Anniversary

Anniversary and Sympathy cards are 2 of the hardest for me to make, just because choosing an image is difficult. Sympathy is a little easier, you can do a male image or flowers for female. For anniversary you need something male and female generic and fit the couple. I was in a quandary when it came to my in-laws this year. I finally decided on the pomegranates from Flourish and knew I wanted to cut the card using a large rectangle nestie.

For the base, I stamped the small pomegranates all over in Old Olive ink and then sponged the edges with Frayed Burlap distress ink.

The pomegranates were colored with my copics (they are a lot of fun to play with) and cut out. HINT: To cut narrow images, stick packing tape on the back to 'stiffen up' the stems and other thin pieces. I can't take credit for this, I think it came from a Midwest Stampers Tuesday tip, sorry, I don't know who gave it. The label is a Spellbinders die and I don't know who the greeting is by. Anyway, the rest is pretty easy to copy. Anyone else have good ideas on images for Anniversaries? Leave a post and let me know.

Get Well

A friend on one of my stamping groups had knee replacement surgery and this is the card I made for her. She's a horse lover too so it's a wonderful opportunity to dig out my horse stamps, I have a lot. This was from a sheet I got at Addicted to Rubber Stamps years ago. I think it was my first unmounted rubber stamps. I stamped him in sepia Versafine on white and colored the syringle on the blanket with a prismacolored pencil. There really isn't a technique, just layering, Nesties and DB I think it's SU. I used a Spellbinder die to cut the buckle from foil (aka shiny) cardstock I got at Michaels in the art section where the large sheets are sold. I ran the blue through my paper crimper and that's about it. Now if things just went together as fast as I could type them up.

Racoon

And I bet you thought I did nothing but moose!

I got this image from Eureka and I have had this stamped for a long time with it just floating around my stamp desk for a long time. I finally decided I better clean it up a little and well, instead of cleaning, stamping is more fun and I did need to make a card to my son.... LOL

I stamped the little bugger in Pallet Nior black ink on white cardstock and colored with one color of brown copic. Pretty easy just using one color. Then I used my Nesties labels and cut him out and layered on a black Nestie label a size bigger. I ran some brown cardstock through a cuttlebug folder I think it's Herringbone and layered the coon on it. The washers are really grommet things (you know the ones with the little pokie things on the back) I found at Hobby Lobby by the Cropadile stuff. I was excited and in a hurry so didn't read it close enough that they only work with the big one which I don't have so when I got it home, I was bummed. Anyway I figured out a cool way to put them on without killing your fingers.

HINT: Take some of the foam wrap stuff that comes around furniture and fold it up so you have 3 layers or something similar. Put your cardstock on top and push your grommets right through. Turn over and use a hammer to pound them down. I have one of those little ball peen hammers (not the girly pink ones) in my stamping room. Do you know the difference between a ball peen and claw hammer? A claw hammer is the type that you can pull a nail out with...with the claw on one end. A ball peen has a round end in that space....but I digress, we're here to talk stamping.

I had a piece of black cardstock, not big enough to make a full layer but liked the look of only using part for the back layer on the card base. I just added some word windows with a brad on the top and there it is....oh I put some money in it before I send it to my son in grad school too. He always complains he doesn't have any cash on him so being the wonderful mom I am, once in a while my cards have some money in.

Basically it's a very simple manly card but I like it. It's something different from the normal Asian type ones I usually send him since he's studying that part of the world and I usually catch heck if I do something wrong like stamp my name chop he got me in China upsidedown.

If you are following my posts, please leave a comment, I'd like to know who's reading if anyone!

Snowgirl

I meant to post this a long time ago but it got lost on my camera with the Christmas pictures. It's a card I stamped for a dear friend to send with her Christmas present, which I bought late...sorry Lois. The snowgirl is a cute stamp from Firecracker Designs by Pamela that I colored with my NEW copics, this was my first image I colored so there is a learning curve on it but I think I did ok. I used some glitter on the left sides and cut her out. Layered her on a square card, on top of a couple square nestied, the white was ran through the cuttlebug snowflake folder. THe snowflake is an embellishment I got at Hobby Lobby it's really from a set of mini ornaments so was quite reasonable. It's a pretty simple card but wanted to share. We are still trudging through 60+ inches of snow this year but it's been much to cold to make a snowman or girl. I'm SO ready for spring.

Our Buttons

Buttons is our very old, 14 years in a week, dog. Every cat LOVES her! I really don't think she's that trilled with being a cat magnet but we find it amusing. I snapped this picture one night. The 2 cats with her are outside barn cats in to warm up in our very sub zero temps.

Buttons mother was a registered collie, dad was a registered golden retriever, yes she is black and that is strange but for some reason that is the color they are! Anyway, that makes her a mutt I guess...or a designer dog, a COLTRIEVER! LOL She has been a very good dog and we know our time with her is limited. Right now she can't get up by herself but has earned our help. She is still happy, not in pain, gets around once she's up and can control her bodily functions so we can't put her down yet. She was SO happy when the kids were home for Christmas, I think it added a few months to her life she perked up so much.

