Bluebird That Makes Me Happy

Here's my latest drawing, and I have to admit, I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. It's a copy of a design from Kaaren Poole's Drawing Birds with Colored Pencils. It's 9x12 (cropped to 8/10 in this scan) on Stonehenge paper, colored with Prismacolor pencils.

I think my next big project is going to be a portrait. I've never tried one before, so this should be interesting! Actually, that's not true...I have tried a portrait. I had to do a pre-instruction self-portrait for a drawing class I'm taking. I might as well show you that too.

So now you know why I need to be taking the drawing class, lol!

Yay! It's the Weekend!

What a long week! It doesn't help that the weather here has been just gross. We are just finishing a 7-day heat wave with temps. in the upper 90's and humidity to match. Can you guess how glad I am that we put central air in last year? It's supposed to gradually cool off now, and by Friday it may feel like Autumn. New England weather...ya gotta love it, lol!

Here's a card that I made during the week in the air-conditioned comfort of my studio. The stamps are DoodleFactory Into the Woods collection from Starving Artistamps, stamped with Fluid Chalk Ink and paper pieced with scraps. The cardstock is Core'dinations, and it's really great stuff for distressing techniques.

Stay cool! Oh, and if any of you are wondering, the Moody Blues were amazing last weekend. Those guys still sound great!

One Card, Three Challenges

When I set out to do some stamping this morning, my thought was that I would do a few of this week's challenges on Splitcoast. I didn't intend to do them all on one card, but that's how it turned out!

I started off with the Inspiration Challenge (IC193). Using the first thumbnail as my inspiration, I thought it would be cool to make inchies in those colors. Somehow, thought, none of the images I grabbed seemed to lend themselves to being stamped in those colors. Plus, what I really wanted was to emboss them in those colors, and I don't have any good red or purple EP. But, still, I the those colors, so let's stick with them.

Hmmm...now what. Well, the Ways to Use it challenge (WT231) this week is to use variegated colors, and that seemed pretty interesting. So I colored my inchies squares in variegated shades with my Copic markers, and stamped the images with Versafine black ink. Then, just to add some shimmer and shine, covered the fronts with Versamark Dazzle and embossed them with a couple of coats of clear EP.

Now for a layout. Sketch challenge SK241 to the rescue! The blue and green papers are Basic Grey Periphery, and the purple one is a Bo Bunny paper from deep in my stash. I distressed the edges and sponged on some Ranger distress in matching colors and also embossed the purple with my Cuttlebug. The buttons I used are a mix of vintage buttons and Basic Grey.

Phew! Now that was challenging!

Catch ya later...I'm off to see the Moody Blues tonight.

One for my Stash

Many of the cards I make, I have to send away for my design teams. Not this one...I'm keeping this one. I made it just because I felt like using these stamps, and I'm adding it to my stash of cards on hand. The stamps I used are from the smARTworks Cookie Plate, and I used Fluid Chalk ink with a spritz of homemade glitter spray over everything. The printed paper is from the Basic Grey Wisteria 6x6 pad.

It was fun to make a card for no reason, but now I have to get back to work on some design team assignments. They are fun--don't get me wrong--but I just wish I could keep them. Pout.

{Insert Clever Title Here}

I've been sitting here for 10 minutes trying to think of a clever title for this post. I give up!

Here's the card I made tonight using the new DoodleFactory Prehistoric set from Starving Artistamps. I colored my dino with Copic markers and created scales using a technique I learned at my Copic certification class. Just color as you would normally, including shading, and then use the tip of your colorless blender to create light spots. You need to go slowly and hold the tip in one place for a second to get the effect, but I love the way it come out.

The printed papers I used are Basic Grey Archaic (6x6), and I also used a couple of Technique Junkies tutorials--Simple Whitewash and Outside the Box. Oh yeah, and the sketch is from Splitcoast Stampers Sketch challenge #240.

{Insert witty closing here}

Hahaha...maybe I'll be more clever tomorrow...then again, probably not. Later!

Finally...I'm Back!

It's been awhile since I last posted, so I'll start right off with a new card. The images are brand new from Starving Artistamps and are part of the DoodleFactory Into the Woods collection. I used the Scene Silhouettes tutorial from Technique Junkies to make the background. The tree is stamped with timber brown Stazon ink and I colored the "circleberries" with Smooch ink. Squip the squirrel is colored with Copic markers.

So...now...why did it take me so long to recover from my laptop disaster? Well, it was a classic case of one thing leads to another. I ended up replacing my laptop entirely since the repair was going to be fairly costly anyway. Then, since I was getting a new laptop, I figured it was also time to upgrade my internet service and get a wireless modem to replace the not all that reliable network I had patched together. And...while I was upgrading stuff, I also figured it was high time to get rid of the awful Razr phone I was using and get an iPhone instead. Then, as if that weren't enough, I decided that I really didn't need to have any computer equipment upstairs anymore, so I moved my printer into my studio, which lead to some major cleaning and reorganizing. Phew! My head is still spinning from it all. But, I love my iPhone, my new laptop is nicer than the old one, I LOVE having my printer in my studio, and everything is all neat and clean and organized. Check it out!