Rain, rain....

Here's another fun little card I made for VSN last weekend, using a sweet little set from The Cat's Pajamas... I was really feeling this sentiment this weekend! We had a bad thunderstorm blow through Friday that found every leak in our roof (including one above my computer desk, about 3 inches in front of my laptop), fried our Wii, and messed up the sound in our TV. Boooo!!

The little girl's raincoat and boots are paper pieced, and I used Lyra Polycolor pencils for the coloring. These are oil pencils, and I love them! Always fun to play with something new. I shaped and popped up her sleeve a little with some foam tape. I loooooove these teeny pearls too - I got them on ebay from Diamante Crafts. These are the 2mm size.
Hope you have a great week! I have some fun stuff coming up this week... new stamp designs being released, a blog hop, a guest spot, and 2 design team challenges - hope you'll come back and join me! Can't believe it's June already!!

Flower Soft and Bugaboo

Flower Soft and Bugaboo Stamps did a little product swap, and we're all hanging out over at the Bugaboo Blog today. Flower Soft is also sponsoring Bugaboo's weekly challenge, so if you'd like a chance to win some fluffy stuff, head over there to see what's up!Here's one of the cards I made for the Bugaboo challenge, and you can see my other card over at their blog... our challenge theme was "Bright Colors." A little scary for me! This digital stamp is called Jacobean Bird 1 (the link is to the bird page, so you can see the series of these Jacobean birds - they are sorta fun!). I colored the image with Touch Twin Markers, sponged the card panel, and added some stamped leaves (stamps by Impression Obsession) and rhinestones to the design. I used Neon Yellow Ultrafine Flower Soft on the flowers - sort of subtle but it really does 'pop' and add a fun dimension to the card.
Head over to the Bugaboo Blog for more digis, more samples, more info, and a chance to win! Also, if you're interested in Bugaboo's digital stamps, grab a few at 50% off - that sale lasts only until May 31st!

Memorial Day Sale

Here's a fun little weekend sale at Impression Obsession!! There are some new Cover-a-Card stamps to choose from, and if you've been waiting to order a MegaMount, now's a great time, too!

Be Still

Whew, busy week here! Monday we celebrated our oldest son's 10th birthday... today is our graduation and we're celebrating 4 graduates who have completed 4 years of training... and this weekend is our 11th anniversary!

I participated in the Virtual Stamp Night at Splitcoast this past weekend - if you're not familiar with VSN, it's a series of themed challenges that are given hourly with a time limit of 45 minutes per card. Lots of fun! Here's my favorite card from my entries... maybe I should carry it around with me today as a reminder! The lighthouse stamp is from Heartfelt Creations and the sentiment is from Flourishes. I watercolored the image with reinkers.

I've been working on some pencil articles and tutorials in my free moments, too.... if you have questions about pencils that you'd like answered, please let me know!

Friends

This gorgeous iris is from Flourishes, and was a gift from a sweet stamping friend... I watercolored it up with reinkers, and trimmed around the edge of it that didn't fit in my rectangle. I covered the image with a Sakura Glaze pen, let it dry, then stamped over the entire panel with a inked/misted background stamp (Impression Obsession) and blended the edges with a brush. (The glaze pen acts as a resist to the ink stamped over top... I'm planning a tutorial for this technique.... so keep an eye out for it soon!) I used the same background stamp plus a canvas stamp on the base panel, and sponged the edges. The card base and panel layer are glossy black cardstock... not sure where I got it from, but it wasn't getting used, so there it is. :) I cut around some of the petal edges, embossed from behind, then popped them up with foam tape for more dimension. The quote is from Impression Obsession, too.

This week went waaaaaay too quickly! We are nearly done with school... we got ahead in some subjects and behind in others, so some things are done while others are dragging their feet. I'm determined not to get "excited" about being done... but I will have a happy smile when it's over, I promise! Hope to have some good chunks of time for stamp designing during our short break. New school books are on the way already, and we want to get a jump start on our school year so we are a little ahead before our furlough time.

