Happy New Year!

It's almost 2009. Wow. Where did 2008 go? I just wanted to tell you all how much I have enjoyed browsing your blogs, participating in your swaps, chatting with you on the message boards, and making so many new friends. I don't know what I would've done without you this past year. Ok, I would've gotten more housework done, but what's more important? Yeah, I thought so. :) Best wishes to all of you, all my crafting friends, for 2009 and all years to come. This quick card was made using Bombshell stamps and colored with Prismacolor pencils.

Birthday Card featuring Odd Bird Planet stamps

A new video. YAY!

Do you voodoo?

My son, Tony, is very crafty. Look what he made for his friends for Christmas. Are they cute or what? This little voodoo thing started a few months ago. The crafty group at Odd Bird Planet headquarters invited him to join the group that month and he decided to make these little guys. Or are they girls? The ones he made that night were different than these, but cute just the same. He hit my fabric and embellishment stashes and came up with these. I can't decide which one I like best. I like the feather top one, but then I like the pompom headed one, too. Tony actually came up with the design and he hand sews them and then stuffs them. I've told him he needs to sell them on Etsy. What do you think? Do you think they would sell there? I just love that they are original and all different. BTW, I don't think these are real voodoo dolls. There isn't anyone's hair sewn into the doll or anything. He calls them something else. Maybe he'll make some and post them on Etsy. If he does, I'll let you know. Thanks for stopping by today.

He's not supposed to be there

I walk into the room and this is what I find. He knows he's not supposed to be there, yet when my head is turned, he does it anyways. I know he wants send all his feline friends email, but don't lay on the keyboard. Please! Use your paws! He gets his hairs all over the keyboard and all those bits and pieces of fluff fall between the keys. This is Gizmo. He is my shadow. I can't go anywhere without him at my heels or under my feet. He is a Bengal. Have you ever had a bengal? They are quite different from regular kitties. They are a cross between the Asian leopard cat and the domesticated house cat. He has a very distinct purr and sometimes in the middle of the night, he'll wander the house yowling. For what, you ask? I have no idea. We're used to it now, but when he started it, it was kinda creepy and annoying. How can you be mad at this cute fuzzy face? I can't. I talk to him and tell him to remove his furry body from my laptop and he just winks and meows. He knows I won't throw him off. Problem is, he wiggles around and his wiggling opens window after window and all I hear is dinging, ya know? Oh, and his soft, fuzzy paw. Isn't it too cute? Bengals have the softest, most sparkly fur. When he lays in the sun, you can see the natural glitter to his fur. If I didn't already have 3 cats, I would definitely get another Bengal. They are so playful and fun. Oh, and did you know they love water? I just needed to post something besides cards. Tomorrow I'll be posting cards again. I'm actually going to be posting another tutorial, but I don't know if it will be done by tomorrow, so check back on Sunday for sure. Thanks for stopping by today.

Almost Christmas

Yes, it's almost Christmas, can you believe it? It snuck up on ME for sure. I've only got a few days at best to get my gift box to my sister and her family in the mail or it will surely be late this year. I've been working on a bunch of different projects recently. I've been making some Christmas cards using some of the new Odd Bird Planet images. There are so many new cute images this time, but then I say that every time Johanna releases new images. So cute!!! I colored all these images with my Prismacolor pencils. Nope, no Copics this time. I'm not too excited about those funky snowflakes I drew in the background of this first card, but hey, once the ink hits the paper, what are you gonna do, right? I do love the velvet ribbon, though. Let's say that redeems me for the tacky snowflakes, ok? This next card is a gatefold card. I got a bunch of these cards in a pack at Cat's Craft Cupboard ages ago and I'm just now using them. Besides the card base on the second card, all other paper is Paper Salon's "Dazzle" paper. I think it's last year's paper, but I had it in my stash. I'm trying to use up what I have before I buy more. Yeah right. If you believe that, I've got some swampland in Arizona to sell you. This last card is my favorite, I think. I just like him all colored in the unexpected blue. He looks jazzy, huh? Kind of like you're waiting for him to break out in a jig or something. What kind of dances do you suppose gnomes dance? Is it a gdance? Or a gwaltz? Maybe a ghokey-gpokey?? It's late. My jokes are bad and I'm going to bed now. Thanks for stopping by today!

Holiday Mail for Heroes

Holiday Mail for Heroes is a partnership between the American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes to deliver one million holiday cards to American service members, veterans, and their families in the United States and around the world. So when you're making your holiday cards this year, make a few extras and send them to: Holiday Mail for Heroes P.O. Box 5456 Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456 All cards must be postmarked no later than Wednesday, December 10, 2008. Please feel free to pass along this information to cardmaking friends via your blog and/or email. Together we can make a difference! Here are some cards I made for our heroes.

All stamps are by Odd Bird Planet. Paper is by Crate Paper and all images are colored with Copic sketch markers.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Monday Morning Comic

Golfer card

I got this stamp from a sidewalk sale at one of the local stamp stores. It's so cute! Yes, I bought it because it looked fun to color. Of course, I did.

The stamp is by Stamps Happen, Inc. and it's called Birdie.

I colored this with Prismacolor pencils. I'm ok with most of this image with the only part I don't like is the sky. I initially colored it with a lighter blue and then decided it needed to be darker. Instead of coloring hard, I left my coloring light-handed and it came out like this. Yuck. Inconsistent areas and I don't like the see-through areas.

Does anyone care what colors I used? Do you want me to list them or don't you care? I'm thinking of doing a tutorial on coloring an image. It would be a video tutorial. I'm due to make some more tutorials anyways.

