Christmas Trees

No stamping in these as yet.  Will be on the inside later.  The tree is a sizzix die and the background paper and tags are from a colorbok 12x12 stack that I bought last year at a garage sale. I wanted a gold to match the start on the trees, though there are only two.  This one matched perfectly.

Green

I didn't even know what to call this one, since I have not made it a birthday, thank you etc.  I want to have some cards in case anybody  needs one so will add the label when it is needed.

I got the idea from a card I found somewhere, I'm sorry I can't give credit to the original artist.  Of course, mine has many variations from the original.  I cut the oval with two dies and used embroidery floss.   Have been working on Christmas and just needed a little diversion.

Pink Ornament

Had to do just one more today.  I've really been wanting to do a pink ornament though I have a limited amount of pink pattern paper.  

Again both the mat, background and the flourish of the top of the ornament are glitter paper.

Christmas Ornament

I love love love this die by Memory Box.  It is actually two dies, the top and the bottom.  The top was really hard to cut until I got a tip to use bubble wrap between the paper and the die, and now it works perfect.  The background on both dies are actually glitter paper, and the flourish front is a shiny cardstock.

 I finally figured out how to make tiny bows too, by using a fork (the tines) to wrap the ribbon around, and then sewing the center together.  It makes the perfect little size and they are always uniform in size.  I just have to make sure that I sew it exactly in the center or it will be lopsided.

I didn't know how well I would like the white background on a white card, so I mounted it on red glitter paper.  This cardstock is pretty expensive comparatively so didn't want to waste it, so I cut the center out and I can use it to cut more ornaments or something else.

Not a Creature was stirring

The only kid of mouse that will be allowed in my house!

I did three of these cute little stamps today and put one together.  Various papers from previous years, Spellbinders octogon label and Memory Box wreath.

Drummer Boy Mishap

I colored four of these little drummer boys for cards today and I almost thew this one away.  I dropped a pen on it and got a green blotch on it.  I have never had much luck with using the colorless blender to remove colors but I thought I would give it a try.  I just hate wasting all the work that goes in to coloring a stamp.

But I worked with it a little bit and set it aside and worked on the others.  Then I came back to it a few times.  I knew that I was going to be doing the blue  shading on it, so thought it might work.  Sure enough, it did.  If you look really close you can see just a hint of green, but the blue pretty well disguises it.  I'm pretty happy with the results.  And of course, I love this stamp.

More Christmas

I did the coloring for these a while back and just put them together.  I just love this stamp.

Chrstmas Horses

I thought I had to settle down to something serious here.  I've had so many ideas in my head, that I've been flipping from one project to another.  My craft room is a disaster.  So thought I get serious about Christmas cards.  These are some of what was ordered by a friend.  She hasn't seen them yet, sure hope she likes them.  They were a lot of fun to make.

 The wreath die cut is from Memory Box.  It is not a Christmas stamp but thught it would go well with some Christmas paper and a little bling.  This is three layers, two shade of green and the red striped.

Joy is a Sizzix die, the flourish and the greenery are a Tim Holtz die.

I haven't posted for over a month, but this is some tuff that I've been working on.  The first one I did tonight.  I've been wanting to try this technique and it was the tutorial from Split Coast Stampers this month.  It was fun to do with my Spellbinders die cuts.

 I left the tag empty so that when the need comes up I can just fill it in.  The flowers I got at the show I went to last month.

 The flowers are cut with Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die using burlap and paper.

 Window card for Christmas

 These little journals are gifts for a project I have coming up soon.

It's July Already??

Wow, I didn't post anything the whole month of June!  Of course I was somewhat incapacitated for a couple weeks recovering from acromioplasty (rotator cuff surgery).  The first week I was totally wiped out on meds, then it was regaining use of my left arm.  But God is great! and I am near 80% back after less than a month.

A friend at church is getting married today and I put this little mini album togethr for her.  I used the "one the edge" die from Tim Holtz and it was a little difficult to match up since it wasn't full size, but I worked through that.

 The flower on the front cover is cut from organdy and burned and layered.  The initials are some clear acrylic from my stash that I backed with some of the paper from her invitation. 

 The roses are airbrushed and my fingernails are just starting to get back to normal.  They have been blue for a week.

 Border punch by EK Success, Rosette from T.H. die, black metal flower brad.

 I couldn't find the rest of the wedding paper that I used from the last wedding album, so I made my own using a fiskars heart stamp in second generation bamboo ink.  The flowers on this page are also airbrushed.  Have I said how much i love my copic airbrush system?

Buttons and hearts are sizzix dies as is the leaf.  Roses are airbrushed.  Small "real" button has blue glitter on the back side.  Round die cut (Spellbinders) has the center cut out.

Hope you enjoyed looking at my creation and hope it inspires you.

Technique card

Another Ad inspired card from Impress Rubber Stamp store.  This was their sample for a class they are teaching.  I don't know what the class was, but this is my rendition of it.  I first stamped the script background, and then stamped the flower with versamark shimmer (which I really don't think makes much of a difference over regular versamark) and heat embossed with Distress embosing powder.  I tried block stamping over it with the back of the acrylic block.  It didn't give the all-over color that I wanted, so I started over again and just used a mask to do the left edge so that it would appear blocked, and inked it with a sponge and garden green ink.

