Covered Bridge

I love working in monochrome... it really helps me to see an image in a different way, focusing on light and shadows. This image (Covered Bridge Scene) is stamped in brown ink on kraft cardstock, then highlighted and shaded with just 2 pencils, white and sepia. I stamped the Wood Grain Cover-a-Card on my card base, and added some scored lines to imitate the wooden planks on the bridge. By the way, if you were hoping to shop Impression Obsession's sale (20% your order, and free shipping over $35) and missed it, the sale has been extended until Friday, Dec. 3rd! I poked through the catalog and found a few images I hadn't seen before - I'm looking forward to playing with those!

Have a great week!

Whew!

The good thing about busy weeks is that they go super fast! We have been keeping a big secret for a few weeks now, and now I can finally share - I've been holding down the fort myself here since Monday, when my husband flew to California to surprise his mom for Thanksgiving and her 70th birthday! Her relatives are all in the area for some other family events, and we thought it would be neat for him to be able to be there too... the Lord worked it all out for him to go! So here I am...... I'm doing fine - just trying to keep moving and keep the kids occupied so the time goes faster.

Thanksgiving went really well with our 33 house guests! It was a really nice time... so precious to be able to celebrate in our own way, our own language, our own super yummy food. Loved it. Oh right - someone asked for the pumpkin casserole recipe - I will share that later in another post.

We put up our Christmas tree in stages this week - got it up Tuesday night then discovered we didn't have any lights... so we had to wait for those, and got the rest up today. I still have to put my nativity set out, but other than that, we're decorated.

In celebration, here's a card from my last CHA batch (while I spend time working on the new batch!!). This is Poinsettia Tree (Impression Obsession), colored with alcohol markers, and I added some French knots in the poinsettia centers with embroidery thread. Bright. Pink. Wow. Here's our tree - I'm liking the LED lights I found! They are white but they look just slightly blue.

That's all I know! Tell me about your Black Friday deals... I did a little online shopping just to get in the spirit....

links and sales and stuff

I just learned this, so I thought I'd share - for those who purchase art and stamping supplies on ebay, did you know that you can get a 3% cash rebate back for your purchases if you link to ebay through ebates? Ebates has lots of other deals through lots of awesome companies, too, but I didn't know about ebay. I've gotten a lot of pencil sets at great prices there, and I'm always willing to take a little money back! (BTW, if you're new to ebates, and make a new account through my link above, you'll get a $5 cash bonus, and so will I. That's cool!)

Also, Impression Obsession's big annual sale is in full swing! Now through Sunday night, receive a 20% discount off your entire order (including already discounted items, so be sure to check out the clearance section!), and US/Canada orders over $35 ship free! Use coupon code SALE.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you have a blessed day, celebrating with the ones you love! We are celebrating here with our family away from home - we are soooooooooo blessed! Looking forward to a dinner with all the trimmings. And so thankful.

Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving

To God our creator triumphantly raise.

Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,

Who guideth us on to the end of our days.

His banners are o'er us, His light goes before us,

A pillar of fire shining forth in the night.

Till shadows have vanished and darkness is banished

As forward we travel from light into Light.

His law he enforces, the stars in their courses

And sun in his orbit obediently shine;

The hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains,

The deeps of the ocean proclaim him divine.

We too should be voicing our love and rejoicing;

With glad adoration a song let us raise

Till all things now living unite in thanksgiving:

"To God in the highest, Hosanna and praise!"

Blessings

This is how my Thanksgiving morning started... after finding out (on Facebook, of all things!) that I have a new neighbor! One of our students delivered her baby in the dorm last night... I'm so amazed at some of these tribal ladies...! (She hadn't chosen a name yet and asked my youngest if he had an idea - his first idea was Freckles (he has some tiny spots on his nose!) but I think we settled on Daniel.... after convincing him that we shouldn't give a baby a puppy name... hehe!Oooooooookay, need to get off the computer and get my little turkey ready to put in the oven! Hugs to you all, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Flower Soft Sprinkle Challenge: Thank You

This week's Flower Soft Sprinkle challenge over at SCS (FSC13) is to use Flower Soft on your project with the theme "Thank you". We'd love to have you join us, wherever that theme takes your imagination......!

