I played this week's challenge over at the House Mouse Challenge blog...but it ended up a birthday card instead. A little Basic Grey paper, a piece of shaving cream background that someone gave me seriously maybe 10 years ago, that I have hoarded because "if I use it it will be gone...." (**snap out of it Dina, it is pink and purple.........!) The HM image is colored with Prismacolor Pencils, blended with OMS. Sentiment is from smARTworks.
...looking for something "Impression Obsession" to post - don't think I've shared this card here yet! I love love love this card...this image...this layout...these colors...! Just a lot going on here, that works together really very well. And you can't see, but there is glitter on the steam swirls - so there you go! Sparkly & brown. Love it.
Some of you have asked about my eye...it was starting to feel better yesterday - but now 'whatever-it-is' has started to migrate left, and now my other eye is starting to feel a little sore and cloudy as well. And I jammed my left index finger playing volleyball yesterday! But........... could be worse. ;)
This week, smARTworks Design Team member Trish challenged the rest of us to create a card following her sketch for the Tea Party, with an added twist – include something metallic. When I was searching for a lost stamp set (how do you lose a stamp set? on your desk?) the other day, I noticed a roll of copper foiling tape, left over from another project. Perfect! I remembered that you could create a neat effect with copper by heating it, and since the power was out, I held the tape over a candle instead. Maybe you can see the purples and blues that came out as a result (note to self…be careful not to catch the liner paper on fire next time!!).
I’m so pleased with how this set came out…and I think every time I use it I will just mention AGAIN that that is my son! I hope he doesn’t mind being stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Purple…! To tie in to the copper, I brushed the stamped image with copper mica powders while it was still wet. The lavender panel is stamped and brushed in the same way.
The lower panel was my color inspiration for the card…it actually was just a scrap of watercolor paper that I was using to clean my brush off when I painted this House Mouse card with Twinking H2Os! Needless to say, there’s a lot of shimmer going on with this card. “Cherish” is what’s known as “bonus rubber” over on the DT blog – a stamp you may receive for free with your purchase from smARTworks. And when you do purchase from smARTworks…remember to save up those smARTbucks!
Be sure to visit other DT members’ blogs as they post their cards throughout the day…….
Trish @ Tah-Dah!
Susan @ In the Works (for Peggy too!)
Giovana @ A Place to Praise and Craft
Donelda @ Wiggy’s World
Donna @ Dee’s Studio
I wanted to make a card for a friend whose family is changing ministries after a term overseas - I can imagine the struggle that is for her, especially since they were in a similar ministry to what we are doing here and I know how our co-workers and students have become like family. Anyway, just wanted to encourage her with this card. Hope it will be a blessing!
Stamp credits:
girl: Stamp Camp
sentiment: Heart & Soul Rubber Stamp Co.
Flourish: Impression Obsession
inside verse: Biblical Impressions
The girl is stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia on kraft cardstock, then highlighted with colored pencil. I don't think there's much else here that you can't figure out by looking...if you do have questions please let me know! Inside I stamped the verse below, which has always been my favorite:
Here's the sketch for the newest ODBD challenge that I mentioned the other day - remember a Footprints set is up for grabs for those who participate!
I used the sketch above but rotated it counter clockwise and used an embossed metal tag for the sentiment bit...and tore the paper instead of using 2 different panels! The main image was stamped and then masked with a circle punchout mask for the moon as well. I brayered the background using a Kaleidocolor Rainbow Pad (Nostalgia)...I have a few of those that I so rarely use! I don't know what inspired this piece...surely some piece of Southwestern motel artwork that I've seen and repressed somewhere along the way...
I'm sure everyone is abuzz about Gina K's new releases and announcements - I follow her blog and a few other 'popular' company blogs with amusement, though I don't have any of their stamps - but I did notice that Gina's new digital paper packs are FREE....so I ordered them. If you're into that kind of thing...check out the link! Cute stuff. FWIW!
My whole family went with the whole campus to the beach today, and here I am at home all by myself...at the wrong time of month...and with a swollen, drippy eye. *sob* And the power is going to go out shortly for the day (we have scheduled outages 3x weekly)...*sigh*... no movies... guess it will be like my friend suggested after all...sleep - stamp - sleep - stamp - sleep - stamp! She knows me all too well......
