Just For You

Ok, I think I like this one. I "borrowed" the layout from "The Joy of Cardmaking". I really like this stamp and try to use it whenever I can. Here's how I made the card:

Cardstock is Prism and Bazzill. The chipboard flower was one I got in the Self-Addressed kit for April. I colored it last weekend at Cat's and I used the new Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers that Cat has there. I think the color is butterscotch. After the paint dried, I stamped it with Michelle's Little Scroll and Brilliance gold pigment ink. The center of the flower is a leftover brass brad from office supplies. I smooshed it in embossing ink on the pad and then embossed it with black powder twice for allover coverage.

The Just For You and the branch are one stamp. I positioned Big Al on top of the sentiment using my stamp positioner. I colored the images with my Prismacolor pencils. Then I adhered the cardstock and put in the small black brads. I used a fine point black marker to draw the stitching lines around the olive green cardstock and THEN (and THEN? No more And Then!!!) I used my Versamark pad and stamped the shrubbery stamp onto the background. Did I mention all stamps are by justjohanna? No? Well, they are. Card size is 6x6.

That's it. Probably more than you wanted to know, but it's too late now. You've read it already.

I'll be back later with some special photos. John and I are about to leave to go to the baseball game up in Lake Elsinore. The Lake Elsinore Storm is playing Stockton. I don't know their team name. The Storm is a class A baseball team and a farm team for the San Diego Padres baseball club. I just love the logo for the Storm, don't you? Apparently, today is theme day at the ballpark: Lost vs. Gilligan's Island, whatever that means. Sounds fun, though. See you later, alligators!

* * * U P D A T E * * *

Ok, the theme was NOT the Lost vs. Gilligan's Island. Apparently that is another day. Today was kids' baseball day. All the little demons, er, I mean, children came with their teams and ran around the bases and paraded on the field, etc. All I know is there were a ton of kids there. John and I had great seats - Row D right beside home plate. Seats were good for watching the game, but it was hotter than hell there today. I had to take a break from the sun a couple of times. Next time we go, we will sit on the 3rd base side and up further in the stadium. There is shade there earlier in the game. That park is pretty small, so really there are no bad seats. The score was Storm 18, Ports 8, and the game took 4 hours! That's baseball for ya. Oh, John got a new cap with the Storm logo on it, a baseball for his collection and I got a logo pin for my sexy visor.

Red & White Challenge

Tami posted a red and white challenge on her blog. I thought and thought and thought and here's what I came up with. All stamps here by justjohanna. I love the new mug. I love the old teacup, too, but this is just too fun. The paper I used in this project is called Flirt Collection from Memory Box.

I stamped the swirly background on the darker red paper and then stamped on the mug. I cut out the mug and then used my white pen to color in the design. Used my new scallop punch and punched out one in white and one in the dar red. My regular sized hole punch was used to punch the holes in each scallop section of the red punched paper. I adhered the red to the white punch and then stamped the sentiment in the center. Colored the word with my white pen.

I'm learning to ground my images, so I drew a simple line across the bottom of the cardstock and put my mug on the line, which is supposed to be a table. I adhered the scallop and the mug to the background cardstock and then use the swirly tail as steam for the mug. I stamped in white pigment ink and then sprinkled white glittery embossing powder on top of the image and then heat embossed it. Used my SU corner punch on the corners and then adhered it to my 4.25 x 5.5 card.

Oh, what the hell!

So I know you've noticed I haven't posted in over a week. That's because my cards suck this week. I can't seem to get anything to make sense on paper right now, and I have a freakin' deadline! I really have been trying to make things all month, but nothing is worth a crap. Take these cards for instance.

This first one, I call Chanel. I call it Chanel because that's the name of the whale, not because it smells good. This card stinks! I just got this very cool paper at the Cupboard and wanted to use it, so I thought Chanel would look cute on it. Wrong. Chanel needs to go be lovey dovey somewhere else. There's just not a thing right with this card. Tell me something right with the card....?

Take a deep breath, Debbie. It's not that bad. OMG the voices in my head! They are taking over the blogging again! Get back, back in the box, you naughty voices!!

Ahem! Moving on to Hooters. That's the name of this card. It's Big Al on the tree branch and Little Al on the swing. I pieced them onto the card just like the tree. They both have gold glitter eyes. That's the good thing about this card. I drew in the swing for Little Al. All images colored with Prismacolor pencils, including the grass. After all was done, I used my pastels to color the sky and fill in the grass. I'm not thrilled with this card, either.

