Lili of the Valley Thursday Challenge 'Celebrate'

Hello everyone! My OttLite craft lamp saga drags on. I searched high and low for the right replacement bulbs, most places wanted $12 some places wanted $35 for the same bulb! Outrageous, IMO. It's just a light bulb for crying out loud. So as I search online, I see that Lowe's carries them too, for significantly less. I head on over to my nearest Lowe's. Oh, too bad, they don't carry the bulb I need for my lamp. I check online again. Another Lowe's carries them, so I head over to that one. Apparently they're on clearance, there's three left at less than $2 each. I snap them up, bring them home, pop them into my lamp and flip the switch....nothing. I'm getting really upset at this point. I try another bulb, plug it in. Still nothing. I've had this lamp for less than a year, and I get this?! I've contacted OttLite and the customer service rep says they may be able to help me with a replacement. Not sure yet because I don't have a receipt. Hmmph. I'll let you all know how this turns out.

Anyway, enough rambling, it's time for the challenge! For a celebration  I think a wedding is the ULTIMATE of occasions, so I went with that. I chose to work with 'Wedding Carriage' for this card. 

I had to do a lot of finnoogling and editing of these pics because the lamp I'm using now makes everything look so yellow, grrrr....

I decided to use the Burnished Velvet technique to get a really soft look to the image. I just stamped the image on water color paper, colored the skin with Copics then covered it with Sookwang full sheet adhesive, peeled off the liner and sprinkled Glitter Ritz all over it. I rubbed the surface gently with a finger to really stick the glitter down and 'burnish' it. This glitter is so fine, it's almost like powder and this actually feels like velvet. 

After glittering, I went back with some Tombow and Stampin Up markers and water colored the image right over the glitter. I learned that there's a bit more bleeding painting this way, but it actually worked to my advantage because I got some really pretty blending of colors completely by accident. I think it helps not to use too many different colors as the result could get muddy. I kept the colors simple. 

The last picture is a bit darker than it actually is IRL, but when photographing an almost all white card, the contrast needs to be higher to show all the detail.


Thanks for looking and I hope to see you join in on our challenge and enter it for a chance to win some LOTV cash!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley, PTI sentiment
Ink: Memento
Paper: Water color paper, PTI c/s and vellum
Tools & Accessories: Taffeta ribbon, pearl head pins, Martha Stewart small tag and PATP punches, Sizzix texture plate, Creatables die, Viva Decor Pearl pen, silver bugle beads

Sweet cakes

Hello everyone! I haven't been blogging for a while, I know, and it's all because of one light bulb. Yep, my Ottlite craft lamp that I use for crafting as well as taking pictures of my projects burned out and I can't get a good picture no matter what I do. I'm hoping to pick one up tomorrow and resume my regularly scheduled programming, lol! 

Here's a card I made a while back using some adorable A Day for Daisies digital images. 

LOVE these fruity cupcakes, they look scrumptious! I colored them with my colored pencils. 

Hopefully I'll be able to take some good pictures of some of the cards I've worked on last week soon, so hang in there! I'll be back...


Thanks for visiting!


Stamps: Digital images from A Day for Daisies, PTI sentiment
Ink: Memento, Perfect Match
Paper: DCWV, Memory Box, PTI, Neenah
Tools & Accessories: Nestabilities, colored pencils, OMS, PTI ribbon, Martha Stewart edge punch, PTI tiny tags die, Stickles

Lili of the Valley Thursday Sketch Challenge 102

Hello everyone! We have a lovely sketch by Donalda for this week's challenge over at LOTV. I think working from sketches are my absolute favorite challenges. They really help me break out of my usual layout 'rut'. 

I used the new Emma in the Garden stamp, colored in pencils. I went with a very Victorian theme to go with the beautiful Pink Paislee 'Butterfly Garden' collection of papers. Lacy doily and some distressed texture for the background layer. 

See that gorgeous sparkly butterfly in the upper left corner? That's one of those Stampendous Class A'peels stickers that I saw used on this blog and absolutely fell in love with the technique! So beautiful, and that microfine glitter, wow, you can color over it with markers and make it any color you want. 


Now make sure you check out all the inspiration from the other DT members, then create your own card for a chance to win some LOTV bucks. 


Thanks for dropping by!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley, PTI tiny tag sentiment
Ink: Distress
Paper: Neenah, Heavenly White, Pink Paislee, Core'dinations, PTI
Tools & Accessories: SU embossing folder & ribbon, colored pencils, Cheery Lynn doily die, Copics, Class A'peels butterfly sticker, Art Institute Glitter, SU markers, Nestabilities, PTI Tiny Tags die

The perfect summer day...

Good morning everyone! 

