(enabling you)

Several asked where to find the "Stella" set I used in my last post - click here to see it in the smARTworks online catalog on page 146. Gotta love that unforgettable quote from Annie too.........!

my new favorite stamp

Just had to get my mind off traveling and the events of the day. Blog, blog, blog. Such a day...we left my hometown yesterday after send-offs in all 3 services at church, and that was hard...one of the few places that I feel "at home" away from our home overseas...and now back on the road, living out of suitcases and our sad minivan, in between worlds and frankly a little sad and lonely today. BUT - taking things one day at a time. And thankful for the many things the Lord is teaching me about me and about Himself.

Here is a stack of cards I can share today - I do love to do one-of-a-kind cards and rarely reproduce or mass-produce, but I needed a stack of thank you cards for the road, and I couldn't believe how quickly and easily this design came together. The flourish is from smARTworks' new set called "Stella" and I'll admit...I bought the set just for the flourish stamp (it comes in 2 sizes, too!). Love it. I used a single inkpad (Versafine Vintage Sepia), and stamped a few times before reinking. Simple, and 12 cards were done quickly. I actually used a similar design a few days later to make some portfolios of our ministry information to share with some new church contacts.

Speaking of that Versafine pad, I'd like to plug the Bargain Garden - they have the pad at a great price, but the one I received from them was a little dry, and not what I expected after being soooo pleased with my first super-inky Versafine pad. When I wrote to ask about the pad, and if they had contact information for the company, the owner immediately wrote me back and said she would put a new pad in the mail the same day. How sweet is that? So send a little love her way. She has the Versafine pads (Sepia and Onyx Black) at $4.99 (I think I actually paid $8+ for mine in a stamp store), and also if you like the look of the Versamagic Chalk inks I like to use, she has some 4-packs of the dewdrop pads for $4.99 as well. Look around for a lot of other great deals too! Great site!

Peek-a-boo!

I love this little “Peekaboo” piggie from smARTworks’ latest release, and I loved the idea of a tri-fold card for him. The original image has only 5 fence-boards, so I stamped it once, then masked the first impression to add on some more boards. Coloring is done with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. The grass is colored “direct-to-paper” using Versamagic Spanish Olive chalk ink.

On the inside panel, more DTP with the Spanish Olive ink. The grass is actually a stamp, from another new set called “Farewell”. The stamp was inked and stamped repeatedly to give a soft grassy edge and blend it in to the green ink. The clouds were created with a stencil. Saying is from one of the Trios sets (Daisy Trio #2?).

Someday maybe...a tutorial on this card. Just no time these crazy days. Sorry if instructions are unclear...email me if you have questions!

On my to-do list today...complete 3 portfolios of our ministry info for new church contacts, pack, finish another day of 1st grade with my son, cook dinner for some of our supporters (it's just beans - nothing involved)...and who knows what else will come up...!

Tea and me

Am I too late for cake? :) It’s time for our smARTworks design team tea party…it’s my week to host, but I think I’m the last one to the table. What a week…*sigh*…we have just a few days left here in my hometown, and as usual, so much has to get done in this last week…doctor appointments, meetings, visits with friends, a few more home groups, send-offs in all 3 services this weekend at church…top it off with the emotion of leaving home again…stress of packing and managing everyone as we all brace for more changes and limbo and 6 or 7 weeks on the road…blah!

My challenge to the team this week was to make a round card. So…here’s mine! Stamps featured are from smARTworks’ newly released sets – if you haven’t seen the new pages in the online catalog, be sure to visit (link is to the right)! The little boy is from a set called “Fresh Picked” and the saying is from another set called “My Mother”. He’s watercolored and trimmed – no surprises there. The saying is all in one line, but I split it and positioned the parts with my Stamp-a-ma-jig to use the space better.

[TIP] To create a shaped card with a cutting template, prefold your card base, and hang the folded edge outside the edge of the template. You can cut the full shape for your card front, then adhere the two when your card front is done. I used Coluzzle templates to cut my circles.

