Panda

Well, since the old wagon from Clear Dollar Stamps got inked up, the Panda did too! LOL
I told you I was going to use glossy paper again. I did a tried and true technique. Versamark resist. I stamped the bamboo background on white glossy with versamark ink, heat set and sponged a little orange in the middle then brayered a lime green around it. Next I stamped a portion of the background stamp in black Palet ink on the right side and Kanji on the top left.
I stamped the panda in black and colored him with my Prismacolor pencils and blended with Gamsol.
This card went to my son, the Wagon to my daughter.
Recipe:
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps and SU retired Bamboo background stamp
Black Pallet, green and orange dye and Versamark ink
nesties
Gold cord

Old Wagon

The timing was perfect last Saturday....DH was going to work and I had a weekend alone to stamp and my new stamps from Clear Dollar Stamps came in the mail! Well, these stamps hadn't seen ink yet so I didn't mess up my mission right?
This is a 5 inch square card. The piece the wagon was stamped on is a portion of a Labels nestie. I stamped the wagon in Walnut Distress ink, pierced the edges with a tack and then sponged ink with a piece of Cut N Dry foam. That stuff works really great to blend distress inks. I did old paper in the middle and Brushed Corduroy on the edges. I was pleasantly surprised it looked like leather! (even a co-worker said so when I showed her and I didn't even ask if it did! LOL)
Recipe:
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps
Nesties
Ruby Red, brown cardstock and DP paper
Ribbon

Celtic Horse

This is a stamp by Scottish Border Stamps

http://www.scottishbordersstamping.com/sbs_001.htm


that I pulled out the other day. It wasn't going to end up that bright but after I colored it and was searching through DP, I found this and it worked the best of anything else I had. It's a clearance DP from HL. This time I stamped it twice on ivory CS, cut one with a large circle nestie and colored the image with Prisma color pencils and blended with Gamsol then edged it with a silver pen and cut it out the horse on one and mounted it on top with dimensionals. I layered that on a green galore scallop circle nestie that I ran through my cuttlebug with Argyle folder and rubbed the light blue Brilliance pad on it. The color is off on the picture it does look better IRL.


Recipe:
Stamps: Scottish Borders
Inks: Brillance and Pallet Black
Martha Stewart border punch and 1/2 inch circle punch
Cropadile large eyelets
Silver pen
Green twill
Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol and blending stubs

Hi There

I've been meaning to send a friend of mine a card for a long time...I owe her and this one had to be special since she's 2 up on me! Hopefully this it it!
I had this floral piece stamped and sitting on my desk for a long time....(I do that alot) and finally got my muse to work to use it.
I stamped it in white and embossed it on white cardstock. Then I sprayed it with colorwash spray and let dry then cut it out.
HINT: If you stamp your image in the same color ink as the powder if your EP misses a spot, you don't notice it as much.
Right before I sent it, I added a tiny tag with HI THERE sticking out of the circle on the upper right corner in mustard.
Recipe:
Stamp - Bella Rosa (I'm on a mission to use stamps that have never seen ink)
nesties
Martha Steward border punch
sewing machine
DP paper I've had for ages

Happy Retirement

My husband has been a conductor on the railroad for 35 years, long before I met him. When we were just married, guys his age were called 'old heads'. He's one now! After all these years he still has problems getting vacation at Christmas and during the summer.
Anyway, many of the guys he know are retiring. You have to be 60 to retire on the RR, DH has 4 1/2 years to go and is counting the days. When his friends retire (many have less years in but are 60) he always takes them a case of beer and asks me to make a card. This card is for Kelly. The last card I made I had 3 brads on too, but OMG, I didn't use Red, Yellow and Green, the color of blocks...(RR version of stoplights) well, duh it was on a blue and yellow card and you didn't tell me. This time I knew better.
This is a 5 1/2 inch square card. I usually only make square cards if they are hand delivered to avoid extra postage. If I do make a square to mail, I made it 5 inches square and put it in a 5 X 7 envelope to avoid the extra postage. There are secrets!

This card is pretty straight forward. The only extra thing I did was die the silver brads with alcohol inks. I just put a little in a well of a pallet tray and dipped the brads. It's hard to tell on the picture but the yellow and portion of the red under the engine is ran through a herringbone cuttlebug folder. The engine is a retired Stampin' Up! stamp.
Happy Retirement Kelly (best of luck Linda, his wife....way more husband than we're use to!)

My Brother

I found out last week that my brother who lives in Minnesota has skin cancer on his nose. Luckily it's not melanoma but the kind that is 99% curable. It's still scary. I made this card to send him. I used a deep red cardstock on the white 5X7 inch base. I stamped the Rooster stamp in Frayed Burlap on white, then I used a sponge the Old paper over the rest. It's layered on a tan scalloped rectangle nestie.

