A Couple of Cards

 Last night I finished up a couple of cards that were partially done. I had just bought myself this set of stamps from Prima and Finnabair and I used them on this background that I had painted and then layered on some white card stock.

And this card didn't need a lot more to it. Originally I made the flower panel using an image from Chocolate Baroque and colored it with Copic markers. I layered it on a white card with some green card stock.  I also added the yellow and green dots, and my latest update was do make the black doodles around them. They just stood out too much and took away from the image. So yesterday  I embossed the words on the image, and used some Silks paints to make the flowers sparkle a bit, not that you can see it here.

Another day on my vacation. This week has been plodding along, always too fast but actually not at the speed of light.

And I have been having a really nice vacation. 

Big smile!

Hope you've been having a good week too!

Stop back again soon.

More Love

My husband is still hospitalized for his kidney issues and it's awful quiet around here at night. I don't get home from the hospital until usually 8 or so, so its not a long night, but I still miss him around.

So here's another card I've recently made, before all this hospital business started. The colors are a little different for Valentine's day, I guess this doesn't have to be a Valentine's Day. I just really like the card and the colors and how it is a little different Valentine's card.

Stamped images are from Chocolate Baroque. Die cut heart from Sizzix and word from Frantic Stamper.

So yesterday we got close to another foot of snow. Snow, snow, snow! That's all that seems to be coming out of the sky lately.

How about you? Are you snowed in or lucky enough to be getting sunshine and warmer temperatures?

Cardology

I had an arty day on Saturday. Oh what fun it was!

I really want to be able to have an arty most every day.

 Too bad there's a thing called work, huh?

So I started my day by water coloring some backgrounds. I made a bunch, and I made a bunch of cards too. I needed a  card to send to someone I haven't heard from in literally years, and since I was going to make one, I might as well make a bunch. Not all the same, but using the same techniques. Starting with water coloring. 

And then embossing over the background.

Images I used here are from Chocolate Baroque.

The butterfly is painted with Dylusions Spray Inks in a water brush.

I love putting very bright colored images on white. It makes them really pop.

Black has the same effect which is why I used a black Sharpie to outline the block.

Popping is a great thing.

Don't you think?

So we're starting another work week. 

Hope its not as cold as last week. Hope there's no snow either. Or ice.

In fact I hope its sunny and warm and just like spring.

I wish!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

A Card for Saturday

Pre-posted this yesterday morning since our 4th of July holiday was a big wash out which meant I wasn't up and rushing about for any reason (and so I had time to write a post). Rain can do that for an outdoor beachy type of holiday! Turn a busy day into a really low gear day.Must say all the plants in my gardens are very very happy though.

So I was making cards the other day and this one started with some Silks paints streaked onto a white background. Then I added the die cut and the ruler drawn border. Flowers and phrase are from Chocolate Baroque. Then to finish it off I added some black Sharpie dots with a white pen dot in the middle.

What do you think?

Color

I made these cards quite awhile back, and I don't know if I showed them to you or not. Thought I would post them today (or repost them today) just to break up the week's posts.

The top card uses Flourishes Rubber stamps and some Copic markers to color the flowers.What I like about Copics is you can get close but varying shades. There's just way too many colors to pick from though!

 These 2 cards used the same set of Chocolate Baroque stamps embossed with black embossing powder. I also used some other stamp to make the background on this card right above. All my coloring on these 2 cards was using Silks paints. I have a bought a few and I love how they come out-bright and sparkly. I am such a sucker for color.

I stamped and embossed this butterfly (another Chocolate Baroque set). I love how this is a solid butterfly and that I could then cut it out, even the antennae worked out when I cut them!

I like to play with different types of media. But what I really like is bright colors. Seems to me that if you are going to spend money on some form of  media you might as well get what you pay for-the colors you like. Plus then you can combine  all those forms of media and come up with some great textures, looks and styles. When I was younger I prefered pastel choices, but as I get older, I like the more deep and bold colors.

Guess we are entitled to grow and change.

Enough of my chatting today. Off for my last day of the 2013-2014 school year.

Enjoy yours.

