Sneak Peak

Good morning. We all like sneak peaks, don't we? Well, today's card is a sneak peak into what tomorrow's tutorial will be. While playing around with one method, I decided to combine a second method, and whalaa, Joseph's Coat With a Twist. What's the twist, you ask? Drop by tomorrow and see what it's all about. Enjoy that great weather we all have been having. I'm off to the Brigden Fair. See you tomorrow.

Funky Bright Tag

It's the weekend, which is always a blast, but the down side is that my mom goes back home to Atlanta, today. We had such a wonderful time laughing, shopping, and talking.

Today's tag was inspired by Cornish Heritage Farms stamp set by Marieke. Marieke takes colour to the next level, and you know how much I love colour. This tag screams "teenage girl", don't you think? This tag will be perfect as a birthday card for my niece.

Enjoy your weekend. For the Canadians out there, have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. I hope you are having the wonderful weather we are having here in Sarnia (yesterday we broke record temperature highs at 30 degrees Celsius).

Recipe: 5" tag was cut with a Cricut and used as a template for the tag (Taken With Teal). 4 1/2 x 3 6/8 background matt was cut from Green Galore. Fiskar's decorative scissors cut the corners. Foreground mat was cut at 3 1/2 x 3 5/8, using Orchid Opulence. A white heart brad was adhered to one of the three mats. Flourishes from Autumn Leaves were stamped in black onto Orchard Opulence cardstock. Images were coloured with Prisma Colour pencil crayons. Ruby brad was inserted into the centre of the flower. Images were mounted with pop dots, and then leaves, from Marieke's Flowers #3, were stamped around the flower and the stem of the other flower. Orange cardstock was added to the top of the tag and hole punched, to allow two kinds of ribbon to be attached. Orange ribbon, from Lasting Impressions (Sarnia), was added to the bottom of the tag.

Altered Art

Here is an altered angel I would like to share with you. Isn't she cute? These are guardian angels that I make to give away to my girlfriends. Well, I have to run now, my mom and I are meeting up with an old friend and the drive is 90 minutes away. Can't be late. Have a great day!

Trick or Treat

Good morning. Are you having a good week so far? I am. Oh my goodness I'm enjoying my moms visit so well. It is always a treat to eat her cooking; I swear she is the best cook around. Tonight we're taking a break from the kitchen because it's Thursday, and that means it is beer and wing night with DH and our friends. It is a weekly get-together that I look forward to. Do you have a weekly get-together with friends?


Hope you're not tired of Halloween cards yet because I'm having so much fun creating new cards with all my new stamps.


By now, I'm sure you recognize the ever-so-popular criss cross card. Normally I tie ribbon around the card, but this time I wanted to add trick or treat bags. This adorable stamp set is from Sunshine Designs. Images are coloured with Tombow markers and blended with brush and water. Ribbon was mounted behind the watercolour paper with glue dots. The witch image was adhered to the inside card with double-sided mounting tape.

Tutorial Tuesday - Faux Palate Knife With Cracked Glass Technique

Gentle as a Falling Leaf

Good morning. Before my mom and I go out for a walk (I'm signing myself up at the Y; I really need to lose weight!), I thought I would upload today's tutorial which was inspired by my dad's love for oil painting with a palate knife. My dad was a beautiful painter. One of his paintings is hanging up in my hallway. What I love about this particular painting is that he managed to paint a beautiful image using only a palate knife. The clean drag marks of the palate knife is so refreshing. Anyway, onto business.


Supplies:
Variety of chalk stamp pads (I did not end up using the white one as shown in the photo)
Versamark pad
Variety of stamps
1 - 6 1/2 x 5 light coloured cardstock
1 - 5 1/2 x 4 1/8 dark coloured cardstock
Ultra Thick embossing enamel
Heat embosser

With stamp pad in hand, drag your stamp pad onto your cardstock. Be sure to drag in a variety of directions. The outcome reminds me of watching my dad oil paint using just a palate knife. I really love the look of dragged straight edges.
Randomly stamp all over cardstock.
Distress the edges of the image. Lightly place light coloured stamp pad on top of your image for more distressing.
Cut cardstock into 1" strips.
Evenly space your strips onto dark coloured cardstock and trim around edges as necessary.
Stamp edges of coordinating cardstock.
Mount cardstock with strips onto light coloured cardstock.
Stamp leaf image onto white cardstock and cut out with an exacto knife.
Place image directly onto Versa Mark pad and sprinkle Ultra Thick embossing enamel onto leaf.
Heat emboss. Repeat embossing two more times. A three layer thickness is perfect for the cracked glass technique. To achieve a cracked glass look, place your embossed images into the freezer for about 5 minutes. Take out of freezer and bend your images. Cracks will appear on your image.
You are now ready to finish your card. I mounted two leaves onto the upper left corner, with glue dots. Next, I stamped sentiment and mounted it behind a metal oval. The metal was held in place with fibre.

