Tagged?! Me?! Nahhh...

What a grand world we would live in if we could forget our

troubles as easily as we forget our blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Don't forget to count your blessings today (preferably everyday).

I've been tagged by Terri, to share 7 random/weird facts about me, then tag 7 more people. Thanks for thinking of me Terri, but unfortunately after a few days of starting the post, it stayed in my drafts folder while I pondered on what to write about! I honestly just can't think of what to write! I even asked my DBF, my kids, anything to help me get started. Nada. Blank. So, I'll have to pass on this one.
But I do have a card to post today. I finally caved in and bought Papertrey Ink's Merry and Bright Additions. I didn't want any of their new stamp sets from the last release, but I've been wanting Merry and Bright, along with their new colors. I didn't have a whole lot of extra moolah, so I had to make a very difficult decision between Merry and Bright original and the additions. Tough call!
The thing I love most about PTI is that it's so easy to put together wonderful cards with very little effort. For me, I usually decide on a color scheme first. In this case, Ocean Tides, Poppy and Avocado. Then I choose the stamps I want for my main image. Finally it's just a matter of selecting a few coordinating little detail stamps, and/or a sentiment, some ribbon and that's it! They make it so easy.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Ink: Perfect Match

Paper: Papertrey Ink, Worldwin metallic, Stardream

Accessories: Nestabilities, Green/Gold ribbon from Mike's, Sizzix texture plates

100th Post Today!

I'm in sparkly snowflake heaven! I saw Anna Wight make a couple elaborate, layered glittered snowflakes on her blog and immediately knew I had to make them too! I didn't have the tin snowflakes at the time (I do now, and will be making some soon!) so I just used the German glass glitter to coat some of my Sizzix snowflakes. I love the look and am using them on everything! I just bought another 1/2 lb. of glass glitter on Ebay 'cause I was running out! I have a little rustic 'Everyday' tree that I keep up all year round and I plan on putting lots of sparkly snowflakes all over it! I'll take a picture soon.

Well, I got another small design team package from Magnolia, so I'm off to work on that!

Stamps: Plum Purdy Designs, Papertrey Ink

Paper: Hot press w/c, PTI, Cosmo Cricket

Ink: Palette, Distress

Accessories: Sizzix snowflake dies, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Button, German Glass Glitter, Jute string

Back to Basics

Whew! I need a break from complicated and detailed watercolored cards! While I was out and about yesterday, I saw lots of poinsettia's for sale. I love them, especially all the new fangled colors they come in nowadays. I wanted to make a fairly traditional poinsettia card, in red with some gold accents. I only have one actual poinsettia stamp, and it was too large for the idea I had forming in my head. I didn't feel like making one out of punched paper, so I flipped through my everyday stamp collection. Well, I spied Papertrey Ink's Boxes, Bags and Tags and the little flower set included with it! Perfect! Stamped a couple of those in Poppy and Moulin Rouge Palette Inks, cut them out, popped them up and I had my main image. The rest was easy! Isn't it pretty?
Stamps: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Perfect Match, Palette, Colorbox
Paper: Papertrey Ink, Gold Stardream
Accessories: Gold striped ribbon, Nestabilities, Stickles

Folk Art Snowman

This is a verry rustic, distressed card! This snow guy is from another of my favorite decorative painting artists, Katrina Roncin's book Abundance of Blessings. I've had this book for a long time, and painted many a patterns from it. I love her primitive style and deep, antique colors. I traced and watercolored the image with a variety of Distress Inks, Adirondack reinkers, and of course, Tombow markers. I could not find an off-white pen or marker though, so I painted the snowflakes in the background with the old stand by, a paintbrush and acrylic paints. While the paint was still wet, I sprinkled glitter on it. I love the way this card came out. It kind of looks like a special memento that's been lovingly saved in Grandma's attic for years!
Hope you like!
Paper: Hot press w/c paper, Cosmo Cricket, Kraft, Stardream
Accessories: Adirondack reinkers, Distress Inks, Tombow/SU markers, SU scallop punch, mini sewing machine, Americana acrylic paint, Art Institute glitter

A Few Questions Answered..

WARNING: This post is long, and may bore you to tears, LOL!

