Monday Morning Comic

Published!

I brought in the mail today and there was an envelope from Vamp Stamp News. I thought, "Hmmm, I thought my subscription lapsed. Wonder why I'm getting this?" I opened it and then I realized - I'm published in here and she (Nancie Waterman) sent me a copy of the magazine. Thanks, Nancie!! Oh hey, if you click the link above to get to the Vamp Stamp News website, check out the changing cards on the right. My card is in there. Woo hoo!

This is a card I made two or three years ago. I must've sent it in to VSN ages ago and they just now ran it. The theme was "repeated images". Stop by your LSS and pick up the October issue. My card is in the centerfold along with lots of other cool cards.

The cupcake flower is by um, er, ah, oh darn it, I forget and I can't find the stamp. "Celebrate" is Rosie's Roadshow. The credits for the stamp are in VSN on the back page. Colored with Prismacolor pencils, as if I had to mention that. Thanks for stopping by.

Monday Morning Comic

Before anyone says anything....

Yes, I am a city girl, but I do know the difference between a rooster and a hen! I do not have a hen stamp and didn't think to modify the rooster before I made the comic, so you'll have to use your imagination. Thank you.

Thanks to Sarah's grade school kids for this week's joke. I understand they would like to be regular contributors to the comic and I think that is fantastic. Yay, kids!

Garden Party challenge card

I love participating in Cathrine's garden party challenge each week. It makes me think of how I feel about the weekly picture and how to make it into a card of my own. HERE is the post for the challenge and there is my card over there on the left. When I saw the challenge photo, I saw the sunflowers right away, but then there was that bit of red in the picture, too. I used the flora ginormous from Odd Bird Planet for my sunflowers. This flower can be made into so many different things, but I see it as a sunflower for some reason. I stamped the bottom flower first and then cut out a mask and covered it. Next I stamped the one just above it on the left. I cut out another mask and masked the second image, too. While both images were covered with masks, I stamped the third image. Then I started coloring with my Prisma pencils. One guess what color I started with. You're right - Limepeel! I put down a base of limepeel, then colored with the other colors. Here is my color list. For the leaves:

• Limepeel
• Olive green
• Dark green
• Burnt Ochre

For the flower petals:

• Jasmine
• Yellow Ochre
• Goldenrod
• Burnt Ochre
• White

For the flower centers:

• Light Umber
• Dark Umber

I've heard some people choose their colors ahead of time and then color. I choose mine as I go along. When I was coloring the petals, I decided they needed a little "oomph" to the darker areas and it needed to be a little red in color since one of the other colors in the inspiration photo was red, so that's why I chose the burnt ochre. I also added a teensy bit of the burnt ochre to the leaves because, well, real leaves aren't totally green. They turn brown a bit on the edges. I didn't use brown because brown kind of muddies up the green and that bit of red in the burnt ochre is just right. I find these things out by trial and error. Nothing fancy about it.

So that's it. My garden party entry for the week. Thanks for stopping by.

Craft Night Results

The third Saturday of the month is craft night at Johanna's and these are a few of the things that were made that night.

Johanna got some new Cuttlebug diecuts and embossing folders and these are some of the cute little things she got. The boo and the ghost were teeny diecuts. I cut out a purple circle and that was it. Simple and cute 4x4 card.

Isn't this next card just too cute? I mean not how I made it,but the diecuts! I love those little pumpkins and the fence is adorable, too. Oh and the moon is a little diecut, too. I put yellow Stickles on the moon, attached the pieces to a scrap of purple and then some yellow, black and done. Another quick 4x4 card.

I always bring an old Lime Tart kit or two to craft night. There is always so much cool stuff in the kit that I don't use it the first time around and I never know what I feel like crafting with on craft night. This little cupcake card is made from paper from an older LT kit, but the cupcake and sentiment are OBP and are in an upcoming LT kit. Watch the OBP or Lime Tart blog to see when it comes out. You'll love it! I colored the cupcake and the sentiment with Copics. Nothing fancy, just plain coloring.