I've always wanted to try a diorama style card since seeing the tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers a long time ago. I am however, The Great Procrastinator..haha. Well, I could put it off no longer. I was going through some of my older stamps and came across this Magnolia background from my design team days with them. Then I came across this 'Little Girl - SwingTime' stamp from Lili of the Valley and I had a light bulb moment. It was time for a 3D card! 

I searched through my stash for a large tree stamp, came up empty. No time to buy one, I had to go with this creative spurt ASAP! So I started searching for a digi. Sure enough, I already had a digital stamp from Cuddly Buddly that had the perfect tree for my project. So I start coloring...

When it came time to assemble the diorama card, I had to do a lot of experimenting with different paper sizes because the SCS tutorial was too small for what I needed. But I was able to get the basic directions and I soon figured out which sizes I need to make a 4 1/2" square diorama. 

Now, there's only one problem with the finished result. It was supposed to collapse down so it could fit into an envelope, and it did. BEFORE I used foam tape to layer the grass die cuts! Grrr.... Mistake. It doesn't fold flat at all because of it, soooo- it's no longer a 'card', just a diorama, lol. 
Pretty as a picture though, methinks.


Thanks for looking!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley, Magnolia butterfly BG, Cuddly Buddly digital image
Ink: Memento, SU
Paper: Neenah Solar White, Memory Box
Tools & Accessories: MFT grass die, colored pencils, OMS, Stickles, Copic sketch/Spica pens, PTI rustic string, Nestabilities, Scor Pal

Father's Day 2011

Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever. Dad, you're someone to look up to no matter how tall I've grown.


Happy Father's Day to all the Daddies out there! Here's a final Father's Day card I have to share with you all using an older SU set called 'Pheasant Thoughts'. I knew I had to hunt down this set and finally found one used but in great shape on Ebay. Jimmy is a huge fan of all things hunting, and I have even gone Pheasant hunting several times with him and our two English Springers. I don't hunt, I just go along for the nature walk, lol. It's an amazing thing to see hunting dogs at work, they are tireless! 

I did some simple water coloring on this image using my Tombow markers. I colored and cut out a couple of feathers as an embellishment too. 

I opted to use simple textured papers for this card, rather than patterns. I brayered some darker colored ink over some Bazzill paper to bring out the weave texture, and used a piece of faux leather paper I made a while ago from my stash. 

Now ladies go spoil the fathers of your children and do something special for your Dad if you're nearby! 

Thanks for visiting!

Impression Obsession 'Summer Greetings'

Good morning blog friends! This week for the Impression Obsession Thursday challenge we're creating Summer themed cards. And you know what came to mind when I think of hot summer days? Sitting by a still lake looking out over the reeds and rushes and watching the dragonflies zooming around. The sound of peepers and crickets filling the warm air, the sun hot on my shoulders. I'm starting to sweat already, ha ha!

This image was perfect for my vision of summer, 'Cattail Dragonfly'. 

Trying to recreate the amazing colors and shimmer of dragonfly wings is near impossible with paper, but I did my best. I stamped them first on Neenah cardstock, and once on vellum. I colored the main image in colored pencils, then colored the back of the stamped vellum for more subtle colors. 

The body of the dragonfly looked a little dull to me, so I went over it with a Sakura Glaze pen to make it look shiny. I went over the vellum wings with a clear Spica pen for a bit of shimmer. I wanted to use glitter to really make them sparkle, but I remember using Stickles on vellum once before and the vellum warped pretty badly.

I added a bit of brown flocking to the left side of the cattail for some texture. I really wanted to make the whole thing fuzzy like real cattails, but I wasn't sure it would look right. Maybe I'll try it next time. 


Are you ready for more summer inspiration? Head on over to the rest of the DT's blogs and check out their beautiful creations. Then you can create your own card and enter it for a chance to win some IO cash, read the details on the IO blog. 


Thanks for looking, have a great day!

• Daniela Dobson
• Deborah March
• Dina Kowal
• Jeanne Streiff
• Jenny Gropp
• Julie Koerber
• Laura Fulcher
• 
  

Sailing away

How's this for a masculine card? Pretty easy with Stampin' Up's digital stamps and papers, which I love. I am so glad they're offering digital products now, last minute cards? No problem. Inexpensive, immediate download, print, and you're ready to get creative. Now that's my idea of 21st century crafting, lol! 

This is probably one of the most digital cards I've ever made, the patterned papers and the images are printed right from my computer. I colored the ship fairly quickly with Copics, then decided it needed a little something extra. I opted for the cracked glass technique to make it a little antique looking. 

I did a little sailor's knot with waxed twine and threaded the anchor through it for a little embellishment. The sentiment is from an older SU set 'Pheasant Thoughts'.


This one's in tomorrow's mail for my Dad!


Thanks for visiting!