So...here's a card to share, before the previews start for the new releases - Our Daily Bread designs has lots of excitement planned for March, so stay tuned!
It's almost embarrasing how simple this card was, but I love the simplicity of it. I almost left off the ribbon and the button, and I liked it that way too! All that is watercolored is a little bit of blue sky around the lighthouse. 
By the way, did you see the sketch challenge on the ODBD blog this week? There is a Footprints set up for grabs...!
I sort of have a submission for the House Mouse challenge this week...! I tried to remember the sketch as best I could while someone else was using my computer...I got the main blocks right, but forgot the 3 embellies in the corner. Hope this is still ok! (I do have some mini rhinestones to the left, and I paid attention not to injure myself when I applied them...) It's also a horrible picture, and you can't even tell that the mouse is painted with Twinkling H2Os...he is super sparkly and very very happy on his sparkly grapes as well (and hidden behind the bow...!). DID YOU KNOW............that Luminarte, the company that makes Twinkling H2Os, is going out of business...? Sniff, sigh...love those paints...but they have their remaining products at 40% off, so stock up while they still have some left.
I need to go make some cucumber salad for our beach trip tomorrow...Indonesians have not yet adopted our Western idea of taking along finger foods and sandwiches and disposable dinnerware...so I comply, while my inner American stands in protest...LOL!
Not sure where this bold card came from...I think it stemmed from a discussion we had as a design team regarding this image...I swear when I first saw it the only thing that came to mind was...watermelon! We often get fresh fruit juices here, and watermelon is one of my favorites, served with a little watermelon wedge on the edge of the glass...then I saw Julie's lemonade card and it really sent me reeling...lemons?! huh??! Then of course I got to thinking...I really never have seen watermelons that small...duh...and with sections...but I still love the idea of them. Anyway, just to prove that they could be something other than lemons because Julie was sooooo adamant...(heh heh), I colored them as oranges, and then watermelons just for fun.
All my coloring is done with Prismacolor pencils, blended with each other, no OMS this time. I added a few shadows with a Prismacolor marker.
There are mini rhinestones in among the leaves on this card - and this sentiment from Yvonne Albritton Designs inside:
Be sure to visit the rest of the team as they post their pink and orange cards throughout the day...!Julie @ Out to Impress
Daniela @ For the First Time
Deborah @ Cards and Things
Kelli @ I Made This Myself!
Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal
Michelle @ Twisted Chick Creations
Tina @ stamp it chick
My daughter and I have a favorite store in town called "Naughty" - it's home to all things girly - hair clips, stickers, ribbons, bling, phone accessories, nail polish, etc. I always head straight for the cell phone stickers, and today scored with a stack of new flat back pearls and rhinestones...all this for about $9-10. What cracked me up are the instructions on the back of the packaging.....I'll list them for you here in case you can't read them on the scan...
Operation Method
1. Please remove dirty and dust on the surface when stick.
2. Please tear the cell-phone which stick the back of the sticker. **Quite possibly they meant "cellophane" here...?
3. After stick on the cell-phone,it needs 30 minutes that sticker could be totally fixed.
*Take down it from paper card and please pay attention to not being injured.
-When sticker is assaulted by brute force, acrylic will come off from the cell-phone. Please take down carefully.
-It is not the products stuck on the skin directly. The person with sensitive skin will cause skin it ching and inflammation. So please don t stick it on the skin directly.
-Please place the products on the place.where children be unable to get.
Trish is throwing down a sketch challenge for our upcoming tea party next week - participants are to use this sketch shown here, and also include something metallic on their cards...it could be metallic embossing powder, a metal charm, wire, whatever! Hope you will come and join the Tea Party fun! The team will be posting their cards next Wednesday, Feb. 25th. Leave a comment on any of our blogs to share your creation!
Every two months Susan sends each member of the smARTworks design team the same set, and our challenge is to use it to make a project uniquely 'ours'...this time we were sent "Bliss". The set consists of the large full butterfly, and the saying you see here.
