Fun Stuff!

True to plan, I've been packing lots of fun into this weekend.  Yesterday, Dave and I went out and did some shopping, and I scored a couple of new outfits and an external hard drive so that I can back up my thousands of photos.  We had dinner out and stopped for an ice cream cone afterwards, and then I spent a couple hours in my studio.  After Dave went to bed, I indulged myself with a couple of episodes of True Blood.  What a perfect day!

Today is going pretty well, too, even though I do have to do a couple of unavoidable chores, like laundry.  I slept in a bit, had a late breakfast, and noodled around in my studio all morning finishing up a few projects I have in the works.  This little pink fish ATC is my favorite of the lot:

It's done with Prismacolor pencils and Derwent Inktense pencils on Arches hot press watercolor paper.  Fun stuff, but I have to stop now because I have to get ready to go to a party.

The only bad thing about a weekend like this is that work is going to stink all that much more on tomorrow morning, lol.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Happy Saturday!

Phew!  Made it through another work week.  This one was especially challenging to put it nicely. Next week isn't shaping up to be much better, so I plan to get as much enjoyment out of this weekend as possible!

For today's card, I thought I'd share this one made with a butterfly image from Starving Artistamps.  Making this was so much fun, I'm not sure why it's still legal!  I started with a technique from Technique Junkies called Double Duty Melted Wax.  It's a simple technique:  stamp your image on white cardstock, add crayon shavings (just scrape the side of the crayons with a craft knife), cover with parchment paper, and heat with a craft iron until the wax melts, which it does pretty quickly.  When I did mine, I still had some of the white paper showing through. I was using my Clover mini-iron with a tiny little sole plate, so I just melted some crayon right on the iron and applied it directly to the paper with the iron, which I think is the traditional en-caustic painting technique.  Whatever it's called, it's pure fun!  In not time flat, I had five of these butterflies colored using different color schemes.

I didn't put a sentiment on this card because this is one that I can use in a pinch for many different things.  When I decide to use the card, I'll add a sentiment to the white tag and also attach a gift card, money, a piece of chocolate...whatever is appropriate. 

I hope your enjoying your weekend, too, and can have a little fun of your own.  Bye for now!

Giggle Bears, Birds and Bees Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Antidepresstamps Giggle Bears, Birds and Bees Blog Hop!

We're so excited to present this new collection of stamps designed by Nina Aaslund, available at here at Starving Artistamps.

If you've just stumbled onto this hop from my blog, please start at the beginning at Starving Artistamps.
You'll want to make all the stops because somewhere along the way there is some one-day-only BLOG CANDY! One lucky winner will win an entire collection of the new release!

And now for my cards.  They are all colored with Copic markers, the printed papers are from Basic Grey, and I used copious amounts of Stickles.  The stamped sentiments and the woodgrain background stamp are also available from Starving Artistamps.

I'm Sweet on You!

Bee-cause I Love You, honey

happy birthday

Juliana @ Stampin' With Inky Fingers is the next stop on the hop, but here's the complete list of hop stops just in case you get lost along the way:

START HERE: Starving Artistamps Company Blog
Irene@ Tales from the DoodleFactory
Nina @ Ninas krumelurer
Donna @ Dee's Studio   (you are here)
Juliana @ Stampin' With Inky Fingers
Lydia @ Understand Blue
Jenn @ Confessions of a Scrapaholic
Dawn @ Everything Under the Sun
Laura @ A Day in the Life of the Paper Poppy
Lori @ Inking Aloud
Eva @ Muffins pyssel
Tracey @ Stamp-o-matic

Thanks for visiting, and enjoy the rest of the hop!

Be there or be square!

Starving Artistamps is unveiling a new collection of stamps by Nina Aaslund!  If you've visited the Starving Artistamps Gallery blog, you already know that Nina is a very talented card designer.  Now, she can add "incredibly talented designer of Antidepresstamps" to her already impressive resume!

To celebrate, the entire Starving Artistamps design team, along with some very special guests, will be having a blog hop on Wednesday, June 23 starting at 11:00 a.m. EDT. 

I've shown a little sneak peek of one of my cards, but I don't want to give anything away except to say that these images are way cute and oh so fun to play with!  So be sure to join us on Wednesday for the Antidepresstamps Giggle Bears, Birds and Bees blog hop and see for yourself!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #30

Welcome to the latest edition of the Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge! Our inspiration this time is this image from the Nostagia Organics homepage. 

This challenge is my favorite so far, for a couple of reasons.  First is that when I first saw the photo, my reaction was an audible groan.  All I saw was clutter, and I just couldn't imagine what I could possibly come up with.  In fact, I started working on my card early because I was so sure that I would struggle for inspiration. 

Happily, that turned out not to be the case, and I love the card I made.  Really, it felt more like the card was telling me what to do, and I was just along for the ride--another reason I loved this challenge so much.  I started with the background paper, a piece from my Basic Grey Boxer pad.  I then realized that I had a corner punch that would mimic the corners of the plate.  Hmm, and I could probably use my Rubber Stamp Tapestry stamps to come up with a similar pattern. So that came together pretty darned well, and then I remembered that I had the perfect sentiment (Serendipity stamps).  OK, now here's where it gets good...I recalled that my cyber-friend Donelda posted some pretty homemade strawberry embellishments on her Wiggy's World blog.  Perfect!

