Our family Christmas card this year has gone digital!
Merry Christmas all!

Alcohol ink and embossing powder - cool stuff!

I was "shooting for" a celestial looking piece so I used alcohol inks, silver mixative and blending solution on glossy cardstock for the background. Once dry, I dropped blending solution randomly in 5 spots and let it bleed outward. The silver embossing powder just pops out like stars. Perfect!

More cards...
Several people were on my list to make and send cards to. I had a scrap of glossy cardstock that had been covered with alcohol inks and it was itching to be stamped on. The bird image is from Inkadinkado, set 98771 Butterflies & Birds, and the sentiments are from Hero Arts. I must say that the paper punches used on the edges makes these even more special.

Typography - gotta love it...

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Fall Swirl
Just sharing a PS Elements 7 technique. I learned to do this at Jessica Sprague's website. She's good!

Busy making cards this weekend
Pulled out the Twinkling H2Os, embossing powder and stamps, and Stickles for these cards. I just wish you could truly enjoy the sparkle on these - quite a change from my usual style.

One stamp, many looks...
I just LOVE this hydrangea stamp. It's my favorite! So interesting the many looks I got once I started to play with inks and water.

The top left image is distress ink and water misting before I stamped on glossy paper.

The middle image is also distress ink and water misting on glossy paper, but the surrounding color is made with alcohol ink and blending solution on a felt applicator. I added a dot or two of gold leafing pen on the felt and it gave the image a marbled look.

The 3rd image is alcohol ink and a pearl metalic ink with blending solution on a scrap of photo paper. Once dry, the hydrangea was stamped using 2 colors of distress ink at the same time. This was my favorite image and I made it into the card you see.

The small tag started out as a standard manilla tag. I used 3 colors of distress ink and a piece of CutNDry foam to blend them a bit. Then they were spritzed with water and allowed to blend. I stamped the image next with distress ink again and spritzed a 2nd time with water to blend. Once completely dry, I overstamped the tag with a script stamp image.

Lastly, the large paper scrap was a trash item until I added the crackle stamp image to it. It's made completely with distress ink and water misting. Nice watercolor feel.

Gene's Mini Album
Since Uncle Gene couldn't attend our family reunion, which Dave and I hosted, I decided to give him this album for his 94th birthday. It started as a kit which I chose to alter with rubber stamping for a more masculine feel. He was thrilled with it. A perfect gift for such a sweet gentleman.
July 12, 2009

More from my Studio C
I saw an idea for utilizing a closet as a hidden storage area for a work station (mainly a desk with a computer) in a Pottery Barn catalog. Since I wanted to make my closet as stylish as my window treatment, I opted for curtains instead of a door(s). The problem was finding curtain hardware since I chose to recycle old conduit (earth friendly). My brother, Joe, came to the rescue. He created escutcheon plates from a scrap of sheet metal. He added modified copper pipe caps to hold the conduit rod. I painted them black, rubber stamped and embossed them with UTEE, and then hung them up. There were leftover beads from my window treatment (see previous entry) and so I decided to add them to my custom sewn panels to tie the decorating together.
June '09

So I saw this idea for a window treatment...

But I needed to do it MY WAY. Vintage and sort of shabby chic. The original idea came from an older book I bought years ago. Kitchen knobs were mounted into the window framework of a window. A curtain panel is created incorporating ribbon loops for hanging.

My way is more "green". Our home has no window mouldings so my goal was to use freebies or low cost items. I started with a bag of plastic beads ($3.50 - Michaels) and some screws ($3.00 - Ace Hardware). I drilled holes through the beads to fit the screws. I bought a pre-primed board at Home Depot for the flat piece ($8.50). The moulding was 4 pieces of scrap that a friend was throwing away (yeah! free!) and the small blocks were scrap of my husband's. Once assembled, a few coats of leftover primer and paint went on.

Not too shabby (pun intended) for about $15.00!! I think it looks GREAT without the curtain too.

