More Cardology

Is cardology even a word? Ha ha! If not, I am now making it a word.  Can I do that?

So the other day  I made a bunch of watercolor backgrounds and then made a bunch of cards from those backgrounds. 

I showed you one of those other cards yesterday.

Today I am showing you a wintery card.

Not a whole lot on stamping on this piece. This graph like background is an oldie but a goodie from Hero Arts. I like how it works on the background!
My snow kind of looks like rain, but that's because I painted some snow blobs first. and then decided to shake a bunch of glitter and make them have a little more texture. Paint works great as a glue.
Plus sometimes when you watch snow fall it does look like big white blobs coming down.
I also used a little silver Distress Spray on the background, to give it more of a snowy look.
Makes me happy.
So last night I had big plans to make a little art or do a little studio cleaning. I have decided to do some reorganization so I can't find anything for awhile- ha-ha.
This all goes back to the fact that my daughter's room has been sitting basically untouched since she moved out last June. I really didn't expect her home for good, but thought she might be by some nights when her boyfriend (with whom she is living) had to work overnight. (He's an EMT and does some 24 hour shifts.) I also kept asking her to clean through some of her stuff- and that never happened-of course.
So now I am starting to clean up her room myself, and then I am going to move my books into her old room, which give me a whole new studio wall!!! Right now my books are in my studio too. I can't wait to start being able to make some use of my daughter's old room, and being able to get a little bit of new space in the play space.
I just hate having a room sitting unused in my little house.
Anyhow, now that I am way off topic...I had plans last night to be a little productive, but that didn't happen.  Reading by the fire was so much more recharging after a dark and long Monday back at work and after coming home and having to shovel 2 of snow inches off my deck. So I didn't play or clean, but maybe today.
If reading by the fire isn't more inviting that is.
HA-HA!
Make something today that makes you happy.

Patriotic Fever

Happy Fourth of July everyone! And in case you aren't here in the US, today is Independence Day- or as we commonly call it, the 4th of July. The weather here in New Hampshire is at least going to start off kind of sketchy, not good for all the cookouts and fireworks and parades.

Hopefully things will brighten up; I will keep my fingers crossed, but since Hurricane/Tropical Storm Arthur is coming up the coast, its disrupting a lot of people's holiday.

My mother-in-law has a big get together at her house every year. She gets pretty stressed about it, poor Barbara, but it would kill her to miss it. Or have us all crammed into her house.

So last week my daughter had asked me to make her a 4th of July card to send to a friend, and then I got on a roll and made a couple more to send to her.

The images on the top card are from Technique Tuesday and Whimspirations/ Joanne Sharpe.  I did a lot of cutting apart of stamped images to make that card.

The center star image on this second card is an oldie from My Sentiments Exactly.Its one of those stamps I picked up used on eBay that I've held onto forever, and may not use all the time but is perfect for this holiday.  The eagle is from Paper Smooches and the firework is a Sizzix/Tim Holtz embossing folder.

I added the little red, white and blue lines off the left side because it needed something over there. I hope they look like streamers or patriotic flames or even firework flares...and not too stupid.

On this card I used mostly die cuts and kept it really clean, no distressing. Seems a little too clean in the photo for me, but I am not going to let my inner voice convince me it needs dirtying up. The stamped phrase is from Crafty Secrets. I had sprayed the stars with some sparkly mist, which you can just barely pick out in this photo.

So if you're here in the US, hope you have a great holiday weekend. And if you're not here in the US, 

hope you enjoy your day  and weekend too. Not sure if I'll have any posts this weekend or not. A friend is visiting from North Carolina and not sure how busy that will keep me.
Stop back again soon.

More Blooms

Life has been crazy around here. First there was my daughter's college graduation, then my poor dog got sick and we had to make the tough decision with him, and then my daughter moved out-its been a whirlwind of life. I still haven't gotten over the quietness of the house without a dog, even though I still have a very dog-like kitty. Never mind the college grad daughter who now is gone- its been a double whammy of quiet times in this place.

But the good news, I may be able to finally find some studio play time. 

That is if I can keep myself out of the garden after work.

What I really can't wait for is school to out for the summer so I have time for all of this!

