Tagged and going on vacation

Wow, I'm so excited, I was tagged three times, once by Libby , once By Ana, and once by Karen . I have to say that I admire the work of these three ladies immensely! Libby always has awesome cards, and her Blog is a great place to start for inspiration as well as being chalk full of great photography and interesting stories. Ana is amazingly talented, and I am always envious of nack for putting together amazing color combinations as well as awesome layout and textures. Karen has a great Blog full of fun cards with great elements, one of the favorite being an acetate card. Each of these ladies are talented, creative, and great people to boot. They are all on my multiple daily visit list ( I always hope for multiple postings)

Now I think I'm supposed to nominate other people, but I'm not sure how many? So I will start with:

Andrea Walford . She has a real nack for simple yet elegant cards. I often find for workshops or classes, I get stumped trying to pare down to the basics. Andrea's Blog is always the first I visit for inspiration! I think she has mastered this difficult aspect of stamping - how to make something look great, yet keeping it simple and not to time consuming.

Leslie Miller her cards are always gorgeous and elegant. The lines are clean, and the embellishments are tasteful. everything in her cards seems carefully chosen and to serve the purpose of making a harmonious whole.

Jean She has a lovely Blog with many lovely cards. Everything she makes is beautiful and tasteful. Nothing is over the top but rather fun and approachable.

Well I could probably name tons more people who's work I admire, but I think most everyone has been tagged! As for me I may not be posting until August 12. I am going to visit my sister, and I am not sure if I will have anything to post. She has an awesome stamp room which she will let me run amuck in, but I'm not sure of uploading possibilities!

Thanks so much for your kind and wonderful comments, they are often the highlight of my day!

Splitcoast CC123

Well my daughter is back from camp and we are back into the swing of things. On top, my son is setting a crabbiness record lately. I think he is cutting molars, but I'm not sure, all I know is that lately he has been waking up 2-4 times a night, and I'm the one who gets up with him. On top of that he has been quite difficult during the day, chucking his food, whining, throwing tantrums, crying, clinging, and being totally unlike his usual sweet self! So needless to say I am not getting me time till late at night, and now I'm almost to tired to stamp most nights. So that being said, I kept the card simple and fast! I'm also to tired to post most of the details so just click on it and look closely, it's pretty simple.

stamps: Blossoms Abound, Garden Silhouettes, Lockhart sentiment

Paper : Mellow Moss, Night of Navy, Bordering blue, and Artichoke

Ink : same as above + Eggplant, Amethyst, Tea Dye, Old Olive

Acc. : Dazzling Diamonds, silver brads, SU moss and Night of Navy ribbon, Signo Gel Pen, Sakura Stardust pen, Cocoa marker, Marker spritzer tool, corner nipper punch

Thanks so much for visiting, and have a great night!

All my best friends will tell you that I'm a color junkie. I love a well colored card, thus I will often spend half hour or more just on the coloring of the image. Today I was trying to achieve a realistic looking copper. The image is colored with Copic Markers and Prisma pencils. I start by coloring in the varying shades with the markers, and then go back and add detail with pencils. The card itself is very simple, I wanted the image to stand alone.

Sketch challenge take 2

Well thanks to your helpful comments I figured out how to put a title in.....yay! So no I haven't been trying to figure that out all this time, rather I have been having fun playing with my Copics. It is a real steep learning curve trying to figure it out! I use Copic Ciao and sketch. They are both wonderful, but the sketch offers the option of airbrush. The other thing with these wonderful markers is that paper makes a huge difference. I have had good success with SU whisper White. You want a paper that doesn't absorb the ink right away or you won't be able to blend. So a coating of some sort is essential. Now after all that playing, my card that I'm showing does not use Copics. I will have some stuff to show later this week with the coloring I achieved but for now I decided to post the second card I made for last weeks challenge. The card post below shows my first attempt. I found this to be really interesting with the triangle and the circle. In this card I decided to move the triangle to the corner to make it look a bit different from the other layouts.

recipe:

stamps: Garden Silhouettes, Delight in Life, Paisley BG, PSX wood nymph

paper : River Rock, Always Artichoke, Wasabi, Pomegranate, Old Olive, Garden Green

Ink : Garden Green, Old Olive, River Rock, Tea dye ink

acc : Tombow Markers, SU markers, white signo gel pen, Sakura stardust pen, SU flower

punch from punch box, Prima Rose leaves, Cuttlebug corner embellishment, SEI brad

Ranger liquid pearl medium, Krylon gold leaf pen.

