time well spent

Been sitting around twiddling my thumbs a lot this holiday break. It felt good to get motivated and do a LO tonight.

I took apart the following LOs. These must be among the 1st dozen I did back in 2007 when I started. Thank goodness I used the Scotch glue sticks because everything came apart really easily. I reused the brads on my updated LO and the purple paper (DCWV Old World Stack).

This LO was coming along so easily. I used a sketch from pagemaps and beautifully coordinating papers from Phresh and Phunky by BG. The trouble started when I got a wild hair and decided to bling up this LO with GIRLS in it.

The Stephanie bling was going everywhere and I had my phone handy so I could text her and complain :)

Colors were giving me fits so the glimmer mist was getting piled onto the table.

Primas going everywhere.

After spending some time in gabriellep's gallery, I finally came up with this. I misted a large, plain prima flower with Lavender. Another flower with Forest Green and Starfish. Cut them in half and fitted them into this bottom corner. Topped with an arrangement of little primas and a Stephanie rose. The border punch is MS. The trim is a piece of scrap paper run through a Fiskars crimper.

Added some Stephanie bling. The small butterfly (and all the other butterflies) is from that DCWV paper from the original LO, punched from Fiskars and topped with pink bling.

More bling and butterflies.

"time" is rub on letters from MM. "well spent" is tiny type from CC. The larger butterfly is from a MS punch. The notebook edge from an EK Success punch. The rub on at the very bottom is Pink Paislee. I used a micron pen for journaling. Yellow brad from original LOs, MM.

Other half of the flower I misted and cut. Pearl center by MM.Brad from the original LOs, by MM.

Brad from the original LOs, by MM.

 Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Gift Tags

Yep. Getting an early start for next year! I love this tag by Stephanie. Ended up using her flowers and bling.

I cut the reindeer from my Expression, Christmas solutions cartridge. The paper is MME. Stamped the sentiment and cut out.

Colors look a little wonky here. It's storming outside so... yeah. The brown flower and the pearl bling is all by Stephanie. I cut the snowflakes and scalloped frames with Expression. Embossed the frames in the Cuttlebug and inked with Brilliance. The snowman is a PSX stamp. Stamped him a billion times last year and just now getting around to using him. I cut him out and matted him using nestabilities.  Stamped the poinsettia, topped with stickles, and cut out. The whole tag(s) is sprayed with silver glimmer mist.

Popcorn the Bear and Two Layouts

Bear and sentiment by Crafter's Companion. These stamps are about six dollars a set. The whole set is delivered as a single rubber sheet that you can cut apart yourself. Cutterbee scissors are great for cutting rubber. I don't bother bother mounting these at all. When I want to stamp, I adhere the rubber to an acrylic block with 3L repositionable adhesive. This adhesive simply rubs off when you're done.

I was inspired by this card. Colored with pencils. A touch of blue chalk on the background. Cut the image with an oval nestability. Hand cut the flowers and layered. Topped the flowers with stickles but I had a hard time getting a good photo of the sparkle. Also rubbed the bear down with stickles. Cut the scalloped mats from Expression, Storybook cartridge. Papers from Wild Saffron by K and Company. 

WOW! Inspired by pagemaps. Chance loves to shop from the toy catalogs that come in the mail. I caught him shopping on the potty one day! Totally classic moment. Various papers from Sassafras collections.

WOW! and star are cut from Office Help. The journaling card is Sassafras. Flowers by Prima. Chipboard embellishment is K and Co.

Little Personality. I love this picture of Chance!

Inspired by pagemaps. "Little" is rub ons by Kaiser Craft. "personality" is cut from Plantin Schoolbook, welded by Gypsy. The clear stickers are by AC. The stamped frame is Fancy Pants. Red polka dots is MME. Blue polka dots from Like Father Like Son by Fancy Pants. Journaling tag by 7 Gypsies.

Gift Card Holders

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! It's only 8:30 and I've made cookie dough, a pumpkin pie, and peanut butter fudge. AND my kitchen is clean. Who's impressed? No one? Oh. Well. Maybe you'll like my handy dandy gift card holders!

 Left: Sticker by K and Company. Right: Felt sticker from Eskimo Kisses by Basic Grey.

Left: Vintage cut by Crafty Secrets. Right: Stamp by Crafty Secrets, Vintage Christmas (I think).

I got this idea from Cardmaker magazine last year and I still can't get enough of them. They are so cute and so handy. I made seven yesterday! I cut the hinges with my Expression, Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. The papers are My Mind's Eye. I used some Basic Grey ribbon and some Christmas ribbon from Michael's (dirt cheap right now! Go get some!). I do love to make bows but I was pressed for tie so I settled for putting a simple knot in the ribbon trim and topped with a brad. I believe the brads are HOTP. I picked them up super cheap at a convention last summer. 