So here's a distressed card with a flower I made using a Sizzix die and also a saying by Tim Holtz.

Hope you enjoyed your little stop here at my blog.

Snowflakes

Just been playing. Making some snowflakes to hang on the light over my table.

Using a couple of Sizzix dies as shown right here:

and

I cut the background snowflake using some Grunge paper. Then I sprayed it white and sparkly-not that you can see it here in this photo. Its the poor studio light.

But I was having some fun with the vintage old fashion look. But I tell you, I have to make five and it is quite a bit of work.

Will show you the finished hanging projects another day...have a little bit more to do. Hope to finish them up this weekend-one of the reasons I made snowflakes (rather than Christmas designs) is that they don't have to come down until its time for my Valentine hearts to go up.

Ok, and last thing I need to say today-

just one more day until break.

Yeah!!!!

Hope you drop by again soon.

Christmas Inspirations

Been thinking a lot of holiday projects.

Actually starting making my holiday journal. Will show you one of these days what I am doing.

But I really want to make some holiday things and was looking through some previous projects for inspiration.

Here's 10 pieces that make me smile and

make me want to run upstairs for the studio to play!

So top card is all about the snowman (Sizzix die). I stamped the snowflakes and then used the same colored ink and a brush to make the background.

Love the black and white background here. Its a Tim Holtz stamp. Then some ribbon and a Darcy stamped, cut and colored poinsettia from a set I bought maybe 2 or 3 years ago. The wonderful card is from October Afternoon.

Love this journal page.  I think the tire tracks that I stamped are a blast.

Sometimes, at least to me, the simplest pages are the very best. Especially when the page came out in a good way.

Here's a journal page with a bunch of die cuts and some blocky letters. Also some Sparkly snowflake dots (Stickles.)

And another journal page. This time I used some Viva Gold (well silver-ha-ha) paste over  stencil and some modeling past through a stencil to make the snowflakes. I stenciled the reindeer by stamping the Tim Holtz/Sizzix leaping reindeer die and using the mask as a stencil.

A cute card. Stamped image is from Sheena Douglas. I die cut both of the arches and aded a die cut star and then some felt reindeer trim. I have a whole spool of the trim I picked up marked down someplace or another and it comes in handy to finish off project or cards.

Cover of last years holiday journal. Some lace, some stenciling, some die cuts (both ones I made and the sparkling glittery snowman one from K&C Co. that I picked up on markdown at Michael's). The stenciled words are from Red Lead- a cool holiday saying stencil.

Another card, this one a little bit classy. The candles are a die cut from Dee's Distinctive Dies.  I also die cut the rounded piece (Sizzix) and inner piece (Cheery Lynn). Over that I stamped in gold the saying. The green leaves and berries are a Sizzix embossing die. Then I sued some Stickles, Dylusions spray ink and Perfect pearl sprays.

Simple and fun! Stamped images are from Paper Smooches except the BRRRR word which is a very old stamp in my collection.

Ha-Ha-Ha! Love this a lot. I used the Darice birch tree embossing folder and inked it tourquoise to make the colored embossed background. The images are from paper Smooches except the words which are from tachnique Tuesday.

Another super fun card. This time I embossed the frame (Sizzix) right onto the card and then rubbed darked green and white ink over the card. I added the die cut snowflake (Cheery Lynn) and added Stickles to the bow to make it pop. Then I added the snowman, a sparklely die cut circle and the words (Technique Tuesday).

And lastly, this other bright card. Images are from paper Artsy, excpet the red dots on the card which are from Cornish Heritage Farms-one of the original backgrounder stamps.

 

Hope you got inspired to do some holiday play this weekend.

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO ready to bring out the Christmas bins-

I am bad- I have 3!

I need to clean out- but maybe I'll wait until after the holiday and unload some stamps that I've out grown or don't speak to me the same way any longer.

Do you have a 3 day weekend?

I do with nothing more planend than lunch with a friend on Monday.

I think that is the moste xciting thing-

a quiet long weekend.

Hopefully some art, some sleeping, some reading, a bit of cooking and maybe I'll even get a bit of my disasterous studio mess picked up a bit.