Chocolate Baroque Stamps and Silks Paints

Back on my vacation I made a bunch of cards. These were made using Chocolate Baroque rubber stamps-one of my favorite companies.(All images today are from this company except for the background on this top card.)

I showed you how I made this top card last week in this post

Creation of a Card. But love

this card's colors so much I had to show you again.

I did all my painting with Silks paints.

How you tried them?

I am hooked since I saw them demoed at my favorite craft store awhile back.

I love the bright colors and with mica in them they have this sheen that makes me melt.

PLus the first time you paint with them they dry transparent, and for a more opaque finish just add one or more coats. 

Very cool.

And

No I don't represent either company.

This card I started by embossing the flower several times on the card front. I painted with silks and added little black pen dots to finish it off. The solid butterfly is an embossed image too, which I then cut out. I added the die cut piece with my saying stamped on it.

I made this card by painting with some Silk paint on the centerpiece flower. Then I rubbed Silks metallic powder over it. I used black. The powder will not stick to the Silks paint but sticks to the unpainted surfaces. Really cool. Then I added white pen dots. I used Copics to color the leaves, and added the saying.

Here's the sets I used to make these cards.

Wow, that's a long post today.

Hope you enjoyed it

and stop back soon.

Card Play

I don't think my cards are anything special. There are many of you who make beautiful complex cards and mine are just kind of simple and basic. But they're fun to make, and just right kind of play  after a long day of work.  I send most of them them off to my daughter at school and to my mom who lives a couple of hours away, and they always appreciate them, flaws and all.

I haven't put up much for cards for awhile so today you get a bonanza.

Yeehaw!

Special little features I really like:

top card-, I made the purple letters in the do you part. I made them with the brush end of my Copic marker, and then outlined them in black. Then I cut them out, and I really like how they came out. I also like the white paint splatter. Peacock by Chocolate Baroque.

I love the bright colors and the hand doodling with a gold pen. It makes the plain green background a little more exotic. And I really like the peacock feather paisley images from Chocolate Baroque also.

This owl image is also from Chocolate Baroque.

Love this new set of stamps from Dina Wakely. I brushed some watercolor along the bottom of the card and then added this bird. I really like how that looks.

I used some brown paint and a wood style stencil (Prima) on some cardboard.  Then I peeled the top layer off the cardboard to use on this card as a background. It was a great way to get the cardboard effect without making the card too heavy in the front.

I like the butterflies which are from the new butterfly Tim Holtz strip die. And I like all the color in this card.

Circle image from Chocolate Baroque.

Hope you enjoyed this little peek at some of my cards.

Cards

Last week I managed to find some studio time each afternoon when I returned home from work.

Haven't had a lot lately, so I got way behind on my card needs. 

I usually send one or two to my mom a week; she's 84 and has to enjoy the fun mail.

I also send a few to my daughter at college because getting mail in college is always a good thing.

Gives me a good excuse to make some cards.

Always love those good excuses.

 What you can't see on this card is the shimmering green tint on the black piece. I used some old shimmering opalesque style ink which really sparkles up the dark background without being too gaudy.

And what you can't see here is the glossy red centers of the flowers that is from using a Gelly Roll Glaze pen.
The images (not the sayings) are from Chocolate Baroque.  This is such a great card set.

Its called Artist's Baubles.  Chocolate Baroque is a British Company so I always wait for a sale since that dollar to Pound conversion is always a killer. This month they have had a lot of stamps on sale so its a good time to check them out.

This background is a mix of Copics, Dylusions Inks in a water brush and a bit of Viva Paint Pen for pop.
So I think our temperatures are going to start warming up today!!! Hurray!
Time for this snow to melt so spring can really start being here.
Thanks for visiting.

Mackintosh Styling

Chocolate Baroque has  2 beautiful set of stamps based on Scottish artist and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Here's a couple of cards I created using them.

I had never heard of him, so when I got these 2 stamp sets I needed to do a bit of discovery.

Here's a few things I learned.

Macintosh was part of the Scottish/Glasgow design school and a

very cool Arts and Crafts/Art Nouveau movement designer.

He was born in 1868 and lived until 1928, so that put his work right in the time period before and as Art Deco came in.

He designed art pieces, furniture and buildings.