BTW, I went to my first accupuncture appointment tonight. Loved it! What an interesting experience.

Arrrrg, it's a Pirate Halloween!

Ok, so I guess it's ok to blog this card since I posted the other one. I decided to send this Pirate Halloween card in to Rubber Stamp Madness as well as the Honesdale is Haunted card below. Why not? They can always say, "thank you very much, but here are your cards back". No big deal. I mean it IS a big deal to be published, but I'm ok if I don't get published. It's my first time sending something in.

This card is done with justjohanna rubber stamps. I love this pirate ship and the pirate chicklet and the egg and crossbones on PeeWee's hat and oh, everything. I cut out the waves on Prisma paper and then adhered it to the front of the card using foam tape after positioning the ship behind the waves where I wanted them.

I stamped the ship onto tan cardstock, colored it with prismacolor pencils, and cut out the ship body (or is it a hull?) and the sails. Then I stamped the ship again on the background paper and glued on the cut-out ship parts. I did this so that I wouldn't have to cut out all the finer parts of the ship.

I used my stamp positioner to place the pirate chicklet on the gang plank. Is that what that is, Johanna? It's a chicklet gang plank. I paper pieced all the birds and swords and hats. I love doing that. It's so much fun to cut out those teeny tiny pieces. Yeah, right.

I express mailed the two cards up to RubberStampMadness today. Cross yer fingers, matey!

Honesdale is Haunted

I got some new stamps from justjohanna and so I made some cards. This is one I can show you. The other one I made today is being submitted to a magazine.

The row of buildings here is called Honesdale. I also used the three sizes of bat stamps. The first thing I did was take a large jar lid and used it as a template for the moon. I held the lid down on the white cardstock and stippled VersaMagic ink in three different colors around the jar lid. Afterwards, I used the lightest color to stipple color in the moon.

Then I stamped the honesdale stamp near the bottom of the card. Since I wanted the buildings to look like they were in shadow, I colored them with my Prismacolor pencils in a darker shade of gray. I imagined that they all had lights on inside, so I colored the windows yellow and a light orange and then used my sparkle pen to add a little pizazz. I stippled the brown street area with VersaMagic ink. After all that was done, I started with the smallest bat, then medium bat and then large bat stamped with Versafine ink. That's it.

My new QuicKutz Diary

I made a notebook for my QuicKutz dies today. I posted all the pictures on TwoPeas. I had fun doing it. It's a small enough size to put in my purse when I go shopping for more diecuts at The Scrapping Cottage.

Working with Stampbord

I love working with Stampbord. I made a bunch of things today, but this is the only one I'll post.

This stamp is from Magenta. I stamped it on the 1.5x2.5 bord. First I inked it with two VersaMagic ink pads, then I stamped it in black Brilliance ink. When it was dry, I used the scratch knife to scratch some details into the Stampbord. Paper is Phoebe by Basic Grey.

CPS Sketch 9

Here is my submission for CPS Sketch 9. You can get the weekly sketch here. For my project, I wanted to use Stampbord. I'm in LOVE with Stampbord! Supplies:

• A2 size cardstock. I used Prism cardstock.
• Flourish stamp is Magenta
• Sentiment is unknown
• Stampbord in two sizes: domino and 1.25 x2.5
• Scratch knife by Stampbord
• VersaMagic Inks: Tea Leaves, Spanish Olive, Key Lime, Spring Pansy & Purple Hydrangea
• MicroGlaze

The first thing I did was line up the Stampbord the way I wanted it. I kept the pieces next to each other when I did the background on the Stampbord. I started with the purple center and used the Spring Pansy and then a little Purple Hydrangea on top applying the ink directly from the ink pad, not totally covering it, but just highlighting. Then the greens: first the Tea Leaves fairly heavy and making sure to blend just a bit with the purples. A little Spanish Olive on top of that and then a tiny bit of Key Lime for highlights. I let that dry for a few minutes. I then put the pieces back together, side by side, and stamped the flourish with black Brilliance ink.

After all that ink dried for about 10 minutes, I applied some MicroGlaze sparingly on each piece. This not only seals the inks, but gives the finish a nice shine. I applied the MicroGlaze with a paper towel. I should've used a soft cloth, only because I think it would've polished the Stampbord surface to a much higher gloss. I rubbed a bit harder around the edges of each piece of Stampbord to give it a slightly worn look.