Here's whole pack! Grizzly is on the left, he's 11 so considered geriatric too. We got him from the humane society as a puppy, he was found in a badger hole with his brother. He's the most laid back, lazy dog ever, even as a puppy he never played much, didn't chew on anything and still just lays around!

The evil eyed looking guy on the right is Doogan, the comedian of our hounds. He's a Border Collie, Shepard/Collie cross we got a giveaway. He's only 3 but is having back problems so is seeing my chiropractor. It's helping but we are still worried. He's brillant, busy and a very needy fella. Not evil at all but super friendly and loves showing off his tricks, play dead, roll over, turn around, get a certain toy, wave, etc. HIs slogan....will play for tricks!

I hope you enjoyed meeting our dogs, a celebration of Buttons life.

Girltime Moose

My daughter's good friend, Shannon, went back to Montana with her after Christmas. Shannon came out early as she wanted to 'hang with me'. I was honored and humbled but I think DD was jealous! The girls had all sorts of things planned for a week, knitting, shopping, Shannon was going to ski with Bailey's husband since she still can't because of her knee problems, they stopped at Yellowstone for New Year's Eve and had a blast in Gardiner MT at the Two Bit Saloon. Anyway, this is the card I sent them.

The card is a Z fold, this is the outside, just patterned paper with a moose track stamp on it (DD got it for me at Yellowstone last year) and I computer generated the greeting on cardstock and then cut it out with nesties and layered it on a scallop nestie in blue with some ribbon. I cut the edge with a Martha Stewart border punch.

Then it opens into 3 parts! I love this.

I continued the patterned paper and moose tracks as a background. Since those 2 girls are knitting fanatics, I had to use the knitting moose and made sure one was a redhead moose like Shannon and colored the knitting the colors of what they were working on when they left, Shannon a scarf and Bailey a Dale of Norway sweater. I used the label maker I got for Christmas to make the greetings. For this one is says, "Have fun knitting."

THe next picture was them relaxing that says, "Take time to RELAX." I made sure to color the furniture the color of her furniture. My daughter caught on to the colors so that made me happy. I also put a label on that said, "Bailey ice your knee" since I had to keep reminding her at home!

Here's the last part that says "And safe trip home" since they were driving back and the roads had been bad.

All the images were colored with my new copic markers. The moose are from http://www.hannastamps.com/ and I don't remember where I got the mountain and tree stamps from, sorry.

I like to try to think outside the box and use up somethings I have laying around, like the base cardstock for this was some a print shop gave me. I measures about 4 1/2 inches wide and 25 inches long. I didn't use the whole length for this card. I really need to challenge myself and try to do different folds. The label maker is fun to do your own greetings too. I really need to buy some clear label refill.

Pregnant moose

Right after Christmas I received an email from some dear friend's in England that they are expecting! I was so excited and in the middle of placing another order from Hanna Stamps for more Moose stamps....she had a sale, I couldn't resist.


Anyway, I had to add this pregnant moose stamp to my cart and here is the card I sent them.

I realized after starting to dig in my designer paper stash that I really don't have anything babyish, I tend to lean more for naturals or outdoorsy stuff. So this was as close as I have and I was bummed there wasn't any pink. I think her 'mum' will like the idea of a boy but his mum would like a girl, she has 3 boys, her side has 2 girls. Whatever they have they will be fantastic parents.

Anyway, I used the paper as a background on my 5X7 card. Used it another direction for the image layer and the backside for the nestie bottom layer. (does that make sense?) I stamped the image on my patterned paper and cut the dress out. Colored the moose with my new copics (I'm really loving them) and tied ribbon on the bottom. The oval congratulations is by JustRite, ribbon from Hobby Lobby and flowers are from a bunch of silk flowers I bought.

Merry Christmas

I thought I'd share my mass produced card this year. I can't believe it took this long to figure something out but then I haven't been in the Christmas mood either.

My card was an image from Artistic Outpost. I did the Tim Holtz method of using the Cut N Dry Felt pad. I inked up my stamp in black Archival ink and stamped it on the cutNdry. Then I used my Distress reinkers to put the colors where I wanted them. I used Brick red for Santa, weathered wood on the bottom and a couple greens on the top. Then all I have to do is ink up my image and stamp and it's all colored. Store the 'pad' in a zip lock bag. The distress inks don't bled into each other so you don't have to worry about that either. I LOVE the distress inks and reinkers! I stamped the image onto my cream naturals paper and trimmed close. Then I layered on some forest green cardstock. Now this I got from work, they were some folders they had made up and were going throw them out! I took them out of the garbage and told them NEVER to throw anything away. LOL

The red background paper is some DP I got at a scrapbook store in Missoula, MT. It's prettier in real life. Since it was so thin and hard to stick, I cut it and ran through my Xyron. The card on the left was the first one I did and I didn't like the hinges I put on the side so the rest don't have that (why I grabbed that for the picture I don't know) and the one on the right was using up the left over scraps of DP! I ended up liking that one best. I used my white pen and dotted around the images.