Then I colored in the flower with copic.  It looks really good IRL, as the flower looks kind of transparent.  The fabric flower is one I made a while ago with various size organdy circles that were heated to curl and sewn together.  The pink border stamp is EK Success.  I am happy with the results. I may have to do some variations with this one.

Zentangle Comparison

This is a combo with a couple stamps and the rest zentangled.  The butterfly had no pattern in it, so the zentagle was added to the wings.  There is also a flourish stamp in here but it is kind of hard to see.. which is ok actually.  It goes from the base up to about 3/4 of the way up. There is a mistake in the pattern and to me it stands out like a sore thumb.  But how much of a mistake can there be in a doodle???

I wanted to compare a black and white to a color, and I'm still not sure which I like best.  There are 42 different copic colors on this one. 

 But I kind of like the black and white as well.

What do you think?  I would appreciate the input.

My Very First Zentangle

I did have a little inspiration for the begnning of this but then it just kind of "happens." Now I can't wait to do more.  Please tell me what you think.  Have I completely lost my mind? I have a book on zentangle ordered from the library but it has a huge waiting list and I couldn't wait to start.  I really wanted to do a colored one but I think I need to work with black and white for a while.

Organdy Flowers

This was so much fun! We were at Walmart yesterday and I saw this cute organdy fabric with silver flecks.  I thought that it would work well for the rolled fabric flowers, so I bought 1/4 yard and went home and made one.  I went back today and bought a quarter of a yard of each color.  I also bought a tuele type fabric with specks too.  I started making the little round ones that you burn the edges on.  Then I thought about how pretty it would be if it was actual petals.  So I experimented by cutting 5 slits around and then burning each one with a bic candle lighter.  You have to be pretty quick or you will melt the whole thing.  the really cool thing about it is that each one is different.  They kind of take on their own personality.  Then I started mixing the colors.  I love the turquoise and white one.  There red and black has twice as many layers as the others.  I put green leaves (burned) on a couple of them.  I have to work with that style  little bit to perfect it. The tuele did not work well for burning, so I cut a flower shape on the Vagabond and layered it on one of the pink flowers.   Each seperate color cost me just $1.11, and I can get a ton of flowers out of that, so these are pretty cheap flowers. Besides the fun that I had making them.  Now I just have to design some cards for them to go on.

Forgotten Butterfly pages

I counted pages and realized I hadn't posted all of them.  The butterflies are from a Spellbinders die.

Wedding album continued

The last pages of the wedding album.  I apologize for the pctures not showing a whole lotof detail, but I didn't want to take them in and out all the time.

 I really like this wedding stamp set I got.  It has a good collection of poetic quotes and scripture.  I am so awful with brands, but I think it was a fiskars set. This is my first successful attempt at rolled ribbon flowers.  I colored the flourish bling with copics.  The fuscias on the left page is a Memory Box die.  I am so in love with these dies and can't wait to get more.

Wedding Album

I still have a few more pages to go, but this is the album I am making for a friend.  I have to tell them though, that if they get the urge to have a cup of coffee while they are putting their pictures in it, it is because I used coffee to die the ribbons and lace.

 These two pages are for each of them to write a love note to the other.

More Masculine Cards

Ok, so guys cards just aren't as much fun as pretty flowery feminine cards.  But I made it through.  The last of my Commonwealth cards are done. 

I spent Sunday working on a wedding album for a friend.  I will post them later.  It is fun to make and is going quite fast now.

More Masculine cards

My home office has ordered 25 cards for the managers. Since there are usually couples I figured that the guys wouldn't like to have a card wth little girls or flowers and ribbons, so I have had to dig a little bit, but it has been kind of fun.  I actually kid out four of these tonight, in between fixing dinner and watching a movie with hubby. 

 I need to come up with some different birthday phrase stamps though.  So these first two are somewhat flowers, but not real flowery.

 I've been trying to keep them pretty flat too but to have some dimension.  It really kills me not to use ribbon!  But thank heavens for punches and die cuts.

 The lighthouse stamp is one that a resident gave me some time ago and this is the first time I've used it.

 I've had the vintage hats stamps for a while, but again, the first time I've used them on a card.  Also the first time for using the clock die cut.

Masculine cards

I am trying to get more masculine stamps, and I really like this one.  The stamps are Tim Holtz as is the lamp post.  The fence is a Memory Box die.  I just discovered Memory Box and I absolutely love them!  Besides the fact that they cost much less than Spellbinders.

I'm going to play with this design because I'm not real happy with it.  It looks ok, but I really want the shirt to have arms.  The mini brads worked real well for buttons.

Bird cage

This is a Spellbinders die that I picked up last week at J's for 40% off.  The flowers were a stemmed silk flower that I took apart.  Stamps are Hero Arts.  Leaf is Spellbinders, Flourish Tim Holtz. Ribbon I got on sale at J's for .50.  Button from stash.