Accidentally Relevant

With all of the excitement surrounding the impending royal nuptials, it's probably very fitting that I made a card with a decidedly British royal theme.  Truth is that I just now made the connection.  So my card is relevant, but only accidentally.  I find that amusing for some reason...I may be the only one who does, but that's OK.

So why did I made this card, you ask?  I'm still working with the March new stamp release from Class Act, which includes this Buckingham Palace guard in the English doll set and it occurred to me the other day that  Basic Grey Boxer would be the perfect paper to use.  So here you have it!  I colored him with colored pencils and used a clear glaze pen to add polish to his boots and buttons.  I also used some black Flower Soft on his helmet (hat?). 

Thanks for stopping by!

Oh, and GO UCONN!!!  (both teams, men and women--ha!)

Promise of Spring

I just finished this painting for Cindy Wider's Draw and Paint in Your Pyjamas course. One more painting and I'll be done! I've got some rubber stamping stuff to get caught up on, but I hope to get started on my final project later this week.

As for this painting, the assignment was to create a simple original painting using one of three different painting styles. The style I used here is semi-abstract hard edge acrylic painting. I haven't gotten any feedback on this yet so I don't know how successful I was in emulating that style, but I am pleased with my result and I learned a ton in the process.

Promise of Spring
Acrylic on canvas board
9" x 12"

Thanks for stopping by my studio today. I'll be back later in the week with some rubber stamping and paper craft projects. Later!

I'm Back!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here--water in the basement, a trip to Vegas, and then lots of projects to do when I got home.  I've been meaning to post something new here on my blog all week, and I'm finally getting to it now.  It's going to be quick, though, because we have one of the grandkids for the evening and we promised her we'd go bowling.  Life in the fast lane!

While we were in Las Vegas, we took some time to go sight seeing in the Mojave Desert.  These photos are from the Valley of Fire State Park, a truly spectacular place.

And here's a very simple card that I made the other day.  Nothing fancy because sometimes I need a notecard that I can send to a man.  Apparently, they don't appreciate glitter and ribbons as much as we girls do! The stamp is from Class Act, and I used a technique from the new Technique Junkies Emboss or Die CD called Scored Embossing.

 Thanks for stopping by!

I've been knitting up a storm lately

Knitting has been an on again, off again thing with me since I was twelve or so.  Right now its on again and I've been trying to use up some of my stash of yarn.  It's not a big stash by any means, but substantial enough that I can't justify buying too much more.  I do buy a little more, though, now and then--it's just too hard to resist.

Since about half of my stash one or two skeins and leftovers of this and that, I decided that the best way to use it up would be to do some charity knitting.  This little set is one that I donated to an auction to benefit a local high school scholarship fund.

Those of you who are knitters will recognize the little jacket as Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket.  For those of you who aren't familiar, Elizabeth published the pattern in her newsletter in the 1960's and it's been a classic ever since.  It's knit all in one piece and the surprise part is that it folds origami-style into this cute little jacket.  It was so fun and easy to knit that I'm thinking about casting on another one. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

So here's the deal...

...and it's a good one, too.  Starving Artistamps is offering a free sheet of rubber for every $50 you spend.  Sweet!

 













And here's a card...

The stamp is from Starving Artistamps (of course), stamped with brown Memento ink and colored with Copic markers.  That gorgeous leather background is the Faux Tooled Leather technique from the Technique Junkies Emboss or Die CD.

That's all I have for today pardner.  Thanks for stopping by!

Dutch Treat

This card just had to be made.  Sitting on my table right next to each other were my set of Dutch Doll stamps from Class Act, Inc. and my copy of the Technique Junkie Emboss or Die CD which, among 78 other awsome techniques, includes the Faux Delft Tiles technique I used here.  How could I not made a card like this?

To create my center tile, I stamped the windmill image with Versamark ink onto watercolor paper, and then embossed it with white embossing powder.  Next, I spritzed the entire piece with water and watercolored with several different shades of blue.  When I diecut the tile, I also embossed the edge and then watercolored the edge with brown, using the embossing as a guide.  The blue mat is cut and embossed from Core'dinations paper and then sanded.

Thanks for stopping by my studio.  Have a great day!

Class Act Blog Challenge #1

This is my first posting for the Class Act Design Team and the stamps I'm playing with this month are brand new in the Dolls of the World series.  When I was a little girl, I had a set of It's a Small World paper dolls which I loved.  I would spend hours drawing and coloring new outfits for them.  Working with these stamps has brought back so many fond memories!

Today is also the first Class Act Blog challenge, and we were challenged to make a creation that used embossing, three or more layers, and bling.  There wasn't really any challenge here at all.  I knew right from the start what I wanted to use the Hannah, the little Dutch girl, and that I would use the Cuttlebug Highlights technique (Technique Junkies Oct 2008).  I colored Hannah's costume with Copic markers and highlighted my embossing by on rubbing a couple shades of blue die ink directly from the ink pads.  For my bling, I added crystals to my scalloped oval mat.

You are welcome to play along with us and maybe even with a prize.  All the information you need to know about the challenge is posted on the Class Act Insider blog.  You'll also find links to the rest of the Design Team's creations so be sure to pop on over there.

Happy Friday and thanks for stopping by!