Victorian Sampler
I had started this very detailed sampler years ago before Mom got cancer. It was put to the wayside to care for her and I struggled to regain my interest in this relaxing needle art once she passed away. I'm so pleased I gave it a shot again after 9 years.

It's stitched on a beautiful, 32 count creme Belfast linen and measures 6 1/2 inches wide by 18 inches long. My photograph cannot do this piece justice! Threads used were pearle cottons, silks, and embroidery threads. The stitches were satins, hardangers, cross stitch, backstitch, pulled work, and some weaving. The variety made me want to keep stitching on and on. Amazing piece - can't wait for it to be framed. (June '09)

Gena's baby quilt
I love the pink and brown combination used for this baby quilt. This pattern was a scaled down version of a larger quilt called Four-Square Fantasy. It's fabulous when done in bright, summer citrus colors! Quick to make, a large, pieced block is created first, and then cut into 4 units for reassembly and variety. The backing fabric was chosen to be suited to an older child. I wanted it to grow with Gena's baby girl. 5/09

Happy Mother's Day
This card was inspired by a scrapbook page I'd seen where all the "copy" was turned into flower stems. I used PrintMaster software to create the type and then stamped and embossed the flowers with Stampin' Up stamps. Cute and quick! 5/09

It's National Scrapbooking Day '09
and I've been published!
Well, sort of. Fun!

Happy Easter!
Whipped this up quickly with scraps. Background stamp is from Stampin' Up and so is the hopping bunny. I used a dusting of chalks for the coloring. For the fonts, I used CK Letter Home on the front of the card and DB Frilly Words for the inside. I love how these eggs became instantly decorated with the help of printed papers. Can you believe one egg is punched from Christmas paper? Did some colored doodling with Copic markers for the grass. Cute and quick!

Book Challenge with Sue
For fun, Sue and I checked out the same book from the library and chose a project to create. With no hints from each other, we each created an album. Here are my results. My mistake was using paper that was too thin for the binding signatures. I solved that dilemma by reinforcing it with 7 Gypsies gaffer's tape. Looks great now! The pages of the signatures are made from a vintage election book, canvas, cardstock and oversized tags. As added support to the inside folds of the binding, I diecut and embossed butterflies, postmarks and tags. Nice additions.

Thank you card

Don't you just love it when you find a piece of stamp art you created and forgot about, only to have it be the perfect centerpiece for a quickie card? My aunt loves orange and this was a terrific image to build from. The image was stamped with VersaMark ink, allowed to rest a moment, then dusted with several colors of chalk using a Q-tip. I used a white eraser to remove any unwanted chalk around the image. Kind of feels like a batik print. The stamps were from Stampin' Up. March 09

Valentine Cards for 2009

The first card is for my husband. I used a Stampin'Up heart stamp and embossed it on red cardstock with white embossing powder. The word stamp is from Rebecca Sower's Nostalgia stamp set. The 2nd card was whipped up in about 10 minutes with the help of a heart die set from Sizzix. A little hand doodling and some confetti make it a fun card for my godson. The inside reads, "Barker says I woof you".

Woven Copper Necklace

I found this great book in the library called Fabulous Woven Jewelry by Mary Hettmansperger. Being fascinated by so many projects in it, I chose one to try. This piece is made from copper wire, copper craft metal sheet, and an unused abstract piece from Nancy Curry's class that I did last week (1/09). It's amazing how the two compliment each other. I wish my pictures could capture the shine.

Kaleidoscope

I took a class at Rock Paper Scissors in St. Charles with Nancy Curry. She taught how to make an abstract piece using watermedias. I love how simple the process was and how complicated the final outcome looks.

These are some thank you cards I just created with Spellbinders dies. The butterfly is from a set called Flying Beauties. I love how you can die cut, emboss and stencil with these dies. I highly recommend using Cut'NDry foam for blending your ink colors. They help to keep your Spellbinders dies a little cleaner (and your fingers too!)