So, here's my submission - I went for a bold color combination of pink, orange, and black, with a little lime thrown in just for fun...and with black decorative stitching around the main panel. I stamped the butterfly first, masked it, then added color (pink and lime) to the panel around it using chalk inks. To stamp the sentiment, I curved the rubber to follow the line of the wing. The butterfly is colored with Prismacolor pencils.
As with all other challenge sets, Susan has a Bliss set to offer a lucky commenter on her blog, In the Works! You can find all the details there, but hurry - she'll be drawing the winner's name on Wednesday!
A shout out to Stamper's Quest E-zine, who gave a shout out to ME today! :) I recently found SQ through Kittie's blog - she's on their creative team - and subscribed to see what it's all about. This is their sketch challenge for the month of February...it looked like just that: a challenge! I flipped the sketch and adjusted it to a square layout, using images from Keep My Lamp Burning (Our Daily Bread designs).
There's not much coloring to this, really - I am still in Monochromatic mode from our Tea Party the other day! And brown is not a big surprise. :) I masked the lighthouse and stippled brown ink around it (Versamagic Vintage Sepia), then masked lightbeams and stippled a little more. The flourishes in the bottom tan panel are from a Michaels' dollar set. I tried to commission DH to make a nautical-looking knot, but he didn't, so here's my lame attempt...it's not even cool! Ha!
Thanks so much for visiting today!
(not sure the original source of this recipe - it's in our organization's cookbook, submitted by one of our co-workers as "My Favorite Chocolate Cake".)
2 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 c. cocoa
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1-1/2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1-1/2 c. hot water
1/2 c. milk
Mix all ingredients together. Beat until smooth. Bake in a 9x13 pan at 350F for 35-40 minutes.
Couple things....
1) the original recipe called for 3/4 c. cocoa...the first time I made the recipe I was making 1-1/2 recipes and I accidentally doubled the cocoa, and it was really good, so I adjusted to that. So you can vary that according to your taste.
2) On the coffee...we have the 3-in-1 packets of instant coffee that have sugar/creamer mixed in already, so I just threw one of those in and added the liquid separately.
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We did have a fun party - here's a picture of the birthday boy and girl trying to blow out the trick candles that DH bought...I was afraid for my vinyl tablecloth with all the sparks, but it survived with only 1 hole that I put in it with a hot bamboo skewer I was using to light the candles (duh)... after dinner someone pulled out a cassette of traditional dance music, and that was the entertainment for the next couple of hours - not sure how to describe it, but it made me dizzy watching them turn in a circle for that long! I did hop in for a little while but didn't have the rhythm quite right until the end. After all the caffeine in the cake though - it ended up a late night and quite a party. :)
I was so encouraged to see my new helper come out of her shell a bit, too! A couple of the single girls that I'm close to befriended her yesterday and got her out with the other students and around the campus a bit. She even spent the night at the girls' dorm, and went to church with one of the girls this morning. I can't remember if I shared here about her or not...she is not from this area, and she's only 14 and very shy, so she doesn't really know anyone, and she's not used to going out anyway because she was apparently a bit sheltered by her pastor-uncle. Yesterday was maybe the first time she's gone out of the house in a week..! Anyway, thankful for her friendship with these girls, because they know me, and can also be a positive influence in her life.
Have a great weekend! and let me know if you try the cake!
Just a couple quick cards using Impression Obsession's cutie Heartlines set - love those little birdies, and what a fun saying - not just for V-day! The first card is colored with Prismacolor pencils - very simple.
On the second card, the 4 hearts are embossed with some cute sparkly powder from Sparkle-n-Sprinkle...and watercolored using Twinkling H20s. While the paper was still wet I embossed the hearts from the backside using a bone folder (actually, maybe the scoring tool from my Scor-Pal...). **HINT - to do this - from the front side first outline the area you want to pop out with a stylus, then flip over your panel and emboss inside the outline you created. Put your cardstock or watercolor paper on a soft surface such as funfoam or a mousepad so you have some 'give' underneath.