I started by punching out multiple flowers with the Pomegranate. I then used a large embossing ball to depress the centre and dotted three white dots in the centre of each flower. Next I aged my river rock card with its own ink, and placed the Artichoke on top. The Artichoke is stamped with Garden Silhouettes and the images are highlighted with signo and Sakura pens. The circles are Pomegranate and olive on top. The Pomegranate is lined with the Gold Krylon. The circle is sponged with olive and Garden Green ink. The triangle is River Rock stamped with Paisley in Olive and adhered and cut to fit. I painted and cut my image, placed it in centre and placed flowers all around. I then dotted with the liquid pearl . The large flower was stamped, water colored and cut and then reverse embossed and finally adhered. The greeting was done last.

I hope you enjoy your Sunday!

Another challenge card today. This time it is SC132. But before I go on could anyone out there tell me how to put a darn title into the post? I don't see any option for typing in a title. Anyhoo, It was a really fun sketch. Circles and triangles. Now I am not well versed in doing even triangles so mine looks a little off. So I have termed my wonky triangle as adding a touch of CHARM and the Human Element!

Stamps: Baroque motifs, Delight in Life, and MFT cow stamp and mini flower.

CS : Chocolate Chip, Apricot, Whisper White, Water color paper, Celery DP, Rose Red DP,

Wasabi, Chatterbox DP

Ink : Wasabi, Walnut die ink, Basic Brown

Acc : Tombow markers ( flowers), Copic Markers ( cow), May art ribbon, unknown ribbon

Copper brads, Gold Krylon Pen, Pop-ups, glue dots, Sakura Star dust pen, Cuttlebug

swirl folder.

I stamped the cow image on Whisper White with the adirondack black ink. I then colored it in with copic markers. It was a real trick blending the larger frame as the ink dries fast and must be blended when wet! I then stamped both flowers on water color paper. They were colored with Tombow markers and then blended with water coloring. After they dried I cut them out, flipped them over and then using a ball tool, I stretched the paper out in order to give it dimension. After each petal was worked, I flipped it over and ran the embossing ball in the centre to press it down and the petals out. Holes were punched and brads added. The celery DP was stamped with the swirl from Baroque Motifs and then sakura Stardust pen was added to the leaves. The circles behind the cow was punched with the mega and giga scallop punch. The triangle is 3 layers. The white was embossed using the swirly Cuttlebug folder, the second triangle is Wild Wasabi and the final is Chatterbox DP. The embossed layer was flipped over and sponged with Wasabi and tea dye. The card was assembled and the flowers were applied with pop-up dots and glue dots in order to layer. Oh ya and gold Krylon was used along the outer edge of the card and Sakura pen is used liberally! Thanks for joining me and have a great day!

Well, the picture isn't the greatest, I need to get better lighting for my studio. So anyways this card is for today's color challenge. We were supposed to use Bold Bright turquoise, Real Red, and Green Galore. Now my first thought was Ugg..... and yeech. It's not that I have anything against these colors, They are very beautiful, I especially like the Red and I do use it regularly. My problem was that I rarely use The Green and Turquoise. They just weren't me. But since a challenge isn't always supposed to be easy, I swallowed my trepidation and ploughed ahead. I figure the colors were great for a child so I made A little boys birthday card. I didn't want it to fancy since it would ultimately go to a child. So for the first time I inked up the virgin rubber of this stamp and this is what I got!
recipe:
stamps: By Air, Itty Bitty Background
CS : Turquoise, Green Galore, Real Red, Whisper White, Petal and Paisley DP
Ink : Red, Turquoise, Green Galore, Brilliant Blue, Walnut stain, Tea dye ink
Acc : Real Red ribbon, silver brads, swirl cuttlebug folder, dazzling diamond, Pop-up dots.

this card is very easy the only things that may be hard to see are that the clouds and the plain are cut out and popped up. The swirl of the cuttlebug was sponged with the Walnut ink to simulate a smokey look. Stars and Itty Bitty background is stamped on the main card and everything else is easy peasy.
Have a great Tuesday and I'm off to stamp some more!