I've started sorting and destashing just a little... added some more stamps and cards to my etsy store. I have some more supplies, but I think I will wait to post them until later in the year, maybe just list them directly here, then bring them with us to mail Stateside. Watercolor pencils and a few markers are on the list...

Impression Obsession DT Challenge: Black and White

The Impression Obsession team's challenge today is to use only black and white on a card. I cheated a little bit, and added a tiny bit of color using Citrus Crush Ultrafine Flower Soft. Here's a close up on the detail first:

.....and my card. I used Adirondack Pitch Black dye ink to watercolor the scene (Wheelbarrow with Flowers), picking up ink from the lid of my inkpad with a waterbrush. The background stamp (Cover-a-Card Reverse Damask) was inked with the same black ink, and misted lightly before stamping.Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration -

Daniela @ For the First Time

Jeanne @ Inky Paws

Julie @ Out to Impress

Kathy @ Watermelon Sugar

Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal

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.

all the better to enable you......

I stumbled upon a going-out-of-business sale this week... it always makes me sad to see good stamping stores go out of business... but I have to admit I wasn't so broken up about it that I didn't grab some great deals there! The site is Paper Maniac, and all their remaining stock is 30% off. When I was there yesterday they still had lots of beautiful stamps, including tons of Flourishes sets... I did get one of those but tried to stay focused on paper... I'm trying to think ahead to our upcoming furlough time - what supplies I will be needing to have stashed in the States that I can't carry with me. Anyway, wanted to share the love.

Addicted to Rubber Stamps and Addicted to Scrapbooking are also going out of business, and their remaining stock is now 40% off. Sad to see them go, as I've been purchasing supplies from them for years.

OK! That's all I know! Be back a little later...

Flower Soft Sprinkle Challenge: Ovals

This week's Sprinkle challenge over at the Flower Soft Forum (FSC29) is to use Flower Soft on cards that feature ovals. We'd love to have you join us, wherever that theme takes your imagination!I watercolored this sweet little Flower Soft stamp called Grows with Love using reinkers, then cut out the image using an oval cutting template. I added dimension to the stamped piece by adding Flower Soft (Ultrafine Sage, Ultrafine Raspberry Fizz, Baby Pink); I also cut along the bottom of the dress and around the sleeve and bow, embossed from behind, then popped up those areas with foam tape.

Maybe you can see the cut and raised areas in this photo....
If you'd like to join in on the challenge, pull out the Flower Soft - you might even win a prize! Post your project in the Splitcoast Gallery by using the keywords flowersoft (one word) and FSC29. If your project is also Spring-themed, you can add the keyword FLOWERSOFTSPRING for another chance to win some great prizes. We'd love to have you join us!

simple pop-up card

I've had this card tucked away for a while - wanted to share this fun way to make a pop-up card! Here is the card front (all stamps are from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, and the cutie polka dot paper is a bit of the packaging the stamps came in!):

...and the opened card. See how Timothy pops up when the card is opened?

Here's the basic idea of the pop-up insert - this is basically a card within a card. The dashed lines below are fold lines - after you cut your card insert (this is for a standard half-sheet card), fold it in half, then while it's still folded, fold a triangle over at the folded corner. Open the card insert, and push the center fold line of your triangle down into the card. You'll attach your pop-up element to one side of the triangle.

When you attach your card insert inside your card, be sure to apply adhesive *around* the triangular area, so there is no adhesive ON the triangular area. That area needs to be left free to lift when the card is open. Here are a few details of my card...

If you're interested in a double pop-up card, here is a template I've used before....... and a card I made with it a really long time ago! I may have to try that one again soon! If you make a pop-up card, leave me a link so I can see!

this 'n that.......

Flower Soft is sponsoring the current challenge over at All Things Unity - go check out the challenge if you have some Unity or Ippity stamps and would like a chance to win some fluffy stuff!

If you're a Fan Club member over at Splitcoaststampers, you can now view the new Dirty Dozen gallery! I soooooo loved the theme for this month - "What a Wonderful World" - and found all kinds of inspiration in the lyrics of the song, immortalized by Louis Armstrong. I also worked all "the colors of the rainbow" into my gallery contributions, as the song suggests. So many themes and interpretations to be had... hope you'll take a look! Here's a little peek at one of my cards, based on the title of the song, and the color yellow!