I put everything together with a pretty blue bow.  Just as I finished, my DH walked into the room.  It gets a little spooky here because I think the card was talking to him, too.  He looked at it and said that it looked nice but it needed something in the other corner.  "Buttons?", I asked.  "Yes, buttons", the card replied.  Really perfect now!

One thing I love about all of these challenges is seeing what the other Divas have come up with.  You can see their creations by clicking the links in my left sidebar.  And, as always, we'd love for you to play along!

Still Noodling Around with Techniques

Here's another card that uses a technique from the current Technique Junkies Newsletter.  It's called Glimmer Marbling, and this photo doesn't even begin to do justice the the effect.  In real life, it's shimmery and shiny, and all the layers give it depth, much like real stone. 

The focal image I used is from Layers of Color.  I stamped the medallion with black Versafine ink onto a scrap of printed paper and embossed it with clear powder.  Then, I used Copic markers to color portions of the design. 


I guess that's it for the time being.  I'll be back Thursday with another Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge, and I have to say, it's my favorite so far!

I'm in technique-trying-supply-buying heaven!

The latest issue of the Technique Junkies Newsletter came out a couple of weeks ago, and I've been in heaven ever since.  Normally, there are several techniques I want to try, a few I like but don't have the supplies for, and a few I really don't care for.  This latest issue is one of those really fun ones...I like just about every technique AND I have most of the stuff I need.  Most of the stuff, not all of the stuff, which to me is the perfect situation.  I can do plenty of playing with what I have, but I still "need" to make a trip to an art supply shop, or even better, a rubber stamp show which just happened to be nearby last weekend.  Just doesn't get any better than that!

On this card, I tried out the Antique Wallpaper technique and I'll be darned if it doesn't look just like a piece of antique wallpaper!  The image, a Hero Arts stamp that I've had forever, is stamped with Adirondack Pesto Ink onto cardstock that I first airbrushed with a light green Copic marker.  I then colored the carnation with more Copic markers. 

I hope you've found a little crafting heaven of your own this week!  Bye for now...

Le Cirque

This stamp from Starving Artistamps reminds me of a performer in a Cirque du Soleil show.  I've seen three of the shows and have thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of every one of them.  OVO is coming to Hartford in a few weeks, so it's a pretty good bet that I'll get to see my fourth show.  Yes, they're that good!

Part of the fun of a Cirque du Soleil show is that your senses are completely overloaded.  In keeping with that spirit, I used bright, contrasting colors and busy patterns.  The layout for my card it the Technique by Design sketch from the current Technique Junkies Newsletter.  The technique I chose to focus is Background Whimsy - Copic Method.  I could NOT get any of my THREE white gel pens to work so I pitched them all in the garbage.  Instead, I used white acrylic ink and mixed in a little bit of white acrylic paint to make it more opaque, and then painted my white highlights with a small liner brush.  It was WAY easier than using a pen.  I am so done with those white pens!

Have a great week.  I have to be in work early tomorrow, so I have a little more time to pout about the weekend being over, then it's off to bed for me.

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge 29

This bedroom design featured on the Better Homes and Gardens website is the inspiration for our first Divine Diva Inspiration challenge for the month of June.  First, let me just say that I love this room!  My guest bedroom walls are the same shade of blue as shown here and I already have dark brown and white accents, but I would never have thought to add lavender to the mix.  Care to guess what I'm going to be adding to that room?

I love this color palette so much that it became the major inspiration for my card.  I just happen to have the Basic Grey Wisteria 6" x 6" pad which had the perfect shade of lavendar.  As I was thumbing through the paper pad, I remembered the DoodleFactory Classic Decor set from Starving Artistamps with it's little table and vase of flowers.  Bazinga!  The papercrafting tools and supplies started flying after that, I'll tell ya!  I used Copic markers for coloring, Adirondack Pitch Black and Colorbox Fluid Chalk Chestnut Roan inks for stamping, and my Cuttlebug and Nestibilities dies to create my frame, which is cut slightly smaller that the background panel and affixed with Stamper's Magic POP tape, also from Starving Artistamps.

The thing I enjoy so much about this challenge is how all of the Divine Divas come up with beautiful creations, obviously using the same inspiration, but all so unique.  You can see all of their creations on their blogs: Anne, Chris, Lori, Julie, and Kerri.  And, don't forget that you're welcome to join us.  If you do, post a link on Lori's blog, and if you upload to Splitcoast Stampers or Papercraft Planet, use the keyword DDIC.

See you again soon, and if you happen to be at the Heirloom Stamp and Scrap Paper Arts Festival in West Springfield, MA this weekend, be sure to stop by the Starving Artistamps booth and say hi to Tracey.  You never know, you might run into me, too!