April releases - Our Daily Bread Designs

I’m a little behind sharing the new releases from Our Daily Bread designs with you! These last few weeks have been a little crazy…our host family cut off their wireless internet because the provider was so unreliable…which put us back to using their computer during the daytime, and transferring files on our flash drive…just when we’re getting ready to travel again and have lots of things to look up, order, emails to keep up with, plans to make, etc. Blaaaahhh!

On to the cards. ODBD released 2 sets this month. The first is “On Eagle’s Wings”. The set features the eagle in flight, along with 2 verse stamps and a “stamped by” stamp for card backs. The first card features ovals cut with Coluzzle templates (regular and companion nested oval). If you like the patterned paper that forms the inside oval, you can purchase it from Our Daily Bread designs! The eagle is colored with watercolor pencils, and a white glaze pen was used on the head and tail.

On the second card, I used a tree stamp from Firecracker Designs by Pamela ("Breathe" set) to fill in my scene…they’re stamped using a faux watercolor technique (stamp inked with Versacolor chalk ink, spritzed, and stamped to watercolor paper). The mountains are also watercolored. The background panel features my scrap strip technique (see tutorial menu at right).

If you’re interested in seeing some cards using the communion set, you can find them in my SCS gallery!

Trios and WINNERS!

Here’s a simple example of 2 ways the Trios stamps can be used. The focal image is done with a single inkpad, Colorbox Fluid Chalk “Pink Pastel”. As stated in the Trios tutorial:

With one ink pad, you can vary the intensity of the color in each layer by stamping off some ink on a scrap piece of paper.

Example:

--1^st layer: stamp off twice, then stamp the image on your cardstock.

--2^nd layer: stamp off once before stamping to your cardstock.

--3^rd layer: stamp directly to cardstock.

On the right panel behind the focal image, the 3^rd layer image is stamped repeatedly with Versamark ink as a background image. The saying is stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink.

On to the winners!

Biblical Impressions/Eureka gift certificate: Jennifer

Trios set: Giovana (Daisy Trio #1)

Surprise! Another Trios set goes to: Michelle Adams (Daisy Trio #2)

First Communion set: Cheri Mosgrove

Congratulations to all winners – please contact me as soon as possible with your mailing information, so I can get your prizes off to you!

Toot toot tutorial!

I don't have the energy to post a sample here today, but head over to the smARTworks tutorial pages to learn how to use the new TRIOS sets! Remember you have the opportunity to win your favorite Trios set by entering below....

More samples and instructions coming soon!

monthly specials and new stuff coming!

Business stuff today. And some free stuff.

1.Biblical Impressions/Eureka is offering free shipping on US/Canada orders this month. To celebrate...I have a $15 gift certificate to give away! To qualify for the drawing...head over to Biblical Impressions, and see if you can find one of my stamp designs...then come back and tell me about it. I'll do the drawing next Friday morning, April 18.

2. smARTworks' online catalog has some new pages! Go over and check out the new releases. They begin on page 126. See those Trios designs? Tell me which Trios set is your favorite, and qualify for a chance to win it.

3. Our Daily Bread designs has 2 new releases, available April 15th! So I have a First Communion set to give away. If you'd like to win it, leave a comment about your favorite Bible verse. I'll give this disclaimer - the set will be lightly used but very well cleaned...I'd just like to share it with someone who will get more practical use out of it than I will.

If you wish to enter for any or all of these drawings, be sure to number your entry in your comment. Example:

1. You designed __________ for Biblical Impressions!
2. I loooooove Daisy Trio #1! Bet that set is really versatile.
3. Lamentations 3:22-24 gives me such encouragement.

Got it? Alrighty. I'll be waiting for your comments, so I can share these blessings with you!

Trish was our hostess for the smARTworks DT tea party this week. To change things up, she offered us the challenge of this inspiration piece (you can see it in its original context HERE).