If you're not a Fan Club member, you can find out about it here!

Sweet n' Sassy customer hop - For the Guys

Once again, it's time for a Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps customer blog hop! The theme this month is "For the Guys"! Honestly, all the stamps and digis I have from Sweet 'n Sassy are pret-ty cutesy... so I had to stretch a little to make this card work. Hope that is ok! The hut image is a vintage book illustration from a children's book about the Philippines. I printed it on my last precious piece of kraft cardstock, and highlighted the illustration with Prismacolor pencils. The verse is from the Peaceful Swans set. All the embellishments are products of Indonesia.

You can pop over to the Sweet 'n Sassy blog to find a list of all the hop participants...... thanks for stopping by!

Flower Soft Blog Hop - featuring our stamps!

The Flower Soft team is hopping today... today we're sharing projects that feature Flower Soft's various lines of rubber stamps! If you arrived here from the Flower Soft Blog, you're on the right track. If you just happened to stop by, you may want to start from the Flower Soft Blog to make sure you don't miss a thing... because prizes are involved!!
I did all my coloring using just a black Inktense pencil on watercolor paper, and blending with a waterbrush, or a blender pen in the tight spots. I love this huge bicycle image! You can find it here.
I filled the baskets with Ultrafine Flower Soft - I used Sage, Strawberry, and Citrus Crush for both.

The sentiment in the corner is from Impression Obsession.
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. One lucky blog hopper who comments on all the blogs will win a $50 Flower Soft Shopping Spree!!! The blog hop will remain open until May 24th. The winner will be announced on the Flower Soft blog on May 25th. I'm glad you stopped by...! Your next stop is Deb Felts' blog, With a Stamp and a Song .... hope you enjoy the hop!

Tiddly Inks customer blog hop

Thought it'd be fun to join up with the Tiddly Inks customer blog hop today, since I have some cutie new Tiddly Inks digis to play with! Here's my card:

I love the Lily Bean images! This is called Cup of My Love. I colored the cup with Prismacolor pencils but used Touch Twin markers on the red areas to make sure I got a real true red. I used a glaze pen on the boots, 'cuz they are definitely patent leather! I pulled this color combo out of my scrap basket (which is overflowing...) - the blue panel is stamped with an Impression Obsession stamp, and the sentiment is also from one of I.O.'s cupcake sets.
You can visit the Tiddly Inks blog to find all the details on the hop, and for links to other entries! Thanks for visiting today!

JustRite sketch challenge

JustRite Stampers' Challenge this time around (#54) is a sketch challenge - here's my card! I used a Spellbinders die to create a window in the main panel for my image (Backyard Birds). The panel is inked with Antique Linen Distress ink, then stamped with a border stamp from Birthday Celebrations. The sentiment is from Wedding Nested Sentiments/Verses. The buttons are 'threaded' with tiny strips of paper - that's so much easier to me than sewing them on, and it gives them a good anchor for gluing. (I snuck in one Impression Obsession stamp on the main panel - it's a note paper background.) Here's a close up on the bird image - I used Lyra Polycolor pencils to color it in, and added some clear glaze to the eggs. I tried adding texture to the colored area by scoring it with a stylus first - doesn't show well in the picture, but it's sorta cool!

The nest idea came from Amy Sheffer's card here! Sooooooooo love that card.
I used the Antique Linen ink to dye my bow too, after I tied it up... smooshed the pad around on the bow, spritzed the bow with water, crumpled it in my hand, then let it dry.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and thanks to JustRite Stampers for the fun sketch to try! (If you have JustRite stamps, and would like to play along, you have until Thursday to enter.)

Have a great week, everyone!

Inktense

Just noticed that Dick Blick has their Inktense pencils on sale, just $1.19 - they are normally $1.31 there, and actually retail at other places for up to $2.39. Remember, when you click through my blog to order from Blick (the button in my left sidebar or a direct link in a post), I will get credit for your purchase...

Here's a little peek at some Inktense coloring I've been working on... love this vibrant red!