I just want to take a minute to thank everyone who has left such wonderful comments. I can't express how good it makes me feel, and keeps me motivated to do what I love to do! You don't know how many times I have thought to myself, how futile all the time and effort I put into this hobby is! Sometimes I scold myself for taking the time instead of doing something 'productive'. But the way I look at it is like this. Life is not always much fun. It's working hard, taking care of children, doing all of the things that we need to do on a day to day basis. Cleaning, making dinner, doing laundry, driving a gazillion miles to get all the kids where they need to be. So, when I have a few hours in between all of these things, I sit down, I create, I paint, I listen to my audio book and let all things just be for a few moments. It calms and centers me, allows my brain to take a break from worrying how am I going to pay for my car insurance, or buy Christmas presents this year. It allows me to take pleasure in what would otherwise be a very dreary life. If I didn't have something creative to do, I would be in a mental institution by now, LOL! SO, because I take this time for me, I am happier and healthier. Because I am happier and healthier, I can be a better mother, a better spouse, employee, etc. etc.

Anyway, I have been asked how I made the card in my previous post without a stamp? Well, it's actually quite simple. When I used to paint with acrylics on all sorts of surfaces, wood, plaster, tin, paper mache, whatever, I would have a pattern of the design I wanted to paint. (This card was made using one of the free patterns from Plum Purdy, you can download the ZIP file here) You will get a few B & W line drawings. I re size them to the size I want on my computer, then print it out. I cut out the pattern to fit on the surface I want to transfer it to, in this case a small square of watercolor paper, and use transfer paper to trace the pattern. In my case, I didn't have transfer paper, I just used a soft pencil to trace the lines on the back of the pattern. This way I can just put it onto the w/c paper right side up, and use a stylus to trace the lines again. Once I have my image transferred, I can go over the lines with a permanent fine line pen like Sakura Micron or ZIG. I use a brown .05MM Micron. I erase the stray pencil lines, and start water coloring like any stamped image. Yes, it's more work, takes longer, and isn't as perfect as a rubber stamped image, but I like it. It also gives me an almost unlimited choice of images because there are thousands of painting pattern books out there by a lot of wonderful artists! I have a very particular style that I love, folk art, primitive, rustic, whatever you want to call it, and there aren't a lot of stamps out there like that! So, this is my solution. It works for me!

A Few Cards for Sale

A couple of weeks ago I gave a bunch of my card stash to my mother, she wanted to take them to work with her and show them off. Well, lo and behold, she also sold a bunch of them! I was pretty surprised! Anyway, after much consideration, I've been convinced that I should try and sell them online. I haven't yet figured out where I will be offering them for sale on a regular basis, but I decided to start with a few auctions on Ebay. I used to sell my decorative hand painted items with pretty good success years ago, and figured I might try it again. So click on the link and see what I'm offering up for bid!

The cards I posted aren't actually stamped at all, at least the main images aren't. This one is one of Renee Mullins' free patterns from her Plum Purdy web site. It was the first one I tried doing without stamping. Most of her patterns are designed to painted with acrylic paints, but I was already water coloring, so I figured why not? I think it looks pretty darn cute! Now I just have to get into my DBF's storage shed and start digging for my pattern books! They're in there somewhere! Or maybe I could just buy a couple more from her, that would be much easier, LOL.

Oh well, hope you like!

I was so excited when Cambria Turnbow from Splitcoast Stampers emailed me about a new store she was opening with a partner called Our Craft Lounge. She wanted me (me??!!) to make her some samples using one of their new stamp sets! What a thrill, let me tell you. Of course I said yes, and how excited was I when I saw this set called 'Life is Sweet' with adorable yummy cupcakes and ice cream!
Anyway, using this set to make a variety of cards was easy, they're so fun!

From Watermelon Sugar

Last Two Magnolia Design Team Projects

Here are the last two cards I made for Magnolia DT. Same image, different looks. The second card has a pretty sweet little embellishment I'm pretty proud of. I made the little tree from a twig cut from a floral stem, then tied strips of green jute, or some kind of thin colored string that came in my DT package, all along the trunk. I'm not sure what it's called, but it's a bit stiff, which worked perfectly for the tree 'branches'. Again, I'm not sure who the maker of the DP is, I didn't get a whole sheet and there was no logo on it.

I decorated the inside of the card, too, so it shows through the 'window'. That's a gorgeous snowflake stamp embossed in silver, also from Magnolia. I love snowflakes, I have all kinds, fancy and rustic. You can never have too many snowflake stamps!

I tried something else pretty neat with the first card. I could not for the life of me find matching ribbon, but I had the perfect color of Twinkling H2O's. So I decide what the hey, I'm going to try and dye some white twill tape with it! Well, it worked beautifully! I simply brushed it on with a paintbrush (dampen the twill with a little bit of water first so it colors evenly), dried it with the heat gun, and bingo! It looks gorgeous!

Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Magnolia, Pink Cat Studio, Papertrey Ink, JustRite

Ink: Palette, Versamark, Distress, Adirondack

Paper: Hot press w/c paper, Bazzill, Stardream

Accessories: Nestabilities, Clear EP, Sheer red ribbon, Flower punches from The Punch Bunch, Tombow/SU markers, Liquid Pearls, mini sewing machine, Twinkling H2O's

Tilda's Gifts II

Here's another version of Tilda with her pile of gifts colored in more subdued colors. She's still lovely in her teal dress and candy striped stockings. Included in my DT package from Magnolia were these beautiful pine branches that look like they were punched from cardstock. I'm not sure who makes the punch, but it looks pretty similar to a Martha Stewart one I saw. I may have to get it. I added a few Dew Drops to the bunch simulating bright red berries. I love it and I have to find that punch! LOL! Being a stamper is bankrupting me!
Anyway, hope you find some inspiration with these Magnolia projects I've been posting. I don't think I'll ever run out of ideas when it comes to Magnolia stamps! They are truly one of my very favorite images.
Stamps: Magnolia, Papertrey Ink
Ink: Palette, Distress, Colorbox
Paper: Hot press w/c paper, Basic Grey, Stardream
Accessories: Silver edge ribbon, Bazzill Chips, Dew Drops, Sakura Glaze pen, Ranger White gel pen, Silver EP

Tilda Sitting Pretty

Here's the same Tilda image I used on the gift box, but this time on a card. All the papers and the rhinestone tree are from Magnolia so I have no idea who makes them. :-( If anyone recognizes the DP please let me know so I can post the info here!
Stamps: Magnolia
Ink: Palette, Distress
Accessories: Nestabilities, Red grosgrain ribbon, Tombow/SU markers, Corner rounder punch, Mini sewing machine

Tilda Sitting in a Wreath

Another Magnolia DT project, this time a round papier mache box. I painted the lid with acrylic paint, and covered the rest of the box with DP from Basic Grey. The wreath was stamped with a tiny pine sprig stamp, all the way around a circle from PTI's Borders & Corners. This makes it easy to maintain the circular shape. A couple of berries in red and that's it! Hope you all like it!
Stamps: Magnolia, Papertrey Ink
Ink: Palette, Adirondack, Distress, Perfect Match
Paper: Hot press w/c paper, Basic Grey, PTI
Accessories: Nestabilities, Burgundy stitched ribbon, Copic Spica pens, Tombow/SU markers, Americana acrylic paint

Tilda's Gifts

Well, I sent my design team projects off to Magnolia a few days ago, so I figured it might be a good time to post some pics of what I did. The new Christmas stamps are beautiful, as usual! Be sure to check out all their new collections!
I created this card a bit differently than usual. Instead of coloring with markers and distress inks, I mostly used Twinkling H2O's. Unfortunately, the shimmer just doesn't show up well on camera. The effect is really beautiful and rich. Perfect for Christmas cards. I also chose to cut out the Tilda and present image and adhere them with dimensional foam tape directly to the Basic Grey DP. Kind of gives the effect of a richly wallpapered room, doesn't it? I really like it a lot. I may have to recreate this card for myself, because I just love the way it came out, LOL!
Stamps: Magnolia, Papertrey Ink
Ink: Palette, Distress
Paper: Hot press w/c paper, Basic Grey, PTI, Bazzill
Accessories: Cream/gold ribbon, Liquid Pearls, Flower punches from The Punch Bunch, Nestabilities

Joy to the World

I have been waiting for these label dies from Spellbinders to become available since forever! Now finally I have my hands on some! I just love them, I have another set coming and I can't wait. They are such a refreshing change from circles, squares, ovals and rectangles, LOL. Sometimes you just have to have variety! It's hard to tell in the picture, but the mint green background paper was embossing with a shimmery EP in a berry pattern stamp that I have, matches the berry tree branch beautifully.
Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Posh Impressions
Ink: Versamark, Distress
Paper: Memory Box, PTI, EK Success
Accessories: Stickles, Spellbinders labels die, Chipboard coasters, Frosted EP, Black EP, Green/Gold ribbon from Michael's

Help! I'm Melting!

Look at this poor little guy! Hopefully there will lots of snow and freezing temperatures before the sun comes up! He is still adorable though, don't you think? I saw the sentiment somewhere on the web, and thought it was perfectly appropriate for this image, so I spent some time with tiny letters and my rectangle JustRite stamper. I guess I could've just printed it out, might've been easier now that I think of it, LOL!

Till later!

Stamps: Inky Antics, JustRite

Ink: Palette, Distress

Paper: Hot press w/c paper, Basic Grey, PTI, Bazzill

Accessories: Natural grosgrain ribbon, Tombow/SU markers, Copic Spica Pens