Ok, check out this adorable clipboard that Lale made for me. Is it not the cutest!? It's about 4x5 and she covered it with the Flair cooking paper. I am going to use it to display my recipe cards when I cook. I got a bunch of clipboards from my favorite sister awhile back. She sent me teeny ones, some that are almost ATC size and then these big ones. I think she got a deal on them. She's a smart shopper!

That's all from craft night for now. Some stuff I can't show because it's for an upcoming project or assignment from OBP, but you'll see it eventually. As always, thanks for stopping by, and make sure you come by tomorrow for the Monday Morning Comic. It's a special one!!

Talk Like a Pirate Day today!

Woo hoo! I love Talk Like a Pirate Day! What? You don't know what it is?! Oh no! Before you read any more, click HERE to read about how it got started at what you should do today. Ok, so you all ready now? Good! Here's a card I made to celebrate the day. It's a stamp from Odd Bird Planet that I modified to look like a pirate. I colored it with my new Copics sketch pens. Hey, what flavor cupcake do you think a pirate cupcake is? I think it's Arrrr-ange! Hey, I heard you groan. You think that was bad? Go over to the Odd Bird Planet forum on SCS and check out the weekend happenings. Don't forget to check out the gallery for more pirate cards. So in addition to calling everyone "me hearties" and saying "ahoy" and "bilge rat" a lot today, I think I'll get my bones crunched, my ship washed and drink some grog. A lovely day to be a pirate!

Christmas Flair

Flair paper, called Holly Jolly. Stamps are by Odd Bird Planet.

Monday Morning (Evening) Comics

Better late than never, I've heard. Today's comic has been colored with my new Copic markers. How do you like it? I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!! OMG, those markers ROCK HARD!!! I couldn't stop messing with them. I love the brush end of the marker. It's like it paints the ink on instead of like a regular marker nib. I can't say enough about these markers and I've only just gotten them. I am going to be attending the Copics class in January and I can't wait. Thanks for checking out the comic today.

Is it my birthday?

No, it isn't, but I treated myself anyways.

Look at this! Can you believe it? I just got my Copics order from the Paper Garden Projects store today. I could hardly contain my excitement when I got home and saw the box, but I had to wait until chores were done.

Chores ARE DONE now and I can play! Woo hoo!!! I didn't forget about the Monday Morning Comics. I'm going to color them with my new Copics. I'll be back later to post the Comics.

Playing catch up

I'm playing catch up now. I haven't blogged in ages and I haven't made cards in longer than that. After work last night, we had a get-together at work and we all worked on projects that needed getting done. Cheryl worked on her gourds and Shannin worked on her scrapbook. Shannin's daughter, Haley, helped me make Halloween cards. These are some that I got done last night. They are simple, but I needed a jumpstart. This first card is made with ghost bird, fairytale pumpkin, and one of the new OBP sentiments for Halloween. I used my new crushed velvet flock for the pumpkin and the white glitter on the ghost. These products are from Doodlebug Designs, Inc. The flock and the glitter come in packages of 12 little jars, so cute to get you started and to figure out what colors you like best. After you've decided, you can buy the glitter and flock in larger bottles. Cardstock is Lasting Impressions. I love the background paper on this card. The paper is from Creative Imaginations. The orange, green and yellow cs is from Lasting Impressions. The cauldron, flames, Kelly's nasty flies, and sentiment are from Odd Bird Planet. I paper-pieced this card and it was really quick to do. I used my new glitter from Doodlebug on the flies but some of it came off, some if it stayed where it shouldn't have and then the ink smeared. Arrrrrgh!! But I wanted to show you a quick card to make. This next card was fun to make. I used one of the new Odd Bird Planet sentiments and Teresa's vulture. Isn't he CUTE?? He is available looking both right and left from the Odd Bird Planet Store. He reminds me of a vulture that would have a low, goofy voice. I don't even know what that means. Do you ever put voices to your stamps? I mean stamps that are people or animals? Am I the only one? Please tell me I'm not the only one who imagines this. Should I call the therapist now??? Anyways, back to the card.... I colored it with my Prismacolor markers. I'm trying to like them. I'm actually waiting for my order from Paper Garden Store for my new set of Copics. Oh hey, speaking of that, the deadline to get your Copics at 20% off at the Paper Garden Projects store has been extended until Sunday. That is the absolute last day to get them on sale, so hurry on over there and order some. One or two. Ok, three or four or 36 like me! They have great customer service and quick shipping. While you're there, check out their Halloween kits. They are fabulous, but hurry, because they won't last long. Oh, and you and get great deals on Halloween kits at Odd Bird Planet, too! There are three kits: BIRDS, POTIONS, and VOODOO. They are only $10 and you get 4 or 5 unmounted stamps, some paper and some embellishments! Go over and check it out. The Halloween kits (bundles) are in the "kits" section of the website. There are lots of other kits there as well! This next little number is made with the same Creative Imaginations paper. Teresa's treat bag and Teresa's vulture are from Odd Bird Planet and are colored with Prismacolor markers. I actually kind of like the coloring with markers on this card, especially the trick or treat bag. Of course, I LOVE bright colors and this fits the bill perfectly. This last card was fun and quick to make. Background paper is Lasting Impressions. I stamped the haunted tree on white cardstock and colored it and the background with my Prismacolor markers. Then I cut out the candy corns from the Creative Imaginations paper and glued them on. Easy peasy. The sentiment is a new one from Odd Bird Planet. I stamped it on the yellow cardstock and cut it out. Oh, and then I put those little orange dew drops on there with glue dots. BTW, the haunted tree has been discontinued from the Odd Bird Planet line of stamps, but there are a few other trees in there you could use, If you really must have the haunted tree, contact the OBP and see if there are any left in stock. That's all for now. I've been catching up on projects, so I'll have more to post later on. That's for stopping by, I appreciate it.