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your comments.

A few Christmas Cards

I felt like making a few Christmas cards today, so I got out my Holly Jolly collection of papers made my Flair and made some cards. This first card is made with baby dango reindeer right, baby dango reindeer left, sign on a post, double note, single note. I placed the images on the cardstock using my stamp positioner, and then colored everything with my Copics. I edged that cardstock with gold Krylon and then mounted it on matching brown cardstock. I put that on the Flair paper and then attached to the white card base, which I outlined with the gold Krylon pen. The "Magic" is a sticker from the sticker pack from Flair that I trimmed down to fit on the sign. This was a very easy card. I used the three bubble topiary (I love all the OBP topiaries!!) and Michelle's Merry Christmas sentiment. The santa and reindeer paper is from Flair and made it very easy to make this card. I paper-pieced the topiary and colored in the sentiment with a red Sharpie pen. I put some stickles on the reindeer nose and his collar and on Santa. I love this reindeer head. It's so fun to color. I used one of the sticker frames from Flair and placed it over the reindeer. The Holly Jolly tag is another sticker and I just added a ribbon bow. I cut out the trees at the bottom of the card from another piece of Flair paper. Oh, if you like this reindeer head, order it now. It's on sale!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Turkey Day

Garden Party challenge card

I'm finally getting my *%$! together and participating in challenges again. I was in a funk, but I'm climbing out now.

This is my submission for the Garden Party Challenge this week. Here's the picture for the inspiration.

For this card, I used all Odd Bird Planet stamps: Banner Tree, 'Tis the Season, Priscilla Cane Cat. I used a little liquid applique on Priscilla's hat. The paper is from the Flair Christmas collection. I can't tie a bow for nothin', so I made a knot. It's crooked, I know, but by the time I got it tied neatly, I wasn't going to stress over placement. I need bow lessons again, I guess.

I colored these images with my Prismacolor pencils. I was going to use my Copics, but I could see my pencils getting lonely, so I thought I'd keep them happy before they threw themselves all over the floor. Hey, it's happened before.....

Thanks for stopping by. Stop by the Paper Garden and give the weekly challenge a try. It's fun!

Monday Morning Comic

Wild Abandon

This is another image from Bombshell Stamps. I love this big image. I colored it with Copics and edged the white card with silver Krylon pen. A piece of lavender Prism paper is behind that and it was mounted to a piece of Lasting Impressions paper. I got a book of rub-ons from the last rubber stamp expo I went to and used one of those sentiments on this card. I kind of messed up the rub-on since I don't use them that often. Come back on Monday - I've got a new Monday Morning Comic! Thanks for stopping by today.

November A La Tart

I got my a la tart kit from OBP last night and I got to play with it a bit. Let me tell you, I love the papers, the embellishments and the STAMPS! Did you know you get new, unreleased, wood-mounted stamps in the a la tart kits now? In this month's kit, you get that cute little mouse dude over there and the sticks of candy in the next card. You can get a look at the kits over on the Odd Bird Planet site or if you are in Australia, you can get it from Lime Tart and save some moolah on shipping. I colored the little mouse with Copics and then cut him out. The laser cut tree was first colored with Copics, but the color didn't show up well, so I covered that with Shimmer (Thanks, Ryann), but that didn't sparkle enough for me, so went straight for the Stickles. Yes! I added a gem star and some opalescent mica chips for snow. I cut out the sentiment from the vinyl sheet included in the kit. For this card, I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig and lined up the candy stamps in a row. I colored it all with Copics. I didn't know what to call this card and asked the other crafters for suggestions on sentiments and this is the best one we came up with. Instead of stamping the sentiment, I used the rub-ons that are included in the kit. I'm not sure of the wonky letters, but it's a done deal now. I like how these candies look like candy as well as flowers. I know I'll be getting a lot of use out of this stamp. BTW, isn't that pom-pom strip just the cutest? Yep, you get some of that in the kit, too. Oh yeah, baby! Another card made with the a la tart kit. I just love those pink pom-poms. The other embellishments in the kit include the buttons, some brads, a small jar of glitter and charm paper clips.

I haven't shown you all the cards I made because, well, the other ones are odd and not worth taking up bandwidth or server space.

I almost forgot to post this easy card. As I was perusing some inspirational magazines, I saw a card with the Cuttle-Bugged background like this one. I was instantly enamored and had to reproduce it. I borrowed Tiff's CB and folders and went for it. You put your cardstock in about 2/3 way into the embossing folder and emboss. That's the top part here. Then you use your Scor-Pal or whatever you use to score stuff and score two narrow parallel lines after the CB area. Then put the other end of the cardstock a little less than 1/3 of the way into another CB folder. Emboss. Then do the parallel line thing again. That's it. How fun is that? I know I'll be doing this technique again and again. It'll be fun to mix up the CB folders in different combinations.

Thanks for stopping by today.

I call her 8-ball girl

I've been going a little crazy for Bombshell Stamps lately. I just got another 4 sets from them. Sa-weeeet! I call this card, 8-ball girl for obvious reasons. Where do I find a top like that and do they make it in bowling ball size? haha just kiddin'.

I've been practicing coloring my skin tones with my Copics. I think I'm kind of getting it. At least there is more than one color for her skin. Not all one color like I used to color. Trying to get the knack of shading. When I color, I imagine the light source and try to think of the image having three dimensions so I can apply the shading correctly.

I added some crystal lacquer to the little red hearts on the background and pop-dotted the Luck and Fate banner and the girl image.

As always, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your comments.