Father's Day

 Hello!  Now that Father's Day cards have been distributed, I can blog about them here.  The top one was for my husband, and the bottom one was for my dad. 

The top card is done with a coloured panel that has a Hero Arts background stamped on watercolour paper and embossed in white and then coloured with Distress markers and blended with a brush and water.  I gave it a small accent strip on one side, from my treasured stash of iris cardstock, which is now discontinued (can you believe it?  I couldn't - it was the best almost purple-almost blue cardstock ever).  It was mounted to a blue linen card base (which Sauron the Scanner has auto-corrected into something very peculiar) and stamped with "Happy Father's Day" (A Muse).  I stamped it in Chipped Sapphire and accented it with a Sakura Glaze pen.  It turned out that it was a white Sakura Glaze pen, and this treatment rendered the stamping almost invisible so I traced over with the Chipped Sapphire Distress Marker and took the liberty of adding some kisses underneath.  My younger daughter felt strongly that there should also be "o's" with the "x's", but I wasn't really seeking design input at this point.   I added white opal liquid pearls to the dots at the circles' intersectins. 

The card for my dad was a fun one. We used this stamp (Impression Obsession) in Krista's classes recently, so I did a different take on it and stamped it in white on kraft cardstock and coloured it with Bryunzeel pencil crayons.  I put it on a Bordering Blue card base with some Stampin' Up paper that coordinates with these two papers.  Some mushroom adirondack dimensional pearls completed the look.  I asked hubby if it was too feminine and he said, "It's just feminine enough."  You would think I would know better by now than to ask him, but there you go.  I might just have learned my lesson. 

We've had a great Father's Day - a trip down to Brockville to see the tall ships, and a lovely dinner out. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you got some stamping in this weekend too.

Mixed Media Poppies

Here's where I was tonight!  At Heather's Stamping Haven taking a mixed media class from Krista Schneider (standing).  We had so much fun.  These poppies were a blast to make.  We created them on birch panels with Copic and Tombow markers and Inktense pencils.  All this after a day of doing wonderful watercolour painting with Tombow markers.  I'm worn out, but in the best way.  Thanks Krista, Heather and all the ladies in class for making today such a wonderful day! 

Now I'm off to pack up my Copics for tomorrow' class!  If you are interested in seeing the class samples, the Tombow class is here and the Copic class is here.  There are also another couple of great classes on Distress markers and Inktense pencils. 

Meadow Birds

Hello!  Here's a card I made last night and finished off this morning.  I fell in love with this stamp when I saw Krista Schneider's sample here and wanted to try it out.  I stamped on the super smooth watercolour paper from Heather's Stamping Haven using India Ink.  The birds, flowers and leaves (stamp by Impression Obsession) were done using the watercolouring with Tombow technique that Krista teaches.  (I am so excited about her upcoming classes!  I love this time of year!)  The birds are accented with stickles too, and there are some dots of Adirondack dimensional pearls in Bottle.  I also edged all the panels in the same green.  I like the look of edged panels and the shadow ink gets a beautiful soft edge to it.  It's crisp enough for a good image, but it also softens ever so slightly.  I quite like the Tide Pool shade on the chartreuse with the background stamp (Hero Arts) - a little edgy and introduces yet another green.  I like to build up a number of shades of the same colour on a card, especially when they are a bit strong on their own.  Somehow having more variety of strong colours lessens the overall impact.  Then adding in a bit of red (opposite on the colour wheel) really makes everything pop.  This is a bright and juicy card! 

Actually, I think all three layers of green are her new greens.  I am really liking her new colours, even if I am sad that they (whoever They are) retired Citron without so much as a by-your-leave.  Time to branch out and try some new things! 

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll try not to be such a stranger.  The real reason I haven't been posting much is my elder daughter has had a big school project to work on and Blogger wasn't letting me log in to my blog - it would go to her account unless I rebooted.  I didn't want to close all her windows (or figure out a fix...let's be honest) so I just avoided Blogger.  Today I tried out Firefox and discovered it works just fine for blogging!  That's great news.  I will be blogging more often now, especially now that the tv shows we've been watching are winding up/over.  Mad Men is a particular favourite, and this season has been really good. 

Thanks (again!) for stopping in to this little corner of blogland. Hope you get some good stamping time.

Double Embossing

 Hello!  Here are a couple of projects that I made based on the Double Embossing technique I read about in Craft Stamper magazine. I'll be teaching these at Heather's Stamping Haven on May 4th, from 2-5 p.m.  They are really vibrant, and are loaded with texture and colour.  The sentiments are both images from Quietfire Designs.  I really like the hand-lettered calligraphy of their stamps.  I dabbled briefly in calligraphy and I love the look and the art of calligraphy.  However, being able to use a stamp of real calligraphy is much easier and faster than practicing and hand lettering.  Maybe I'll get back into calligraphy myself one day (I still have all my leftie nibs and my slant board), but for now I'll stick to stamping (and scrapbooking quilting and knitting and crocheting and baking and reading, oh yeah and working full-time).

Thanks for stopping by!

One stamp - two ways

Here are the samples for my next class at Heather's Stamping Haven.  The class runs next Saturday, April 20 from 2-5 p.m.  It's called "One Stamp - Two Ways" and features a beautiful tag stamp from Memory Box.  We'll make one in rich beautiful jewel tones and another in softer, muted colours, with a bonus window feature.  Both cards showcase the wonderful hand-lettered calligraphy stamps from Quietfire Designs.  Call Heather at the store to register.

Thanks for stopping by!

Scrap Stash Sunday

Hello!  Here's a little something I whipped up yesterday using bits and pieces from the scrap and "things to save because they're too nice to throw out" box.  The focal image is a leftover from an ATC swap I joined, hosted by Darkroom Door.  It features stamps by Darkroom Door, and an embossed resist technique combined with a Tombow marker background in shades of red.  I matted it on black and added machine stitching.  It was an extra one for the swap, so it went in my "things to save" box and I pulled it out yesterday, added another mat in a different red, as well as an accent strip in yet another red.  I find this is a good way to "match" colours to a very colourful focal image.  By using a few different shades together, they are united, rather than looking like they don't match.  All these went on a confetti fleck card base that I stamped with a Hero Arts geometrical background stamp using Soft Granite Shadow ink.  I took a class last week at Heather's and the teacher got me hooked on light grey backgrounds.  Thanks for the inspiration, Meg!  The final finishing touch was a few dots here and there of black Enamel Accents (Ranger).  I will also note that all pieces except the ATC are edged in Memories Art Print Brown.

Thanks for stopping by!  I am hoping to make a few more dents in my box of treasures this afternoon.  I hope you get some stamping time too.

CASE Study Challenge #131

I came across this challenge and it was irresistible!  I was in the mood to do some colouring and some embossing and to try out something quick and easy.  Well, when a CASE presents itself like this, full of colouring and embossing and the thinking is done already, I had to try it out.  The inspiration image is by Julie Ebersole.  Isn't it pretty!  I loved it.  Now if only I could photograph my images like that!  Wow.  

As it is, I settle for Sauron the Scanner, who grudgingly translates my cards from real life to the internet.  You will just have to imagine a soft glow from the back, like Julie's has.  

I used a Sunshine Designs image and painted it with Twinkling H20s (how I do love my twinks!) and added a birthday sentiment (Stampin' Up!).  I volunteered to provide birthday cards for an outreach program my church is doing, so I think this will go in that little stash.  The background is a cover-a-card stamp by Impression Obsession.

Thanks for stopping by!