I wanted to do something fun and whimsical today. I have always loved these House of Mouse images very well indeed and alas my own have been gathering dust for some years! I was trying to get a feel of Ana Wohlfart's work. I very much admire her style and skill with layers and colors. Now this doesn't even come close to hers, but I'm hoping that if I keep looking and trying, eventually some of her skill will rub off.

stamps: House of Mouse, Riveting, Itty Bitty Background

CS : Rose Red, Regal Rose, Caramel, Old Olive, Celery dp, Shimmer White CS

Ink : Old Olive, Garden Green, Creamy Caramel, Rose Red, Regal Rose

Acc : Ribbon, AI glitter in Hot Lips, silver brads, scallop trimmer, Prismas and Gamsol, Cuttlebug stitch folder and wildflower folder

The card is very straight forward. Each layer is sponged with its own color, and the caramel and regal rose of the mouse mat is stamped with Itty Bitty. The mouse is colored with Prisma pencils and Gamsol, sections are straight coloring with no blending. The Rose Red strip is embossed with wildflower folder, and the Olive square has the stitch embossing. thanks alot and enjoy the rest of your day!

Well I've been tagged by Yvette and I am supposed to list 7 little known facts about myself.

1. I am a total computer idiot, would you believe that I just figured out how to add the hyper link so that I doesn't show the whole address? Also I avoided blogging and uploading to splitcoast for so long because I would have to learn how to do it myself. I admit I am intimidated by computers!
2. I love art, painting, coloring and artist materials. I am such a sucker for a new color or medium. I used to do painting and sketching in school and I always have to have some element of art in my life. The joy with stamping is that I can color to my hearts content without worrying if my image is perfect! And as for artist materials, I own water colors, soft pastels, color pencils, alcohol markers, water based markers etc... do you see the problem? I can't stop!
3. Gardening is another one of my loves, but only outdoors. It would seem that I need natures help to water my plants. My husband tells me that I have a green thumb outdoors, but a black thumb indoors. I once managed to kill an Aloe Vera plant.....and that's tough. Somehow I managed to forget about it for 2 years. It was cannibalizing its own leaves for nourishment. When I finally got around to remembering it, I watered it tons and put it in the sun ( it was in a dark corner). I think the shock killed it. Needless to say unless its bouquet, I am not permitted to have indoor plants.
4. I trained a a professional cook at Cordon Bleu and college for management, I have worked in professional French kitchens, and I am now a stay at home mom! I realized as soon as I had kids that it was a terrible profession to have if you want to see your kids grow up!
5. I HATE creamed spinach. As a child I would gag over it, as an adult I still gag over it. I will be open minded to most things......but not creamed spinach..........or raw onions for that matter.
6. I went bungee jumping when my daughter was 1 and 1/2 years old.
7. Even as an adult on my own I was scared to tell my dad that I had got a tiny tattoo on my back. He found out by accident and his reaction still inspires a chuckle in me.

Well now I'm supposed to tag someone else so I pick:
Andrea
Libby
Leslie
hope to see you play along and find out more about you :)