Starting to get dangerous in there.

 

I want to thank you for stopping by to visit and

have a great weekend too.

Blogger's Challenge

I haven't played along with Blogger's Challenge for quite a while.  Either I never got around to making a card or didn't have anything made but never posted to add.

This week, however, I do. The theme is using dies, and here's a card I made last weekend during a couple of mega-play sessions. 

My photo isn't the best, if I don't catch the sun I have to photograph under the light and I never get the angel right when I do that.

And the dies- Cheery Lynn for the doily and leaves, Sizzix/Tim Holtz for the tree and Paper Smooches for the clouds.

I also used an Impression Obsession Cover-A-Card stamp (logs) on the background.

The tree is my favorite part. I first

 used a doily stencil from Crafter's Workshop to  spray through and then cut the tree.

The leaves are colored with a Copic- they are from the branches that cut with the doily from Cheery Lynn.

Japanese Garden Lace die

The owl is a little Hero Arts image- I made the eyes by just adding a dab of glue on them, and words are made from Tim Holtz little matchbook letter stickers. Then I outlined the edge of the card, distressed it a bit,

and voila.

Thanks for stopping by and checking it out.

Blogger's Challenge- Wedding or Anniversary

Here's a card I made for a co-worker's wedding shower just last week.

Haven't posted it yet.

Her favorite thing to say is Best thing ever so I used this Paper Smooches stamp-

from their Slang Gang set.

The die cuts are from Memory Box and Sizzix (little flowers only).

The tree layer is slightly altered- I removed part of the branch because I thought it looked better.

For the falling flowers I was thinking of how sometimes at weddings they throw rose petals.

Anyhow, this friend is getting married in Connecticut tomorrow and I hope they aren't getting the grey and wet weather we are suppose to have, just more of the same.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blogger's Challenge

This week- to die for. Using die cuts.

Here's my addition.

I used my embossing and die cuts to create this sew stylish (ha-ha) card.

I really like the thread spool- die cuts are all from Sizzix.

Saying is from Flourishes.

Thanks for stopping by for a better view.

Belated Mother's Day

No I didn't forget Mother's Day but I never showed you this card I made for my mother-in-law. It is quite frilly for me but it is perfect for her- and I really like how it came out.

I started by inking my card stock with mango, green and brown ink.  I love these solid mini-butterflies that I then randomly stamped n the cardstock just to give it some interest. They are from a mini set by Hero Arts which I don't know if they even sell any more. I have lots of old stamps in my collection and I love using them. 

Then I added a scrap of old looking printed paper.

I am really happy with the pansies. I die cut the 3 of them with a Sizzix Sizzlets die. I used Distress watercolor markers to color them, and a white Uni-ball pen (the best white pens I think) to outline them. I also die cut the flourish corner (another Sizzix die) on white paper which I then randomly stamped and inked and used a brown marker to outline. The banner is a Paper Smooches die- I outlined it with a black marker and stamped the word (Hero Arts) in brown. Finally I die cut the little dragonfly from a set of mini's from CheeryLynn Designs.

And here is the pansy die from Sizzix I used.
And here is the set from Hero Arts with the mini-butterflies.

This photo makes the stamps look big but they are just peg sized stamps. I think this is one of my most used stamp sets.

Here's the die set from Cheery Lynn Designs I got the dragonfly from. It is great for these kinds of projects.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blooms, Blooms and Blooms

There are flowers popping out everywhere right now.
After the brown and white and grey of winter, it is so fantastic to see so much color.

As I mentioned the other day, I am especially excited because the lilacs are blooming.

And I love lilacs.

If only I could blog their smell!

These are just a little bit behind- spreads the color out a little bit longer!

Pretty soon my orange azalea will be bright with color- the buds are so big you can see the orange petals behind their thin leafy covering. They are  plump and about burst. And I'll have purple iris too since their buds look just about the same.

And then it will be lupine and perennial geranium too.

Never mind the rest of my garden blooms.

My gardens will be bright with color

and buzzing with bees!

Can't wait to show you when that happens!!!!

A couple of weeks ago I was in a card making mood. All these buds and blooms and greening up plants filling in the gardens inspired me, so  I pulled out my box of flower stamps and played.