Recipe:

Stamps by Artistic Outpost- http://www.artisticoutpost.com/

Inks: Frayed Burlap and Old Paper Distress Inks

Martha Stewart border punch

Spellbinders dies

Cropadile eyelets

Designer Paper is from Scrapbook Hideaway in Missoula, Mt.

Sewing machine!! I actually had brown thread in it so I decided I would sew on it. LOL

Buddha on glossy

Here is a card I made for my son, he's a grad student studying Central Eurasia history so he appreciates anything oriental. He's even seen the Dahlia Lama on campus, his brother use to teach there!
This Buddha is from Artistic Outpost - http://artisticoutpost.com/id2.html
The Buddha stamp is stamped in Pallet black on glossy cardstock and I stamped a kanji from Stampsmith stamp on the edges. I sponged the background in mustard, orange and a pink for the flowers. I colored the Buddha with copics. I then outlined the left edge of him with grey to shadow.
I tend to forget about glossy paper and really need to use it more...back to the basics! I remember when I first started stamping glossy was the RAGE. So many people didn't believe I stamped some cards when it was on glossy cardstock as they didn't even know you could buy it! LOL

That was all layered on a black piece of embossed DP I've had forever and then on some gold and black Origami paper. All of it was on a Mustard card base. Not counting the base, the whole card is 3 layers not 4. The glossy layer looks like 2. I even had to look a few times it had so much depth.
I think I'll have to play with my glossy cardstock more...I think I have a ream of it someplace!

I broke my Wizard!

Here's a picture, it made a grinding noise and then SNAP! I was so lost without I broke down and ran to town to get a Cuttlebug at Hobby Lobby. I know I should have waited and got a Big Shot like everyone says but I was desperate! Goodbye Wizard!

UPDATE: I called them and they are sending a new part to fix it. I'll let you know if it works!

Miss you

Here's a couple more I sent my kids. Again the stamp are Charlie Horse from Clear Dollar Stamps. I was going to do both of them as a circle but realized that I could save Wizard cranking time if I did one in another shape and run them through the same time. So one is square. The one I sent DD (circle) is colored like her horse. She called after she got him last night and said the horses she gets are always colored like Scooter, her favorite horse. BUT, she said remember, I have Duchess too! Ok, I'll have to remember that.

Back to the cards. I colored old Charlie (or in my book they are Scooter and Moose) with copics. The bottom piece of the hoofs, what I'm guessing is the horseshoe, is colored with a metallic silver marker. I layered that on brown and dotted the scallops with brown marker. I tried white and didn't like it. The DP is Hobby Lobby brand again (that's where I shop!). The card base is that color I don't know what it is. Is there a chance it's Sahara Sand? It's sort of a green? I tore the DP and layered on the base.

The mesh is actually drywall mesh. I had a half a roll left from when I finished the basement. To dye it I ran Walnut Distress ink on it, heat set and turned over and rubbed to get excess ink off. Next I attached large eyelets (cropadile brand) on the sides and tied ribbon (again left over from DD's wedding, we had LOTS of it left!) I stamped the barbed wire and Miss You in brown along the bottom of the base and dotted. Did you know Barb wire and horses don't mix? Barb wire is a no-no when you have horses. They have such thin skin, unlike cattle, that they can seriously injure themselves. I have had many horses hurt on it. DD's show mare was caught in adjoining property barb wire fence and injured herself so bad she had to be put down. I DON'T LIKE BARB WIRE!

I cut word windows and put them on the top. I punched 2, folded them in half to mark and then cut in half. I used a star brad that matched the large eyelets and dotted them with brown marker again. Before I put them on, I liked DD's card with the circles best. After I added them I liked the square better. Funny how one little embellishment on basically the same card can make a difference.

Doggy sympathy - OCC challenge

I feel it appropriate to send sympathy cards to people who lose pets and horses. (I get lots of people thanking me for my thoughtfulness as most people don't even acknowledge it) I even wrote a poem years ago for my DD when we had to have her good show horse put down called "Horse Heaven" It's been in lots of cards and framed with photos of those horses gone to heaven.
Anyway....my dear friend Julie in Montana recently lost her old Yellow Lab Mandy. I met Mandy last September, she was 15, deaf and almost blind but Julie had her happy and I fell in love with her too. I made this card for her. The stamp is by Eureka, they also have some animal sympathy stamps for the inside. I stamped it and cut it out after I colored with the Copics. I tried to make it look like a yellow lab, I always try to color my animals on the cards the color of the dearly departed pet. Then I stamped again, colored a little and cut with the labels nestie. That was layered on a blue nestie. I cut the halo out and edged that with glue pen and glitter then foam mounted above the head and also did the wings in glitter after coloring blue. Before I had this stamp I took a sitting dog stamp and masked it so I could put wings on it.
The DP paper I got at my favorite scrapbooking store in Missoula MT. I cut that out and cut the ticket corner with a 1/2 inch circle punch, layered on Close to Cocoa cardstock. It tied dog print ribbon from Hobby lobby around it and then some other shade of blue ribbon on that. The 'dog tag' from store in Missoula, was stamped WITH SYMPATHY in black Stazon ink and tied on the ribbon with silver cord. Layered on a piece of blue ran through dot cuttlebug and then I ran a brown stamp pad over the dots to highlight them. All this is on a 5X7 craft cardbase.