This card was done for Beate's Sketch challenge #9. She calls it the Joy Fold Card. It was a relief to have this sketch because I still feel that I am in the midst of a stamping slump. Lately I am more interested in practicing coloring than making the actual card. I did two cards using this image. The top one for the sketch challenge was done using color pencils. The bottom two cards are colored with Copic markers. I am finally starting to get the hang of these things. It is all a matter of paper. I am currently using SU whisper white to get better blending. So far the top card recipe:
Stamps: SU Baroque Motifs ( I love this set), Lockhart Veggie dress and mini radish
Paper: Hunter, Garden Green, Wasabi, Kraft, River Rock, Saffron DP, Shimmer CS unknown
Ink : Garden Green, Caramel
Acc : Prismacolor pencils, Gold brads, Thyme ribbon and gold cord
This card is shown twice so that you can get a better view of the shimmer CS. It is such a beautiful paper. The image is colored straight with Prismas, NO gamsol. The sentiment is printed from the computer and then punched out with the window punch. The directions for the card can be found on Beate's Website http://beate.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2007/07/06/sketch-challenge-9/
Other then that the card is easy.

This next card was the same stamp, but colored with Copic's. As you can see the image is smoother, with less texture, and the colors are somewhat more vibrant. Debbie Olson's tutorial at Thinking Inking http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com/muse_and_amuse/2007/06/strawberries-an.html

was a huge help in achieving good blending. Now I can't wait to get the airbrush tool. the card recipe for this card is as follows:

Stamps: Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Lockhart veggie dress

Paper: Old Olive, Chocolat Chip, Mustard, Whisper White, Hunter, Chatterbox DP

Ink: Same as above

Acc: Copic Markers, White signo Gel pen, Gold eyelets, Sakura Stardust pen, May Art ribbon

The card is pretty easy, and fun to do although I am not sure that I like the placement of the ribbon. As the holes are already cut, i don't have much choice.

Last is the apple card. I am not at all happy with it but thought that i would keep it because I was happy with the coloring of the apples. They are colored with Copic markers. This is also embossed with some old powder that I had kicking around. I just kept adding things to the darn card hoping it would start looking good but unfortunately to no avail!

Today, the last name of the 6 soldiers who died serving their Country was released. I thought that With Canada's day just past, I would take a moment to honour those men and women who have died serving their Country. My heart is with all those who have lost loved ones, both in Canada and the United States. This image represents the fallen soldiers.
This picture is of my Husband as he served in Afghanistan. To say that I am proud of him goes without saying. I am proud that my husband serves his Country. I am proud that my husband puts his life on the line so that others will remain safe at home. I believe that what my husband does is necessary, for without his sacrifice and the sacrifice of all our soldiers, the war on terror could very well come to our doorstep. Without his work the people in these Country's would be forced to forever live under a yoke of oppression and terror, and don't kid yourself, never is it all right to stand by while people are being murdered and terrorized.
Afghanistan was once a beautiful land and in its people, that beauty can be seen. Their faces are often filled with pain, both spiritual and bodily. For those people who want only to live without fear, who want to raise their family in safety with the same benefits that we raise ours in......It is for them that we of NATO re-build.
So that their children can grow up never knowing what it is to be hungry, illiterate or poor, it is for them that we re-build.
So that they can worship a true form of their religion, instead of the Twisted hypocrisy that radicals spout, it is for that, that we fight. For all this and so that our children never experience these things.

I was outraged that at the death of our soldiers, The Opposition ( NDP) rose up and demanded that we pull out our soldiers, that we tell NATO that we will not renew our combat commitment, and finally that we should initiate peace talks with the Taliban! Is the man insane? If he is so eager to negotiate with an enemy that has no concept of peace, then I say may he be the one to lead it with everyone far behind. Thank the Lord we have a Prime Minister who is willing to stick to his guns. May his position be strengthened, and may he forever make wise decisions. Hopefully one day people will realize that all good things come at a price.

So for today's challenge I decided on something that had been floating in my head for awhile. The idea was to have them standing sedately in the frame, but they decided to take off on me and run amok. Now I don't know why I feel compelled to give characters personalities but i do. These guy's in my mind are trouble, especially the monkey. So there you have it.