I then used the scratch knife and carved lightly into the Stampbord to create the highlights. This is the best and funnest part of Stampbord - creating the highlights.

When I finished the scratching, I used adhesive to mount the Stampbord to my cardstock. I stamped the sentiment and I was done!

Here are those mice again!

I love House Mouse. Have I told you that before? These guys are so darn cute. I can't tell a Mudpie from a Whosie-whatsis, so I don't name the mice. I know they have names, but I guess I don't really care what their names are.

Colored with my Prismas, of course. I colored and then put Crystal Lacquer on the ice cube and the drip from the ice cube. I forget who makes this paper, but it rocks! I love the bright colors. When did paisley become popular again? Who decides what is popular?

You may have noticed these last three cards were photographed instead of scanned. No, I am not staging my cards, not trying to keep up with Kubby. It's just that when you color with pencils, the scanner washes the color out so badly, it looks like a second grader colored it. Photos are much better. Who knows? I may do all my cards like this. I kinda like it. I photograph it on my craft desk under an Ott light. Incandescent lights are no good for photographing cards.

Pears

I got this very cool pears in a basket stamp from the Cupboard some time ago and hadn't used it until today.

The background paper is One Heart, One Mind. I like how the two papers coordinate. Funny how they plan that out, huh? A simple narrow ribbon to separate the two papers. I stamped the image on cardstock with Brilliance ink. You can see how shiny it is. Framed the image and attached four brads. Finished. Three dollars, please.

Singing mice

Hi again.

I colored this House Mouse image a while back but never did anything with it, so tonight I did something. The finished size is 6x6. CS is Prisma. Image was colored with Prismacolor pencils.

When I color with my pencils, it takes a long time. Mostly because of trial and error. Oh, I don't start a new image when I make a mistake, I just color over it, so there are many many layers with my coloring. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. I think it turned out ok this time.

Gift Bags

Happy Saturday. So Cat and I were talking (ok, emailing) the past few days and she wants to know if I'm available on May 12 to help out with some MNT's. Of course, I say, what are we doing? She says it's for some downtown business association thingy (sorry, I don't remember exactly what it is) that every downtown Escondido business who chooses to particpate in this day's activity, does some kind of MNT for their business. So if you were the owner of an art gallery, you might show people how to paint, or if your a hair studio, you might show people how to cut hair, or whatever. So Cat wants to do little projects. Asks me if I can come up with a MNT for two sessions that day? Of course, I say. So I stopped by the Cupboard and we decide to use the purple gift bag packets, Magenta stamps and 2x2 Stampbord. I LOVE Stampbord! These are the four bag samples I made up using the supplies. I did not make up this gift bag idea. It was Emily's idea that we use for the MNT's at the Rubber Stamp Expo in Del Mar last month. They are very easy to do and very versatile. So here's how you do it. Supplies:

• Small white bag (cut it in half)
• 2x2 Stampbord
• Two pieces of lavender 4.25 x 5.5 cs and one 2.5x2.5 piece of black cs
• Rubber stamps
• Ink
• Stampbord craft knife (I used the pointy one)
• Dye-based ink, Brilliance ink or alcohol ink for the background. I used the first two types of ink.
• VersaFine or Brilliance for stamping the image. I used Brilliance Graphite Black.
• Stipple brush
• Adhesive. I used double-sided tape
• Hole punch or ribbon punch

Directions

1. Take your Stampbord and ink and ink up the background for your stamp. You can apply the ink directly to the Stampbord from your ink pad (I used the dewdrops cuz they are smaller), or you can do as I did and stipple it on. You have a little more contol if you stipple. Let that dry a minute before you stamp on your image.
2. Stamp your image in black ink. My Magenta stamps are 2x2 and my Stampbord is 2x2 so I found it easiest to ink up the stamp and set it on the table ink side up. I carefully laid the Stampbord on top of the inked stamp, pressed evenly and lifted straight up so the image didn't blur.
3. If you use Brilliance ink, it will take a few minutes to dry completely, so go on to assembling the gift bag while you wait.
4. My set of Magenta cling stamps came with a 1x1 stamp, so I used that to stamp on the cardstock on either side of the Stampbord image. You can use another piece of cardstock or do whatever you want.
5. Put your lavender cs back sides together and punch holes for the ribbon using your hole punch or ribbon punch.
6. Tape the lavender cs to the two sides of the bag. See image below. Make sure you have the bag opening on the top or you won't be able to put anything in the bag. haha
7. Your Stampbord should be dry by now, so take your Stampbord carving/craft knife and carve some details into your stamped image. How you do it and where you do it is totally up to you. When you cut into the Stampbord, the white shows through and adds highlights to your project.
8. When you're finished with the knife, put some adhesive on the back of the Stampbord and center it on the 2.5x2.5 black cs.
9. Adhere the black cs/Stampbord to the center of the front of your gift bag.
10. Open up the bag and put your gift/surprise inside.
11. Thread your ribbon through the holes in the top of the bag, tie it and you're done!