HINT: I always have a few animal sympathy cards made up but don't color them so I can personalize them when I need to send one. It seems like my dog ones go FAST. I usually don't have them quite so detailed but Mandy was special.

Little did I know, today's card qualified for the OCC challenge to put a tag on a card. So here's my entry.

How's everything

A couple more cards I made to send my kids. Like everyone else they enjoy getting FUN mail and not just bills so I try to send them a card every week. It doesn't always happen though. This Charlie Horse stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps is perfect for stressed out college kids. My son is a grad student studying Central Eurasian studies at University of Indiana, Bloomington and DD is a Senior at Univ. of Montana, Missoula studying Geophysics. They are both stressed by school and getting good grades. Since we have Paints I had to make old Charlie a paint on both of these. A Paint is basically a Quarter horse that has a lot of white, like a pinto but of stock horse decent. The cards are the same basic layout but I added a Tim Holtz flower to DD's, to girl it up a little. The ribbon looking thing behind the image is cardstock ran through a argyle cuttlebug and the button is really a brad. My son's card I used die cut hinges on the side. I cut them out of metallic paint chips I picked up at a Home Depot. It was a blue shade so it matched the DP. I run all my small die cuts through my Xyron sticker maker and have them saved to use when I need them since it's so hard to glue small pieces.

Breast Cancer

I read in our newspaper that an old co-worker and DD's 6th grade teacher is fighting breast cancer so I made her this card. I have had this stamp forever and am pretty sure it came as a free one or grab bag but don't know where from. I have lots of stamps that don't have 'owners' on, before I learned to write on the back!
I stamped the teapot on watercolor paper and painted with my SU ink pads and water brush. I wish I'd have done the pot a little different but at the time thought it would match the DP better. I used my nestie to cut it out and the pink mat and greeting piece. (Does anyone else have problems finding greetings to fit tags/labels/ word windows etc.?) I had the gold stickers that are on the pot in my stash, I always forget about them! That did add to the pot but should have made it a different color. I edged the greeting with gold leafing pen after I sponged the edges, there wasn't a nestie small enough to make a mat so this had to do.
The DP is from Hobby Lobby and I ran the green galore CS through the cuttlebug folder.
The ribbon is tied to a picture hanger that came silver and I colored with my leafing pen. Gotta love them for that. It's attached with a large gold brad I got at Office Depot.
It's all layered on Chocolate Chip on a white card base. The card is 5 X 7. You might wonder why a lot of my cards are that size? WELL, a co-workers mother works at a Hallmark store and saved me a HUGE box of envelopes. 90% of them are 5X7 so I am using those when I can.
I hope she likes it.

Sympathy cards

I always need sympathy cards. Seems like you hit a certain age and relatives and friends start going. Yikes, I am getting old. Anyway, I thought I would share a couple I made up so I had some on hand. I've had this marble type cardstock for a long time and really didn't like it. I pulled it out the other day and thought it kind of looked like clouds so came up with this. I just stamped some bold flowers/weeds/grass on the bottom edge in a coordinating color, added ribbon to match and then the sympathy saying on a square nestie. I used the Martha Steward border punch for the top on coordinating cardstock and there, I have some generic sympathy cards on hand that I like. They were fast, easy, mailable and look like you took more time than you did. I always like that! It's simple but that's ok. Sometimes I don't like all the 'stuff' on cards.

More Africa

There are times I get in a rut and keep doing the same genre, Africa was it for a couple days. After I CASED DD's card, I kept seeing all the African stamps and animal print paper I have on my Africa stamp credenza tray (See archived June 2008 post to see my stamp storage). This card isn't at all what I had first thought about in my mind but that animal print just didn't look right with this stamp after it was colored so I put it back and dug out some different stuff.

I really like this 5 X 7 but when I flipped the photo, I don't like it in the picture but at least you get the idea.

What I don't like is I can't remember the color or where I got the card base and accent paper from, the light greenish stuff. I have a few sheets left and really like it. Oh well, that happens I guess.

The giraffe stamp is from I Brake for Stamps.