Here's some of his art creations.

http://edelhaus.hubpages.com/hub/charles-rennie-mackintosh

I wish Chocolate Baroque made an alphabet stamp set like this.

LOVE this font.

These are his roses as you see in the cards at the top of this post..  Love them too.

He also designed this style chair which I guess is quite famous. I saw a lot of clones of this on-line, chairs with very tall backs.

And a couple of his architectural designs.

Even though I hardly know anything about this man, you can tell they are him, aren't they?

I don't know much about these buildings except I believe they are both in Glasgow, Scotland.

http://flann4.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/three-design-movements-1-arts-and-crafts/

If you anything more about Mr. Macintosh I'd love to hear more.  I know so little about this time period, and learning about people (especially creative people) is always really interesting.

At least now when I stamp some images I can do them some justice.

Stop by again soon.

Swimmy

So yesterday was a super lazy Sunday. I usually love those kind of days and play for hours in my studio, but just getting home from my travels on Saturday night, I didn't really feel ambitious enough to do anything more than nap and twiddle about on the computer while watching useless tv from the couch. Plus I really need to do some cleaning in there-

how could happen since I wasn't home all week? Studio gnomes I guess.

Ha-ha!

So here's one of my journal pages from a few weeks back that I haven't posted yet.

Played with light modeling paste and lots of paints, plus these fun stamps from Chocolate Baroque.

Love the texture.

Love the color scheme too.

Here's the 3 stamp set these images are from.

(I got them back in January when the whole store was 25% off.)

So its back to work...

Enough said about that.

Thanks for stopping by.

Silly and Cheery

Here's a playful creation for Valentine's Day.

Not quite a one layer wonder but pretty close.

And I say that with my tongue in my cheek.

This card is SOOOOO PINK!

I would have made it larger but it was just too much pink in the photo- didn't look that way in person.

I stared by using some raspberry Adirondack ink on the circle background stamp. I found I got a better image if I misted the inked stamp with some water. You can see on the bottom left where I didn't do that. Guess the wetter ink seeps into the rough spots on the paper.

Then I used watermelon Adirondack ink to stamp the center image right over the circles.

I love these funny flowers from paper Smooches, and one of them seemed appropriate with the saying (Chocolate Baroque).

Perky Plants stamps from Paper Smooches

Chocolate Baroque Words of Love rubber stamps.

The little red hearts art first stamped (some old Martha Stewart images) and then some red Stickles were added.

Sp speaking of silly and cheery-

I was shopping in Target the other day. My daughter wanted a Valentine gift for her boyfriend, and I got the biggest kick out of all the different Valentine's candy they sell.

Some of its pretty silly.

These Lindt chocolate frogs are adorable.  Love what the box says-Kiss a frog and find your prince.

I think someone couldn't wait to get at this guy. He's a hoot.

Not to insult you if you are a fan, but would anyone really want Duck Dynasty chocolates?

I will admit I don't watch the show.

I love this big fish.  I would have bought it for the hubby if he ate chocolate.  You can't fully read the label but it says You're a Keeper. Ha-ha.

I got him this though. Gummy worms and jelly fish.

They had all these Mickey things on sale.  They looked lots of fun. 

I guess whatever you want you can find it.

And if you want a good -wow-look at all the candy-

like me-

you can go check it out.

Hope to see you again soon.

Another Steampunk Card

Another steampunk style card to go with the ones I showed you on Tuesday.

I'd actually started this card last summer, but never finished it.

Until this week that is.

So the background is made from lots of sprays and some background stamping. Then I made these stems and used flowers from this Chocolate Baroque set called Punky Flowers.

This is a great flower set.

Planning on playing with it some more since I am feelign rather steampunky lately.

So we've made it to Thursday.Always tough first week back after a vacation but in another way-

its good to be back into the routine.

They say creative people are more productive if they have a routine and a regular job, and that is so true for me.

Just sometimes wish the job was less of my time and the creative play part was more.

Its that grass is greener syndrome.

And we are almost back to the weekend.

Any big plans?

I have a hockey game and am visiting a friend, so

its gonna be a busy one for me.

Doesn't look like I'll get a lot of art time-

if only my less job more play was true!

Stop by again soon.