PEEPS!

A little known fact about me.... I love Peeps! I have stuffed Peeps, pictures of Peeps and even a Peeps charm for my Italian charm bracelet. I would love to tour the Peeps factory (JustBorn factory) in Bethlehem, PA when I visit in July. My sister only lives about 15 minutes from the Peeps factory. She is so lucky!!! Look what my sister sent me today. They are Peeps bubble blowers. You pour the bubbles in the little blue dish and then dip in the yellow nozzle-looking thing and then you SQUEEZE THE PEEP! How freakin' cute is that?! Thank you, Donna, for the squeezy bubble Peeps! I love them! Here is a picture of the stuffed Peeps my niece, Dana, sent me a couple of years ago. I display these every year around Easter time. Aren't they just the cutest? They come in these cute boxes, just like those sugary treats. And here is a GIANT PEEP Dana gave me last September when we visited PA. A big PURPLE one! Purple is my favorite color, too. She also gave me the pretty turquoise one. From left to right is John, me, Dana and Adrian. What is Dana holding, you ask? Well, it's Skippyjon Jones! He is a crazy little chihuahua dog. Dana sent me a couple of storybooks about Skippyjon. He is one wild puppy! I couldn't end this post without telling you some facts about Peeps.

1. Over 70 million Peeps chicks lined up beak-to-tail are needed to reach from NYC to LA.
2. Peeps have become gourmet favorites as fondues, creme brulee ingredients and cappuccino toppings.
3. In the 1950's, it took 27 hours to make just one Peeps chick. Today it takes 6 minutes.
4. It would take over 172 million Peeps bunnies to circle the moon.
5. Peeps chicks and bunnies come in 5 colors. Yellow chicks are the most popular, followed by pink, lavender, blue and white.
6. There are over 200 unofficial Peeps websites.

So now you know. Oh, get this. My online friend, KH, made a sports stadium made with Peeps as the people! It is really cool.

Sunday Samples

Here are a few cards that I worked on this weekend. They all use stamps by justjohanna. I call this first little number, Bella's Balloons. Isn't Bella just the cutest? She is my favorite of all the justjohanna birds. I thought this Wild Asparagus paper was kind of partyish. I like the colors in this paper. I paper pieced the cupcakes as well as Bella's tummy. I used my white gel pen to color accents on the cupcakes and Bella's body and her head feathers. I drew in the balloon strings with a fine-tipped brown marker. It's spring, so why not make a spring card? I got the idea for this card from the April issue of Cards magazine. Do you get that magazine? I love it! There are some really great ideas in that magazine. I used my newly-purchased Basic Grey "Phoebe" paper for the cardstock on this card. I inked the edges of the paper with my charcoal colorbox ink. The letters used to spell out SPRING are a font from Purple Onion stamps. Beauregard is my second favorite bird by justjohanna. I colored him and the spring letters with my prisma pencils. The background is done with Versamagic ink and I used the small scallop, medium scallop and tiny flower - all justjohanna stamps. This card measures 3.5 x 7. Door number 3 here is a little off-beat. I love the swirly backgound, but can never decide what I want to do with it. I also LOVE Stampbord. See previous blog posts. I did the stampbord first on this card. I inked the round stampbord with VersaMagic inks and then stamped the swirly background on with black Brilliance ink. After those inks dried, I used my scratch knife to scratch out the areas on the stampbord, making the white stampbord show through. I love doing the scratching. Then I found a matching lime/olivey green cs (Prism) and stamped the swirly background on that. When I put the stampbord on the cs, it screamed "I don't belong here!", but I didn't listen. It must go there! So I stamped a tiny jj sentiment in white on the background cs. I was thinking this might be a fairly decent guy card because of the colors, but I'm not so sure. We'll see what Johanna has to say about it. I'm off to do something different than making cards. I think I will take out a sewing project and finish that up.