I made the two cards above and  this one.

Products I used were the lilac stamp from Impression Obsession, the flower rectangle from Hero Arts, the 3 blooms right above us from Autumn Leaves. I also used sayings from Hero Arts, Flourishes Rubber Stamps and Penny Black. A little paper layering, a bit of die cutting and some embossing rounds off the techniques I used. In the middle card I used some color combinations that I don't usually play with.

I also like the white on white in this last card. Who'd think white on white could work so well- and it makes the colored flowers really pop.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fun Cards for Friday!

I've been a card making lady lately.

Probably because my studio time has been a lot less than it is at other times of the year. So today, thought I would show you a few.

If you follow me you know I like simple cards. So here's a couple of real simple cards that I think are lots of summer/spring fun.

I started with this pink card and then added some of this Viva Gold sand. I LOVE this stuff for my beachy items. You rub it one and it dried like immediately and you get this.

The cab is a Sizzix die cut. The eyes are 2 dots of white gold paint and then I took a black Sharpie and put the dots on there, The saying is from Paper Smooches.

More silly cards. This time I layered some squares of white and orange check paper. I used a Sharpie to outline them and give them a bit more definition.

The pig is from Paper Smooches, colored pink and lots of pink Stickles put all over him. I have him popped up a bit, and then I added the word, also from Paper Smooches.

And lastly for today, how about these funny strawberries?

These are Sizzix die cuts, which I sprayed with some red/green Dylusions spray ink. I added them to a sanded piece of green cardstock. I added more of those little google eyes (love these things!). The hello and spring are both from Paper Smooches.

Friday!

I love it!

Pay day for me and I need my check- had  A LOT of expenses-big expenses- last pay check.

That's ok. Now I have a check and even though it is not suppose to be a fabulous weather weekend, it is still the weekend.

Mother's Day too.

Fun and Silly

I hate when I miss the light shadow and it plagues my photos.

GRRR.

Anyhow, made a BIG batch of fun  and playful cards. Last batch for year to send to my little girl at college-since in 2 weeks she will be home.

Here's the one of those cards. My daughter is now 21 and exploring the world of fun drinks, so I thought she might get a kick out of this card.

Hate the shadow.

All the images on this card are from Paper Smooches. 

I stamped the drink images onto the card and then onto white paper. I colored and cut out the white paper images and attached them to the card to give it a little more pop.

Another nasty shadow, so please ignore that.

I started with this cool swirls- they are from Kim Hughes when she designed for the old Cornish Heritage Farms.

The sailboat is an older die from Sizzix.

I doodled the clouds and used some white acrylic paint to fill them in and make them look a little more fluffy and cloud like. The saying is from Paper Smooches, the same travel set as the drinks in the card above.

The set is called Get Outta Town.

I have the Get Outta Town cravings. More of a get on a boat kind of craving. 

Must be the nice weather and the feeling of wanting to rock with the waves and get some sun on my skin.

Maybe one of those yummy tropical drinks too.

It's spring!!!!!

Have a great day and I'm glad you stopped by.

Art Journaling

Here's a view of a 2 page spread from my art journal.

I started by painting lots of stripes and then spraying some Dylusions bubblegum pink ink and a Crafter's Workshop stencil. Then I took some orange acrylic paint and a Prima stencil with these big fun flowers.

Here's more of the left side of the spread. I also stamped this fun little saying. You can see the first layer of stenciling really clearly on the top and even the flowers I stenciled with the orange paint really pop here.

I die cut this Tim Holtz Sizzix bell jar. The top I outlined with black Sharpie since I used some acrylic packaging to the make the glass bell, which doesn't really show up in this photo.

And there's those butterflies again. Both die cut (Cheery Lynn Designs) and stamped ones.

Then I added some bunnies and decided to call this page spring.

Can you believe that it is the LAST week of March? What a month this has been. Lots of cold and snow and really not spring like at all. I am ready for April.  Looks like this week we won't have a snow day and any big snowfalls though, which is good news.

Let's hope the weathermen and ladies are actually right about that too!

Thanks for visiting.

Happy Monday!