I so love this image from Eureka Stamps, and had to squeeze in one more Fall card before December hits... I used reinkers to watercolor the image, and Flower Soft (Autumn Mix and Earth) for texture. The 'thank you' message is inside - one of my favorites from Heart & Soul Rubber Stamp Co. Love this fun little detail - the little puppy with a pile of Flower Soft on his head!

We'd love to have you join us for the challenge over at SCS if you have some Flower Soft to play with! There is always a prize up for grabs! Be sure to take a peek at the other team members' blogs and see what inspiration you can find! Enjoy...........

orchids again...

Just wanted to share... another of my orchids is starting to bloom! This is the first time it has bloomed since I got it for Christmas 2 years ago. It's growing in my bread maker out on the front porch! Such a pretty purple.

always thankful....

Venturing from my usual style a bit, but I love this color combination... and using up scraps laying around on my desk! I love using book pages and text in and around images... something I'm playing with a bit on new secret CHA stuff, too! I stamped the branch from the Owl Be Thankful clear set (Impression Obsession) onto a Twinchie Square from Inchie Arts. The owl was stamped 3 times - twice on some robin's egg blue cardstock, and once onto a book page. On the first image, I cut out just the wings, so he could fluff them out a bit. On the book page owl I colored and trimmed out just his center area, then layered it over the cardstock. The eyes are adhesive-backed pearls, with an eyeball drawn in..... I couldn't find the googly eyes, but those would have worked too.

Wow - busy week planned! We are doing a potluckish Thanksgiving at our house with our Western co-workers - 15 adults and 18 kids - they are our 'family' away from home, and we're blessed to have people who share our odd combination of home-and-here cultures. I'm going to be cooking one of the turkeys here, plus stuffing, gravy, and a pumpkin casserole. Mmm.... the only bummer about potlucks is not having leftovers to pick at the next day... sigh...

Remember Impression Obsession's big annual sale is coming up Wednesday- start making your list if you are interested in buying! (Actually, their site has a wish list feature, if you want to start pretend shopping beforehand...!)

Whew!

Hi! So glad to have made it to the end of another week! We're nearing the end of another semester, holidays, and lots of extra busy stuff... all that makes me thankful for quiet moments to sit and watercolor and decompress. We also are working really hard to cram 2 weeks of school into 6 days so we can take off a few days around Thanksgiving!

I am a huge sucker for stamps of children, especially back views, and I'm forever on the search for a good hug stamp... for these reasons I love these Moments in Time stamps from Flower Soft. I watercolored this one (the Singers) with reinkers and added a little Polar White fluffy stuff here and there (I love the little bit that collected in the hood...). I tossed a little salt on the background and allowed it to dry - gave it a kind of weird texture... not quite what I was going for! Heh... oh well. :)

Have a great weekend!

Just a reminder........

........that Flower Soft is sponsoring this week's challenge over at the JustRite Stampers blog - if you have some of their stamps, why not play along!? The prizes are awesome - just sayin'......

Impression Obsession DT Challenge: These are a few of my favorite things...

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,

bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens... "

As you've probably guessed, our inspiration challenge for this week comes from this beloved song from the Sound of Music. Want to play along with us? Come on, since you have the song stuck in your head now anyway? hehehe...

I chose 'whiskers on kittens' for my card inspiration, since I hadn't inked up this little guy yet... this is Rascal in Stocking by artist Gail Green. I colored him with Prismacolor pencils. I used 2 Cover-a-Card stamps on my background panels, both times stamping over 'out-of-date' designer paper that still lurks in my stash. On the gold panel, I used CAC Large Paisley, and on the Red panel I used CAC Notebook. The bow is made with rayon seam binding, which I dyed myself with reinkers.

I used the new Pine Ultrafine Flower Soft on the branches in the stocking, and sprinkled in some glitter from Sparkle-n-Sprinkle while the glue was still wet.
Here are the pencils that I used this time:
Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration -

Daniela Dobson
Deborah March
Jeanne Streiff
Jenny Gropp
Julie Koerber
Kathy Menzies
Laura Fulcher

Remember you can enter these challenges too, using your Impression Obsession stamps! See the I.O. blog for all the details - you might even win a $25 gift certificate!! We'd love to have you join us.

P.S. Also - I got this info from Impression Obsession this morning - get ready for a sale!!!