Recipe:

Stamps: Zoofari, Baroque Motifs, Label Classics

CS : Wasabi, Black, Celery DP, non SU shimmer CS

Ink : River Rock, Wasabi, Garden Green, Caramel

Acc. : Sakura Stardust Pen, Stickles, Water color crayons, Window punch, Cuttlebug folder

Wasabi is sponged with its own ink and garden green then embossed with the folder. Shimmer CS is stamped with the flourish ( love it) which was inked with River Rock and Wasabi. Animals were stamped and colored in with crayons, then stickles were applied. Greeting was hand written. Sakura was used to line the embossed circles. Everything was stamped then mounted to black matted shimmer CS which was sponged with caramel and wasabi. Pretty straight forward ,but a fun sketch non the less.

Phew, I feel like I am swimming in extra time lately. With my daughter gone to camp, I suddenly have all this free time on my hands. So during my son's nap today, I completed today's color challenge. I used their colors but added some celery as it was in the same family as the Olive.
recipe:
Stamps: Happy Harmony, Linen BG, flower from the Stamp Barn ( Canadian)
CS : Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Water color Paper, Celery DP
Ink : Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Celery, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Caramel
Acc. : Gold Krylon Pen, Cuttlebug vines, Quickutz buckle, SEI Brad, Organdy ribbon, Scallop
punches, pop up dots, stickles
SU markers: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Blush, Olive, Garden Green, Celery

I decided to do a 3-d flower and stamped it out 5 times. I cut each layer out going with smaller and smaller elements in the design. I water colored with the markers and then punched holes through each flower and put together with brad. I popped a few of the leaves and curled up all the edges then added stickles. The Olive background was sponged with olive and Wasabi and then the linen was stamped in Garden Green. The brown scallop was edged with the gold, and the Vanilla scallop was sponged with caramel. Everything else is easy to see from the picture. Hope you enjoy!

And a partridge in a pear tree. I decided to take this water colored pear off an old card and revamp it into something different. I think I actually really like this card.
recipe:
Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Carte Postal,Lockhart pear and itty bitty Pear
CS : Pomegranate, Sky Blue, Groovy Guava, Very Vanilla, Vellum CS, Black, Shimmer CS
Ink : Blue Bayou, Pomegranate, Groovy Guava, Sky Blue
Acc. : Cuttlebug Textile Folder, silver brads, Tombow markers, Copic markers, stickles,
Sakura Stardust pen, and Sakura blue stardust pen, black organdy ribbon
mat pack and needle.
Once again this is a pretty easy card. The size is 4 1/4 square. The main base is black with Groovy guava and embossed vellum over top. The next layer is black and Pomegranate. There is piercings along the edge. The final layer is Soft Sky on Black. The Sky is stamped with Baroque flourish, and then every flourish is lined with Sakura Blue. The pear platter is popped and colored with marker and water colored. The little pears were colored with Copic, dotted with Sakura Stardust and added to flourishes to make it look like a pear tree. The bird was stamped on shimmer CS and then stickles were added and finally the bird popped.
Well I'm going back to my movie the First Wives Club. So far its really good!
Ciao and have a great Sunday.

Well, I have been pretty busy since Thursday. Had to get ready for stampers club (go figure I left it to the last minute). Then we were gone Saturday for a party out of town, and finally spent time with my daughter before she had to go back to camp! Phew, finally had time to stamp something with my Zoofari, but when I got it inked up, I became stumped. I honestly had no clue what to stamp, so I went with a simple design to get my self back into the swing of stamping.

Stamps: Zoofari, French Flair, Baroque Motifs

Paper : Black, Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Rose Red, Shimmer CS

Ink : Blue Bayou, Cool Caribbean, Soft Sky, Rose Red

Acc. : Prismacolor Pencils, SU velvet ribbon, Other ribbon, Silver Brads, Gamsol, Stickles,

Sakura Stardut Pen.

The card is pretty self explanitory, I layered the animals using masking, colored with pencils and gamsol, applied various stickles to ears, grass and spots. I mounted to card which has a layer of Soft Sky stamped with French Flair which was outlined with Sakura Stardust Pen. Flowers were added to corner. Ribbon was put on before image layer.

I know that this is a pretty basic card but you have to forgive me as I am in a blah kinda mood. Hopefully some of this weeks challenges will get my creative juices flowing!

Have a great Sunday.