I hope you like this technique. Let me know if you try it out. If you send me a link, or e-mail a photo, I would love to add it to my blog for viewers to see. Good luck with your card!

85 Days Until Christmas

By now most of you will have noticed the Christmas tree in the right hand side bar. Even I take a peek at how many days are left until Christmas, and get surprised. With 85 days to go, there is still lots of presents to make. Do you make presents? I'd love to hear what you are making this year. There are a few items that I plan to make for my niece and my nephews, and when I have them done I will share them with you. I would love to hear what you are making because it might give me inspiration to try my hand at something new. Enjoy the new week that is upon us. Thanks for stopping by.

Paper: Basic Grey
Stamps: Elf, Sunshine Designs; Holiday Hello, Stamp'n Up
Ribbon: Costco
Ink: Black and Adirondak Cranberry

A2 card was cut to size. 5 1/8 x 3 7/8 plaid paper was cut and mounted onto card front. Coordinating paper was cut 1 1/2 x 4 and mounted onto dark green cardstock and trimmed to 5 1/4 x 4. Tag was punched and "Holiday Hello" was stamped onto tag. Ribbon was tied around the thin strip of decorative paper and tag was tied before the ribbon was knotted. Elf was stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with Tomboy markers and blended with brush and water.

Script and flower, Hero Arts

Script stamped was heat embossed in gold. Tombow markers were used to colour image directly onto stamp. Stamp was spritzed very, very lightly with water and then stamped directly onto text background. Pink ribbon (source unknown) was tied onto the bottom of the card.

Fall is Here

Yahoo, it's the weekend, and my mom is flying in from Atlanta for the week. I have been so lucky in the past 2 1/2 years because I have seen my mom once or twice a year. When I lived out east in Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, I would see my mom every 3 to 5 years. Because I live on the US border, I go to Michigan to pick her up at the airport. My son, and his girlfriend, are going to the airport with me today. I have a lot planned this week, so I told my mom she can sleep in while I get up at 6:00 a.m. to work in my studio and upload to my blog every day. Since I just took a three week holiday, I thought it would be unfair to all of you for me to take another holiday. Now onto business...

Today's card was made for the Stamp Shack's technique challenge. Jan challenged us to create a card by scrunching saran wrap up and inking the paper. Surprisingly, the saran wrap easily transferred ink directly from the pad.

This second card was created for the Shack's first colour challenge. Colours to be used were black, gold, copper, and a little dark green. Stacy's inspiration came from a candy wrapper.

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

Reflection

Good morning. Today's card resembles an earlier posting. Although an old technique it is new to me. Using a multi-coloured ink pad, I brayered colour onto card front. Once dried, Lovely as a Tree images were stamped with Stazon onto card front, and once again onto acetate. The acetate was turned upside down and laid onto the card front. With light pressure my fingers tapped over the stamped image to transfer the Stazon onto the card front. Acetate was gently lifted and whalaa--a reflection was made. This is a very fun technique. Good luck with your card.

Note To My Younger Self

Good morning. Today I'm mixing things up a bit by showing you an altered card I made for a swap that Ethel is hosting, entitled, "Notes To My Younger Self." The rules were simple: Create a 4 x 6 card with a note to our younger self, detailing the wisdom that was gained over the years. Ethel certainly did have me thinking. Wanting to keep this light and fun, I decided to add the following: 1) Be who you are, 2) Live fully, laugh freely, Love always, 3) Dance like no one is watching. Words to live by, don't you think? The other rules were to add a childhood photo, and to use rubber stamps. There is stamping on the back side of the card as well as the front (Beth). Unfortunately, the camera did not capture the beauty of the card. There is lots of glitter on the wings, dress, hat, and name tag. Thanks for stopping by. Tutorial Tuesday will commence next week.

Details: 4 x 6 card. Decorative paper, by Magnolia. Name tag stamped with black ink on pink cardstock, and mounted on Magnolia paper as well as Cool Carribean (my fav!). Butterfly wings were decorated with Stickles. Image was photocopied and cut out with exacto knife, and glued onto card front. Second image was cut out and the dress was traced onto watercolour paper. Dress was watercoloured and mounted with pop up dots for dimension. Stickles were added to the dress. Party hat was cut from watercolour paper, coloured with Tombow markers, and decorated with Stickles. CK flowers were mounted with glue dots, and buttons were added to the centres.