Warehouse Sale in Williamsburg!
Live near Virginia? LOVE stamps? We've got a TON of deals for you. Once a year we open our warehouse to the public for a clearance sale. There will be LOADS and LOADS of unmounted stamps, cling stamps, mounted stamps, clear stamps...all at huge discounts. There will also be ink pads, free catalogs, and other accessories. It's TWO DAYS ONLY and only comes once a year. It's at our warehouse at 108 Ingram Road, Suite 11, Williamsburg, VA (park in the back by the loading docks).

Annual Internet Sale
And for those of you who DON'T live near Virginia...good news! Also ONCE A YEAR we do an internet sale to clear out the old and make way for TONS of new stamps in 2011. This is a pre-announcement for that sale. It will begin at midnight on Wednesday, November 24 and run through the holiday weekend, ending at midnight on Sunday, November 28.

Flower Soft DT Challenge: Celebrations

The Flower Soft team is having a blog hop today... today's theme is Celebrations! You'll want to start from the Flower Soft Blog to make sure you don't miss a thing... because prizes are involved!! If you arrived here from Gini's blog, you're on the right track.

If you'd like to join in on the challenge, pull out the Flower Soft ---------- we'd love to have you join us, and you might even win a prize! This week we’ll be giving away TWO prize packages! One prize package will be given away on the blog hop and another will be chosen among people who make a card using Flower Soft and post it in the Splitcoast Gallery using the keyword FSC12. Both prize winners will be chosen and announced on the Flower Soft blog on November 26th. The winner of the Splitcoast Gallery challenge will have their card featured on the Flower Soft Blog on November 26th!

Here's my card: You might notice that we're using stamps from JustRite Stampers today......that's because Flower Soft will be sponsoring JustRite's next challenge! I'll post a link to the new challenge on Friday. I used stamps from two different sets on this card: My Garden Borders and Centers and Wedding Nested Sentiments and Verses.

My layout was inspired by a similar scrapbook layout I saw on someone's Facebook feed, though theirs was 3 squares down and 2 across. Sorry, though, that I don't have a source for the sketch. The Inchie Squares (Inchie Arts) are stamped and embossed... in general I hate embossing, but the beauty of embossing on Inchie Squares is that the matboard doesn't warp, which is one of my usual problems. This embossing powder is a special blend created a few years ago by my youngest son who decided to dump out all my powders while I wasn't looking.....! Sort of goldish, silverish, with some spots of verdigris. Interesting! I stamped the Sweet Pea image on 7 Inchie Squares, embossed, then painted the leaves and stems with Niji Pearlescent Watercolors. I used Gold Flower Soft for embellishment.

As you make your way through the hop remember to comment on each and every post! There will be a prize winner chosen randomly among the blogs. This is the prize package (one set for Splitcoast players and one set for the blog hop!) :

You'll be moving on to Deb Felts' blog, With a Stamp and a Song, next. I'm glad you stopped by... enjoy the hop!

Snowy shaker card

Here's a card I made to put in my etsy store - by the way, I have an opportunity next week to send packets home with a co-worker to mail, so if you are interested in making a purchase from my store, now is a great time! Go ahead and pay the invoice that comes from etsy, and when you receive your packet, let me know what the actual postage was and I'll refund the difference. All stamps are by Impression Obsession - these are from a sweet little clear set called Snow Happy. The image is watercolored with Derwent watercolor pencils, and framed in a Shake-It Shaker Pouch (this is the Large Circle). The pouch is filled with Polar White Flower Soft and a little metallic confetti.

Thanks for checking on me today! I'm so grateful for weekends... still cranking out those Christmas cards en masse and hoping to get some extra school time in with the kids this week so we can take a few extra days off around Thanksgiving! Where did this year even go?!!

Country Village download

Flower Soft's newest download features 2 country scenes by artist Rikey Austin. The download comes in pdf format, with 3 sheets of digital paper, and 2 sheets of images that correspond to Spellbinders dies. Here's what you get in the download, which is priced at $3.99... Here are a couple of cards I made with the images - you know how I love to color, so it's a big step for me to work with something 'print and go', but this was fun! All the work was done for me and I was free to embellish... of course I had to add my own touch to it, so I deepened the shadows with a Prismacolor pencil and some OMS, sponged the edges, and stamped around the edge with a Porcelain Crackle stamp (Impression Obsession). On both cards, I also trimmed around one side of the door so it could 'open', then popped it up with foam tape underneath.