I stamped in black and colored with copics. This is one I think I did a pretty good job on. I tore the edges and sponged with frayed burlap distress ink. The DP is from an old pack of Ranger Paper that I totally forgot about. I cut it with a nestie and layered it on black and then a strip of the card base ran through a cuttlebug folder that I think looks like snake skin. I have never used it since I didn't like it but it was one I didn't have so bought it. Does anyone else do that?

I attached the corners with a black brad and again used raffia for my layer.

Another good masculine card.

So for those of you who don't know what to do for men, animals!

Check this out!!

I was blog surfing today and came across this wonderful blog by a very talented stamper in the UK. She's giving some great blog candy so check her out.

http://bevscrafts.blogspot.com/

I had to smile when I saw where Bev lives, Newcastle Upon Tyne, it's NE England and I have been through there TWICE! Once on the way up to visit DD when she was in Scotland and once on the way back...when we got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the 'motorway' in rush hour on a Friday. We were on our way to visit some friends in Durham and knew we were going to be late with that traffic. The worst part, our rental car was a manual transmission (like most cars in the UK) and DH's leg was getting sore! But we made it and the next day got to see the Durham Cathedral. If your a Harry Potter fan (like me) you might recognize this...it's the hallway used in the movies! Here I am...at HOGWARTS! LOL

Check out the blog.....she has some fantastic art.

Love Never Melts

I love this stamp set from Firecracker Designs by Pamela. It seemed like a prefect stamp on a very cold February day in North Dakota. It seems like we've had a lot of those this winter along with lots of snow. I think we would have had to had a fire to get the snow sticky enough to make a snowman though!

I stamped the snowman and fire in black permanent ink on white CS and colored with copics. I am still on a learning curve with those things! I cut them out ran through the cuttlebug folder of dots then used white Liquid applique to fluff up the hat. and layered them on vellum ran through my snowflake cuttlebug folder. All that is layered on light blue that I put dotted with white gel pen.

I stamped the saying in light blue on a word window and then had fun with stickles making it look like icicles hanging down. Here is a closeup:

Then I added the silver cord and mounted on the white base. When my daughter got it, she was scared with the glitter.

Africa with masking tape!

I really can't take total credit for this, I totally cased it from DD! When she was home for Christmas break and making up cards, she did one like this. I usually have tons of background done that I don't use and she comes up with the greatest ideas for them. I miss having her around.

This card is 5 X 7 inches and uses the masking tape background.

HINT: since the masking tape makes cards so heavy, I used text weight paper.

In case you don't know what the masking tape background is; tear off different sized of masking tape and put on the base. In this case, the more ragged the better. Next I took Marmalade Distress ink and rubbed across the top and Peeled paint Distress ink on the bottom. I stamped the elephants by I Brake for Stamps (Elephants DG-13) in Palet black ink. Then to keep it from rubbing on my hands, I heat set it for a while and then turned it over and on scrap paper and rubbed the back to get any extra ink off.

Now I know it looks like it's cut crooked and I did that on purpose...for a change. LOL

It's layered on black paper that I distressed the edges with a thread cutter. Yes a thread cutter is what the paper distressers really are. You can pick up one for a buck or so at any fabric store.

I used the spiral punch for the side and layered all this on some raffia. It looks a lot better IRL and makes a great masculine card.

Doggy Valentine

Boy, I'm late on getting this posted!
This is a 5 1/2 inch square card I sent to DD for valentines day and forgot to post it earlier.
The paper is what really makes this card, I picked it up at Hobby Lobby. I finally figured out they have the coordinating paper together...duh! There are 3 different DP's on this card. I always feel like I'm cheating when I use DP on a card, I guess I'm old school and think everything should be stamped or made by me.
The stamp is from the Pat the Dog set from www.ourcraftlounge.com
I am determined to get the hang of these Copic markers so I'll keep trying. Sometimes I feel like I have it, most times I don't! My nesties got a big workout on this card, 3 different ones and then the tag is a Spellbinder die too. The greeting from the Pat the Dog set was to long for the tag so I just cut it apart to make it fit. I added a little doggie brad I picked up at a scrapbooking store in Montana. The only other thing is the burgandy border cut with my MS border punch.
I hope you like it, even if it is late. :)

Charline Horse

I usually don't do cute but these little horses from Clear Dollar stamps are way to cute to miss....plus I'm a pushover for horse stamps, at least most of them!

This is pretty straight forward, I stamped Charline Horse in black permanent ink, colored with Copics and then outlined the barrel and horse shoes with a silver pen.

I sponged the edges with Frayed Burlap ink (my new favorite color) and layered on nestie cutouts. The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby, the flower is Tim Holtz one and the center is a concho I had from my show days. I flattened it in my Wizard so I would mail ok. The only think I don't like is the Spellbinder embellishment on the right. I have a bunch cut out and ran through my Xyron to make them sticky. I couldn't move it once it was down or I would have taken it off.

Like I said, it's not too special but wanted to share the little filly! LOL