to be wrong. If you're a fan of the original TV series, you absolutely must see this movie!

Today, my friend and I are going to The "Original" Classic International Gem & Jewelry Show, Inc. WOW! With a name like that it's got to be a great show, right? It's not a bad one, but then again, I've been to the gem shows in Tucson, so nothing could quite measure up to that. Anyway, we both say we aren't going to buy much...we'll see, lol!

And here's something fun...our local TV station does a Cool School segment every week and they featured Enfield High, which is my alma mater and the school our DGS, Matt, attends. Watch this video...the kid in the back who gets away with stuff is Matt. Frank Taylor was my history teacher when I was in high school back in the 70's, and honestly, he hasn't changed all that much. Although, it does look like he has a lot more stuff in his classroom now!

Oh, and I have a card, too! I was just noodling around the other day and grabbed a piece of Polished Stone that I had in my stash. The stamp image is from Layers of Color, and the rest is pretty much as it looks.

Enjoy the weekend!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Aaah....Summer!

It's going to be a lovely, sunshiney, summery Memorial Day here. The plan is to take hubby's Mustang out for a ride and maybe hit an antique shop or two. Later on, we plan to grill something for dinner and relax with a glass of wine. Does it get any better?

Besides being inspired by the season, my card was also inspired by this week's sketch at 2Sketches4You, which is being sponsored by Starving Artistamps this week. I used my very favorite Starving Artistamps sunflower image and colored it with Copic markers. The papers are Basic Grey Stella Ruby with a scrap of Prima paper thrown in for good measure.

Enjoy your Memorial Day, and take a moment to remember our fallen heroes.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Beautiful Baby

I decided to do a card for Card Positioning Systems CPS117 today. Would you believe that I've been working on this card all afternoon? I seem to have the attention span of a gnat today. Sigh.

Not too much techie stuff to tell about this one...the images are DoodleFactory Oh Baby from Starving Artistamps colored with Copic markers. The paper is Cosmo Cricket Hello Sunshine.

Hope you're having a great Memorial Day weekend!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Tea Party #18 - A Cuppa Inspiration

Susan is hosting our smARTworks Tea Party this time, and she gave us her new water cup to use as inspiration (there’s a pic in the sidebar over to the right). I had lots of great ideas, but in the end, I went with my first impression, “Ooooh…purple flowers! Purple is pretty!” So here you have it: a purple card with purple tulips in a purple vase.

I started off by making my background piece, which is made from fabric. I have quite a fabric stash from my on again, off again quilting hobby, so when I saw the Fabrilayers technique in the latest Technique Junkies Newsletter, I had an honest to goodness Aha! Moment. I can use fabric…on my cards! I only did part of the technique, and it couldn’t be simpler. Just saturate the fabric with fabric stiffener, let it dry, and then use it just like you would a piece of cardstock. I cut mine with my Cuttlebug and a Nestabilities dies and it worked like a charm!

As for the rest of the card, there isn’t much to tell, really. I stamped the tulips (WD-214 Spring Wishes) with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them with Copic markers, and the bow is made from several strips of ribbon tied in the center.

Trish is in the middle of a cross-country move and couldn’t join us this week, but I’m sure the other Cookies will have some wonderful cards to share, so be sure to visit their blogs throughout the day. And, as always, we’d love for you to join us!

Susan (and Sarah and Peggy)
Dina
Donelda
Giovana

Monday, May 18, 2009

It's the Little Things

I dragged hubby out shopping with me Saturday...he's such a good sport. We went to not one, but two flea markets, the local furniture/gift/home dec/knick-knack store, AND a yarn shop. We stopped for lunch at the local brew pub, though, so he did get some reward, lol! I've been looking for a shelf for the kitchen ever since we redecorated it a year ago. Finally, I found one I liked on Saturday, and here it is. Don't you just love it? I do...it makes me feel so happy and the room looks so homey now. It's the little things!

I also have a new card to share with you guys. I recently got a new batch of Starving Artistamps rubber. This is a new to me image that is actually one of the original DoodleFactory collections...say hello to Dabble from the Animals collection. Dabble is colored with Copic markers, and the rest of the card is assembled from scraps and clearance finds from my rather vast stash of stuff.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Monday Again?!!

I can't believe it's Monday already. Seriously. Here's hoping that this work week goes as fast as a weekend!

Quickly, before I head off to the salt mines, here's a card I made the other day. I got a new set of Derwent Inktense pencils, and I just had to play a little. I didn't do anything special with them here, but they are very, very cool...definitely more like ink than a regular watercolor pencil, and the colors really are intense.

The stamp I used here is from smARTworks (ABC Fresh Picked), and I used a couple of Technique Junkies techniques: Cuttlebug Highlight and Chalk Lines.

Have a great week!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Mellow Yellow

It's Tea Party challenge time again, and this challenge is brought to you by the color Yellow (and Peggy Lamb).

Peggy specifically mentioned "bright" and "sunshine" in her instructions. But, my cards have been rather on the bright and colorful side lately, so I decided to switch gears a bit for this challenge and tone things down a bit. I went with a soft yellow, which I think might be SU Barely Banana for my background. For the image, I used one of my all-time favorite, go-to techniques--I colored the flower image direct to rubber with Lyra Watercolor crayons, misted the stamp lightly with water, then stamped onto dampened watercolor paper. Once that dried, I overstamped the sentiment with black ink and added a few Rain Drops for embellishment.

The images I used are from the SBO Cookie Plate #1, which are available through the smARTbucks loyalty program.

The gang's all here this week, so be sure to see what my fellow Cookies did with this challenge:

Susan (and Sarah and Peggy)
Dina
Donelda
Giovana
Trish

And by all means, join us!!!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Where does the time go?

It seems like I just posted here, but it's been over a week!?! I don't even have a good excuse. I was kidnapped by aliens for a week? Would you buy that? It's all I got, LOL!

Well anyway, now that the aliens have returned me to my normal life, I have a card to share with you. The stamps are from smARTworks and the papers are Basic Grey Ambrosia. I stamped the image with Versamark ink and embossed with Ranger Distress embossing powder. The torn frame technique is from Technique Junkies.

Enjoy!