Sadly, no romantic plans here for Saturday - we may have to make up for it later next week. We have 2 students with birthdays this weekend (one Friday, and one Saturday), and we offered to throw a party for them, so we'll have a houseful over for a Wii tournament, Sloppy Joe dinner, and some yummy chocolate cake, a new recipe I've already made once this week and am ready to make again! I'll share it if anyone wants...can't wait to eat some more...!
Finally, the goodies I made for the single girls on campus here who need a little extra love on Valentines Day...the little bags mostly follow these instructions here. The base measures just under 2"x2" and the bags are 4" high. Mini is always cute... There's a little bottle of lotion or shower gel in each one. I made use of some Valentine patterned paper and 'vintage' SU images for the cards...inside I stamped the verse from Philippians (in Indonesian) that says "I have you in my heart".
Scene card number 2! UGH, our power has been off and on all day... We normally have scheduled outages on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, from about 9am till 4pm or so…but this is Friday, for heaven’s sake! No fair. We have been having some weird windy storms this week, though – surely it’s related to that, and not scheduled. Earlier the wind was flipping a sheet of plywood around our front porch like a piece of paper! I’m glad it didn’t come through the window… Also, in case you heard about an earthquake in our area – it was about 195 miles north of us, and we didn’t feel it at all. I know there are some of you who worry every time you hear "Indonesia" on the news...it's a wide-spread archipelago (country made up of lots of islands), almost as wide across as the US!
On to the card. This is a purchased diecut card I found in a sale bin in FL on furlough...I thought it would be fun to use the 3 windows to highlight the lighthouse's top (Our Daily Bread designs' Keep My Lamp Burning set), and the quote that comes with the set, divided in two parts. I couldn't leave the rest of the card plain though - I have a fear of too much white on cards in general - so I decided to create a scene on the card front.
I began the same way as the previous card, masking off the shape of the hill in the foreground. I sponged the hill, then removed the mask, and covered my sponged hill with the portion of the mask I had cut out (hill shaped). I placed the horizon mask above the horizon, then used the cut-out part of the hill mask to cover the hill while I filled in the water. The water is a unique color...I had originally sponged it in with Adirondack Stream...it just didn't look realistic. I was imagining a West Florida beach, and that water is more olive green...so I sponged olive green over the blue. A little weird...but it's sort of cool too. I used Sand colored craft ink (Fabrico?) to fill in the sand area, then created some crashing waves and wave lines with white acrylic paint.
The second jetty was masked off next...with a mask over the first hill, and the water, and a mask creating the line outline of the jetty. With the water still covered, I added the clouds, masking and applying chalk ink to the edge of a scalloped circle punch. The lighthouse is a stamp I had custom made for myself. Other stamp credits:
Sea Oats: I Love Rubber Stamps
shorter grass: Biblical Impressions
birds: TAC (Light the Path set)
If I have time someday (I think that is maybe wishful thinking?!?!) I may pull together a step by step tutorial if there is interest in that sort of thing...thoughts?
Blessings on your day................
I've made 2 cards this week with similar techniques, so I want to share them both together. I can do that - my blog, right?
This first card was inspired by a page from my husband's Page-a-Day calendar - it has gorgeous nature photos and I'm always stalking it for ideas. This one just looked "doable" in ink:
Here's my version:
I started by tearing a scrap piece of paper to create a mask for the top of my island. I positioned that mask with repositionable adhesive, and masked off a horizontal waterline - so what was left open was a wedge of space, which I inked (direct to paper) with brown chalk ink pads. I removed the island mask and used a cloud stencil (scalloped circle) as a mask to create some clouds in the sky. After that, the horizontal line mask was moved to above the horizon line, and I filled in the lake area with white and light blue chalk inks. Using the brown chalk ink again, I added a few streaks of reflection in the water, and a few white gel pen lines. The branch image is from smARTworks' new "Cookie Plate," a full sheet of sentiments and botanical silhouettes available for purchase with smARTbucks. Branches were stamped in olive chalk ink, then shaded with Prismacolor pencils and highlighted with a white gel pen. The quote is stamped on vellum, backed with red-liner tape.