Our internet has been down most of this week (they are fixing the tower), so I had great intentions of printing the picture on our host family's computer so I would have a color version to look at as I stamped. Out of color ink. So...I had a black and white version, and though the layout is inspired, I sort of missed the colors. Oh well! It's brown.

I blocked off the areas and applied ink to each section (all Versamagic chalk inks), then went back and added some stippled shading and overstamping. The stitching was positioned using a Stamp-a-ma-jig.

I stamped the flower (set: Darling Duo) in white Stazon ink. My pad had completely dried since last use - does anyone else have that problem? I colored over the white flower image with Prismacolor pencils, and added a few highlights with a white Sakura glaze pen. I marked the border lines with a stylus and then embossed them from the back side with the scoring blade on my Fiskars cutter. Also added some little dots with a stylus in the stitching.

The background panel is a piece of wallpaper that Sarosa sent me - thanks girl! It finally found a home.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the team created as they post throughout the day:

Susiestampalot
Sweet Somethings
Tah Dah!
Dee's Studio
In the Works

If you decide to use the inspiration piece too - link it here! I'd love to see what you come up with!

did you love the trout stamps?

If you want your own...Susan from smARTworks is giving a set away. Here is the deal - check out all the entries HERE, then head over to In the Works, Susan's blog, and leave a comment about your favorite.

Also, new releases from smARTworks are coming soon...they will be available April 15th! Stay tuned!

Trout Duo

Every 2 months, the smARTworks design team is sent a challenge set - we all receive the same images and are asked to use them in our own unique way. When "Trout Duo" arrived, the first words out of my mouth were...."Oh, no. What am I gonna do with fish?" So here are my 2 unique offerings. You can view the other team members' projects here.

My first card...started with a background. I stamped the trout on watercolor paper and used a waterbrush to wet the background around the fish. I added color with WC pencils, then sprinkled the entire piece with salt and let it dry overnight. The salt draws the moisture and pulls the color around, giving the spotty appearance you see. Kinda cool. Once the background was dry, I rubbed off all the salt, and added color to the fish. The rest is pretty self-evident...I stamped the verse (from "Purpose") in Stazon ink on a metal tag I got at Big Lots (love that store!) and attached it with a brad...I think the brad came from Oriental Trading Co.

Card #2...I decided to try out my new Castaway pad...so you can see the results of that in the background. It's sort of a fun little tool, and the color you achieve with the ironing is always a surprise. I followed the instructions on the pad, then stamped over the 'bleached' trouts with brown ones, sponged the edges, and that became my background piece. I like the pun with the verse and the fish (get it? casting? LOL). Thought it came together as a nice masculine card overall.

We met with a sweet little elderly home group last night to share about our ministry - what a precious time. Seriously, the dearest people I have met in a long time, and so fascinating - and they were fascinated with us! That's humbling...I guess I forget that I do lead an interesting life...it's all just so 'normal' to me...! LOL

OK...my day awaits...!

Aww...

See, doesn't that look cool? And congrats go to Marylynn, who was my 55,555th visitor AND took a picture of her computer screen to prove it!

Nothing very interesting to post, except that we have been enjoying lots of super yummy sweet strawberries I bought "down at the 4-way" yesterday. LOOOOOOVE me some strawberries!

Is it really April already?

I have some down time between design team "batches," so I made this card yesterday just for fun. It's been a while since I pulled out my mices...this image is a limited edition from the Stampa Rosa days. Love House Mouse images, and beach scenes, and ebay...sigh...

The scene is watercolored - Derwent pencils again. You probably can't see it, but there are some sparkles in the water - I just scribbled on a paper with my Sakura Stardust glitter pen, and picked up the ink with a waterbrush to brush it over the water. The saying is from smARTworks.

I'm still recovering from some sort of flu-ish bug that hit me over the weekend - I'm past all the achy/chills part, but still really congested. Blech.

HMMM....looks like my hit counter is almost to 55555..............if someone can email me proof of being the 55555th visitor (email screen or however it works), I'll send you a $10 gift certificate to Biblical Impressions/Eureka Stamps!