On this card the Flower Soft colors I used are Lavender and Sage. Isn't that wisteria vine gorgeous?!

On the second card I used Sage, Ivory, Sweet Pea, and some Ivory that I dyed with Bisque chalk ink (Colorbox).

The windows are colored using a clear glaze pen (Sakura).
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the download - would you use precolored images?

FYI, Flower Soft is running a special through Splitcoast right now - if you purchase the 4 new Ultrafine Colors, you will receive a free stamp set (a wheelbarrow, which you can top with a variety of different stamp 'fillers'). You can click here to view the offer, which runs through 11/17.

Flower Soft DT Challenge: Silver & Gold

It's time for another Flower Soft Sprinkle Challenge! This week's theme is Gold/Silver (FSC11). I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it this week, but as it turns out, my long awaited package of new Flower Soft products arrived last night. So here I am!

The new Gold and Silver Flower Soft is super sparkly and dimensional - very fun stuff! I'm having sort of a weird and hormonal week so I had to work myself into a sparkly mood, but upon digging through my box of Christmas stamps, I found this stamp (Camel and King), and things came together rather quickly. This is a stamp from Bad Axe Trading Company, which is now carried by Stamping Sensations - part of a nativity set I picked up as a full sheet at a convention several years ago.

The image is watercolored using reinkers, Derwent watercolor pencils, and an Inktense pencil as well. I used some small gold rhinestones and gold Peel-Offs as embellishments too. There is also Ocean Ultrafine Flower Soft on the collar of the king's robe. The background ink is Adirondack Denim - its color components tend to separate when oversaturated with water, which I think is sort of cool. See those couple areas of purple?

I stamped the card base with a Cover-a-Card stamp from Impression Obsession, and edged the card with gold ink. The unruly tassel was made on my Bow-Easy.... still needs a little help!

We'd love to have you join us for the challenge over at SCS if you have some Flower Soft to play with! Up for grabs this week is 5 pots of Flower Soft, winner's choice - that is an awesome prize!! Be sure to take a peek at the other team members' blogs and see what inspiration you can find! Enjoy...........

Christmas friends

I made it to the half-way point with my Christmas cards and had to switch gears... it absolutely kills me to make the same card over and over - all the while, other ideas are cropping up with no place to go...!

I don't frequently mix stamps from companies any more... I guess that's force of habit from doing design work for specific companies - but these stamps all worked so well together, well... here you have it. The caroling girls are from Flower Soft - I stamped and masked them then stamped over the image lightly with the Music and Craquelure Cover-a-Card stamps (Impression Obsession), and sponged the edges. The sentiment is from smARTworks. The image is watercolored with reinkers, then shaded with Derwent watercolor pencils. I love using dark browns for shading...

I'm entering this card in these challenges:

Flower Soft - Kid Stuff

Crazy 4 Challenges - make a square card

Wags & Whiskers - Sisters or Friendship

Charizma Challenges - With Love at Christmas

Everybody Art Challenge - Untraditional Christmas

Thanks for visiting!

Pumpkin Pile

I've got to take better notes when I make cards for CHA... by the time the season comes for blogging them, I've forgotten so many details. I'll see what I can remember, anyway! I promise I'll do better next time!!


I stamped the Pumpkins image on kraft cardstock and colored it in with Prismacolor pencils then burnished the whole scene with Judikins Micro Glaze. The scene is matted on copper and bronze cardstock then layered onto a background that I made using Cover-a-Card Flourishes in a reverse resist technique (chalk inks are applied directly to photo paper, then the background image is stamped with Memento inks and quickly wiped away).

Here are the Prismacolor pencils that I used: Busy week ahead... DH is teaching double time this week and with a healing collarbone he's unable to type his own notes, so I've been helping him with that. Also this week (Friday) comes my turn to lead ladies' chapel, and I have a potentially sensitive topic (something that affects ladies monthly, and its implications for life and ministry...!) so I have that on my mind as well. Christmas planning is looming a bit closer as well... not sure I'm quite ready for that!

Take care, and enjoy your week.........