Lovely as a Tree

Good Monday Morning. This brayered background is a technique that has been around for ages. I was itching to try this technique and finally got around to purchasing a Kaleidacolor stamp pad. Trees are from the Lovely As a Tree set that I purchased four years ago, and never got around to using. Isn't that crazy? The moon was created by using a circle punch on yellow paper. Moon was adhered to cardstock with sticky tabs. Trees were stamped with black Stazon. "Happiness Always", from the Happy Harmony set, was stamped with black Stazon as well. Have a great day, and thank you for stopping by.

What, no layers?

Where's the layers, you ask? Well, I thought I would try something new and stamp with no layers. I thought if Julie Ebersole can do it, so can I. It wasn't as easy as I thought it might be.

Using my Magenta bird stamp, I stamped the four bird stamp once, and then masked the birds and stamped one bird on top of the pink bird. Using a flourish stamp (source unknow--it's unmounted with no label on my set) I stamped in black. Next, I coloured the birds with Prismacolour pencil crayons.

Yesterday Sarnia held it's second annual Scrapbook show. Lasting Impressions, Sarnia's scrapbook and rubber stamp store, had the cutest rolodexes. The autumn one was very impressive. The second rolodex was a full year calendar which had so many cute embellies. Has anyone done a rolodex? I signed up for the calendar class which I thought would be perfect for my office desk. I'm a medical transcriptionist, typing dictated reports all day, and I like to have pretty things on my desk to glance over at. As you can imagine, it can be a tideous job, but I do enjoy it.

Other new-to-me products that Lasting Impressions showed off were the new Tim Holtz ink daubers. Have you seen them yet? They come in a beautiful variety of colours. Colouring chipboard will be easy with this new line. Distress embossing powders come in a wide range of colours, and so do distress inks. Tim Holtz rocks. Have any of you been lucky enough to attend one of his classes?

Thanks for the big welcome back. Many of you left me such wonderful comments welcoming me back. If I haven't made it over to your blog to leave a comment, don't dispare, I'll be there shortly. I have been trying to catch up on my blog reading, while working on renovations. My mom comes in a week, and there is still so much to do before she arrives.

Have a great day, and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Witchy Halloween

Good morning. Here is a card I made before my trip. It is so hard to find my mojo again. It is so hard to tear me away from my studio, and find it just as hard to get back into the swing of things. Does that happen to you?

I am not sure who made the witch stamp because my secret sister from the Stamp Shack mailed me images.

The card is 5 1/2 x 4 1/4. The base is orange, and then green and black were layered on top. The witch image was layered onto orange and green as well. Brads were added to the corners of the card front and the smaller image. Ribbon was glued along the side of the smaller image with glue dots. To make the moon I used a circle punch. Whalaa, there you have it.

Have a great day.

I'm Back

Well, I'm back. Let me tell you that it was not easy going without internet connection. I did manage to get into a library to check for messages for a brief hour, and all I can say is it is good to have internet connection again. I didn't know how addicted I was to my blog, and internet, until I was tested. So, how are you? Did I miss anything while I was gone? Anyone win contests or get onto design teams? I tried out for two design teams before I left for vacation, but didn't get onto them. Oh well, I'll keep on trying.
This is a cottage I rented on the Bruce Pennisula, near Tobermory, Ontario. As you can see, I was very spoiled. The cottage sits on Miller Lake. In the evening we had a fire and I got to make smores. I'm such a kid!

Hummingbirds flew all over the area and used the three feeders almost constantly.
We fed the chipmunks peanuts.
Here is my DH, Donnie, as we hiked in the woods.
This is Donnie's cousin's cottage in Merrickville, near Ottawa. The cottage sits on the Rideau Canal, one of the "new wonders of the world." We both love Merrickville, and hope to move there one day.

Gone On Holidays with No Internet Connection

I'm leaving you with two Halloween cards, as I will as I am away on holidays for three weeks. Can you believe I will have no internet connection, which means no blogging. Ugh!! What will I do with my time you ask? Well, I packed three suitcases full of scrapbooking and card-making items, including my Cricut and Cuttlebug machines. How's that for roughing it? LOL. My laptop has Photoshop installed and I'll be busy teaching myself how to use it with my trusty Photoshop for Dummies book. Besides, DH is a computer geek so he can help me out.

Kindly leave comments for my return. Let me know what you would like to see on my blog, and what tutorials you would like. I promise to return to my Tutorial Tuesday's upon my return.