I used stickers and vintage cuts to avoid the complication of stamping. However, that Santa stamp is simply perfect with Memento ink. No chalking, no inking, no coloring and I do like the simplicity! WHEW!

Cards Galore!

Another interpretation of the rocking chair stamp. Found inspiration from Spring Butterflies by lisaadd. The handmade rose is from Stephanie. She tried to tell me to take it off because it doesn't match! PUHLEEZE! If you want to see step by step coloring for this stamp, visit my tutorial.

Stamp "Rejoice in the Lord" by Heartfelt Creations. Papers by MME and DCWV. Colored with pencils, pop dotted for dimension, and topped with stickles.

 Quilled butterfly by my sister Vivian! Click on her name to visit her store. Flowers from Prima and Sassafras.

 More flowers by  Stephanie! Felt flowers are Sassafras.

 Inspired by MyPaperAdventures' Sweet Fairy. The blue pp is Anna Griffin. The pink pp is Echo Park. Those are dew drops in the upper right. Machine stitching. The swirly is puff paint done by Stephanie (Stars N Sparkles). The dress form is from Hero Arts, colored with Copics. I need to invest in better paper! The blue flower is from The Girl's Paperie. The butterfly and pink flower are from Spring Fling by MM. Border punch by Fiskars.

I found this stamp at Stamp Antonio in San Antonio. Wasn't really sure how to use it but found inspiration from scrappersuzz's Tag with Card at scs. I used pp from K and Co and G45, machine stitching. Distressed with Distrezz-It-All. I stamped and then cut out the image with scissors. Inked TH style. Added hand stitching and handmade roses using the six petal punch technique (tutorial by GabrielleP over at My Creative Scrapbook). Tied a lace piece into a bow (kinda hard) and attached to the top with glossy accents. Glimmer misted a bird to the right of stamped piece. The bird is from stencil thingy that was on clearance at HL. Totally impulse purchase this summer and have justified buying it, right? :) The twine is bamboo twine/thread that I found in the jewelry section at Ms. Love that stuff. Much easier to work with than regular twine.

Spring Porch Rocking Chair by Northwoods

I'm so glad I splurged on this stamp. SCORE! See the step by step coloring here. New to pencils? Check out my beginner tutorial Color with Pencils.

The green matting is an older paper from MME, the Wild Asparagus collection. The pattern paper is from the Green Stack by DCWV. I bought that stack when it first came out and it is still one of my trustiest collections. The ribbon is some cheap thing I bought at a convention this summer. Glad to use it and it was hard to work with! See my bow tutorial here. Finished with a row of dew drops.

I love the design of You Glow Girl! by ChristineCreations over at splitcoaststampers.com. You can check out her gorgeous blog here.

More Coloring with Pencils

I saw this rocking chair stamp by Northwoods at Addicted to Rubber Stamps (now there's an understatement). The website was nice enough to let me know there was only one in stock so I snatched it up!

If you want to see a more simple tutorial for pencils, check out this earlier post by me. For those of you that choose to stay here, let's get complicated.

I have a small collection of Copics but have yet to master them. They're stashed away due to frustration for now. However, watching this tutorial for Copics changed my pencil technique and I highly recommend checking out. Coloring this stamp, I made it a point to add shading with unexpected colors (because of what I learned watching that video).

Plain white cardstock. Stamped with Archival black. Used a thin foamy packaging sheet under the cardstock for a good impression.

I decided to make the rocking chair green and laid down the lightest shade first, taking my time and coloring in little circles.

Middle shade of green, using the stamp itself for guidance.

Darkest shade.

Wasn't satisfied so I did another layer with the darkest shade.

Unexpected shade: orangey-yellow.

Plain old red.

Shaded with same red, laid down some pink for kicks.

Light green on the leaves.

Same green with heavier hand for shading.

Dark green.

Light blue for the vase.

Same blue for shading, added grey for more dimension.

Used the same four colors from the rocking chair to make the table match.

Two shades of yellow for these flowers.

Dark yellow and brown for the planter.

Now, there is a fuzzy picture but there is some stray blue in the upper right.

I erased it with a plain old piece of Scotch tape. I used this technique several times coloring this stamp.

Blue and grey for the windows.

White, grey, and brown for the trim.

Two shades of yellow for the house/background. I used the darker yellow to outline a shadow for the flower arrangements, chair, table etc.

Brown for the floor, one color.

Can't wait to put this on a card!