Take Us Out to the Ball Game

I can't make a card!

I can't make a card. I've tried and tried, but it seems that my muse has gone on vacation. I've gotten out books, magazines, surfed the internet and blogs and I just can't seem to get my layouts together. Anything I try to do comes out looking like, well, you know. You've probably been there. I'm hoping the truth in this sentiment comes true soon or I may be in some card making trouble!

So I took a break from forcing myself to create something and just relaxed and did some coloring. I got this stamp at a sidewalk sale at the Stamp Addict last weekend. I was going to try and color it with my Prisma markers, but decided that, too, would've been a bit stressful since I'm not all that good with the markers yet. I got out my favorite medium, my Prismacolor pencils. They never let me down. I just relaxed and let the colors go where they wanted. I'm not all that excited about that Limepeel colored sentiment banner, but I guess it works ok. Of course the sun had to be yellows and oranges, but purple stars?? Um, ok.

It took me about 2 hours to color this A2-sized image. It was relaxing and I didn't even try to make it into a card. I guess I'll put it in my stamped and colored images file for later when I'm more in the card making groove.

Do you have one of those files? I used to put all my stamped images and colored images in a ziplock baggie, but now I put them in a file box. One of those photo boxes. I saw Stacy (from Stamp-Shack) do that and it was a great idea so I copied her. Thanks, Stacy!

So thanks for looking at my non-card today. I thought I'd better post something so you didn't think I disappeared off the face of the earth.

Garden Party

I've been suffering from insomnia for the past few weeks. I don't know if it's the weather or what. It is making my life hell, let me tell you. I stay up until the wee hours of the morning and then I'm all dragged out at work, and that is NO GOOD! I can't get myself turned around. Nothing makes me sleepy, not tea, not medication, nothing. I'm hoping when this muggy weather changes my sleep habits change. I stay up late working on craft projects or watching tv. Anything to try and make me sleepy. I'm truly tired of it. Well, enough of that.

This is my entry for Cathy's Garden Party challenge. Here is the inspiration photo. I hope my late entry (due to the above paragraph) is in time for the challenge this week. I sure enjoyed making it. I used all Odd Bird Planet stamps: Kelly's Tree, thinking of you sentiment, stump, mixed mushroom group and petit fleur. (If you like the petit fleur, you'd better hurry up and order it. It's being discontinued.) I drew in the big green bushes in the background and colored everything with my Prisma pencils. I cut out the image and adhered it to two layers of Lasting Impressions paper.