The embellishments are punched branches using Martha Steward punch and a snowflake cut from a garland I picked up at HL (can you tell it's the only place to buy stuff in my town?) To give it a vintage look, I used some caramel alcohol inks on them to dye them. Pretty cool huh? Anyway, that's my card this year to most people. I did make a few special ones for some people but I really like this one now.

Merry Christmas Everyone and thanks for visiting.

(Check back for more days of Moose soon)

MORE MOOSE!!

So I broke down and ordered more Riley Moose stamps from Hanna stamps when she had her after Thanksgiving sale. (Thanks for the great service!)

I only have had time to do one more right now but thought I'd share that with you now. I made 2, one for each of my kids as kind of a prequel to coming home for Mom's cooking for Christmas.

It's hard to see from the picture but the base white cardstock was ran through my Wizard with the cuttlebug snowflake border on the bottom half. The striped DP is from a stack I got at Hobby Lobby last year. On the top 1/3, I have a piece of snowflake vellum that I ran the through my printer to get the greeting, Home for the Holidays. I really don't know why I don't use that option more often for greetings that I don't have or will only use a couple times.

HINT: Did you know you can emboss what you run on vellum right from your printer if your fast? Have your EP ready as soon as it comes out.

The ribbon, button brads and snowflakes from from HL too. My image was stamped on a square piece of watercolor paper that I cut from my nesties (along with the layered scallop piece). I find it easier to cut my piece first then stamp. I also do my wizard sandwich backward. My cut board on the bottom, cardstock I'm cutting, die, then spacer and then embossing plate. I find I don't cut my spacing plate and can see what I'm cutting easier. It works for me!

I colored Riley with SU markers along the edge and drug the color in using my aqua painter. The cupcake papers were colored with a copic marker (I now have a couple with a bunch under the tree....I bought them and told DH that was my present) I will have learning curve but can't wait to play with them! The frosting was liquid applique with red glitter sprinkled on and heated to make it look festive! Then I dotted the scallop edge and sent them off with some cash for food for finals week.

Stay tuned, I have more 'days of Riley' in the works when things settle down and I get some Christmas stuff done...like put up a tree! Yes, it's the 18th of December and I don't have it up yet. I'm wondering if it's even worth it now!

7 Days of Moose - Day Seven

Wow, it's hard to believe the 7 days are over. I finished up this one during a snow day. Perhaps you saw Bismarck on the Today Show or the Weather Channel last Friday? We had a heck of blizzard.
This was taken out my dining room window when the snow had let up. The drift behind the tree was 4 feet high! We had over 9 inches of snow with 40 mph winds gusting to 50. There was a bigger drift behind the barn. Don't worry, Moose and his friends were cozy in the barn during the storm. Most of the time they are outside. Horses prefer being outside unless it's wet. Moose spent 2 years of his life in the barn while he was being shown (he's a registered American Paint Horse) and he prefers to be out, but not during this storm. Two of our horses are barn babies and would stay in most of the time if I'd let them (but I don't like to clean the stalls) and the mare (girl), Duchess hates being in
So today's card is Moose getting the tree and I knew it needed a snow background. I stamped him with black Stazon on a piece of acetate about 3 X 4 inches and used Adirondack markers to color him on the back side. Then I ran it through my Xyron with permanent adhesive. The snow is the fake stuff you find at Hobby Lobby or Menards for villages. I got a huge bag for about $2. Then put it in a ziplock bag, put your acetate in, shut the bad and knead the snow onto the piece. Shake it off good and set aside. I cut a piece of white cardstock and ran it through with an oval nestie to cut a frame. I use an ATG gun for adhesive on all my cards. HINT: ask for one for Christmas if you don't have one! They are great and the refills are cheap. I took a piece of cardstock the same size as the frame and stamped a few evergreens in hunter ink on it. You can kind of see it in the picture. I glued those together and layered it on a brown piece of cardstock.
The embellishments are the evergreen punch from Martha again but this time held on with snowflake brads I found and forgot had forgot about. I'm sure that hasn't happened to any of you right? I put glue pen on them and dipped in glitter. Nothing says snow like glitter right? HINT: to keep brads safe while drying, I have a small piece of Styrofoam to stick them in. The tree brad was with the snowflakes but it was a pewter color. I put glue on it and dipped in green glitter. You can color almost any brad with embossing powder. Heat is a little and dip in colored powder and heat again. Let cool in the Styrofoam. You can also color silver ones with alcohol inks.
I layered all this on my 5 X 7 card and used striped DP and green cardstock. No it's not a ticket punch, it's a small 1/2 inch circle one! I wish I could remember who to give this credit too. I saw it on another blog a while ago. Save money, buy stamps not punches when you have something else that will work. The saying at the bottom right is a sticker that says "Snowy Days and the snowflake on red is from the same set.

This ends the 7 days of Moose. I hope you enjoyed them as much as my daughter has getting them. When I get more Riley stamps, I will post more days of Moose. But until then. I'll leave you with a picture of me and my REAL Moose.

Happy Trails