Ode to my Newfoundland Dogs

The most perfect surprise in the mail from a fellow stamper when we came home with our second Newfoundland puppy. Deborah sent me a Newfoundland Dog stamp! I love it. I've looked and looked for a good stamp of a Newfie that really looks like the dogs but never found one I liked. Well Deborah did. Today I've been making cards with it. THANK YOU DEBORAH! You can view Deborah's card link HERE for the most amazing cards! She's an incredible artist.

I used a gate fold layout for this card and it opens at the center. Bone Jour is computer generated. The dog bone paperclip was a gift from JAN. Patterned paper if by K& Company.

















I stamped these Newfies on glossy white card stock and used Tombow Markers to color lightly. It is hard to color a black dog. The paw print stamp is from See-D's rubber stamps.

















The sentiment is computer generated on Anna Griffin patterned paper. Card is made on two shades of grey Bazzill cardstock. I don't know who makes the pawprint ribbon, but I love it! :)

I'm sure there will be many more Newfie cards in the days to come.

Karen Lockhart Stamps

These three images are from Karen Lockhart designs. Pam and I exchanged some stamped images and these are three Karen Lockhart stamps Pam sent to me to color, embellish and make into cards. You can visit Pam's beautiful cards at her blog SMILEY COLLECTOR.

Strawberries stamp is Karen Lockhart designs. Patterned paper is from my scrap box of BoBunny papers from a few years ago. I love blue and yellow together and I think it sets off the strawberries. Hopefully you'll find the color combination a surprise but pleasing.

The Halloween witch from Karen Lockhart designs I colored with prismacolor pencils and added stickles to the stars and moon on her hat and dimensional glaze on her hat to make it glossy. The "trick or treat" sentiment is one of the little Michael's $1 stamps. The background paper is Wild Asparagus.

Is this PINK or what? I kind of like it but it might not be to everyone's taste. I colored this Karen Lockhart image with glitter gel pens and then added a bit of stickles to the flower centers and some dimensional glaze to the pitcher. The patterned papers are some BoBunny scraps that I found in my scrap bin. I haven't seen BoBunny in a couple of years. This has put me in the mood to look for some. The papers are so bright and cheery.

More Lockhart designs tomorrow. I have two more colored and just need to create a layout and make the cards. Until then, thanks for stopping by for a look.

In Stitches

The WEDNESDAY STAMPER challenge right now is titled "Stitches" and this card will fit the bill for the challenge, I think.

This was just plain old fun. I haven't used this House Mouse stamp in a long time and decided to use it on a gate fold card. If my camera worked I'd have photographed it instead of scanned it as you cannot see the special way it opens flat from this scan. Not sure yet if I'll put a sentiment inside. To be determined later....

Stamps used: "Mouse Bounce" House Mouse stamp by Stampabilities And the flowers are stamped using Close to my Heart stamps called Simple stitches.
Patterned paper: Wild Asparagus
Embellishments: buttons, stickles on the pin heads, clear dimensional glaze on the thimbles and machine zigzag stitching.
Image colored with Prismacolor Pencils.

Lesa honored me with the Nice Matters Award

How does one say thank you from the bottom of the heart for such a sweet award? LESA, who is one of THE NICEST people has just payed this award forward and selected me. Thank you Lesa. Love ya bunches!

I want to pay this award forward and name 5 ladies who deserve this award too. JAN, PESCALE, ETHEL, NANCY and STACY. These ladies have always opened their heart as well as shared their talents with me. Such wonderful cyber pals they are.

Gothic Arch Challenge

This is the first week to participate in the weekly GOTHIC ARCH CHALLENGE and our theme for this week is SCHOOL. I'm still trying to become comfortable with this form of art and am finding it challenging and difficult for me but a lot of fun too.

For my School Days Gothic Arch I used one of my favorite stamps from Paperbag Studios. I have to tell you something about this little girl. My husband carries only one photo of me in his wallet. It is my little school photo when I was in Kindergarten! (My mother gave it to him to have). Anyway, I look a lot like this little girl with the same haircut. hee hee hee :)

The background stamp is....can you read what it says? It is part of the Pledge of Allegiance. The stamp is from Stampabilities. Do the children still recite the pledge to the flag in school?

Patterned paper is from Basic Grey and Daisy D's.

Reading, writing and arithmetic are computer generated onto basic grey paper. Then I added the letter beads to spell out school days and found a small scrap of tape measure grossgrain ribbon.

I hope you enjoy.

Age and Treachery will Triumph

"Age and Treachery will triumph over youth and skill."

My husband plays golf with a group of middle aged balding geezers each weekend. Sometimes they take their teen / twenty-something sons with them. I think this card says it all for them! ;-)

This is the inside sentiment:



Stamps are by Art Impressions.
Colored with Prismacolor Pencils and a touch of glitter gel pens on the argyle socks and cap.
Patterned paper is Basic Grey Lucky from the Destiny collection
Brad and punches and that's about it.

Those men...they'll do anything to win! Hee hee hee :)

Autumn Scarecrow

This is an image from a Merry Go Round swap hosted by TAMI. This was one of the images I received to create something with (a card, tag, altered item). I had so much fun coloring this.

The patterned paper is from my favorite = WILD ASPARAGUS! I colored the image with prisma color pencils. The scarecrow image is by Hero Arts Rubber Stamps (I'm told that it is now a retired stamp.)

Shhhhh...I'll tell you a secret though. For this swap this I decided not to make cards with each persons stamped image. I'm doing something special for each person with their image. So while this is one of the pictures that will be used, this is for me. I hope everyone enjoys their surprise. I'll post them after the swap is complete. I think they should be fun.

Thanks for stopping by to see my Autumn Scarecrow.

My very first Gothic Arch

Please be kind with your comments. This is the very first Gothic Arch I've ever made. Paul was kind of excited to know I was making something different from my usual cards and "style" (if I have a style) and told me he has always thought these were cool.

OK...I finish this and he looks at it for a long time and then says, (and I quote) "Uhhhh...nice." Translated that means, "I've seen better."

So I know that this isn't the best and I'd really appreciate helpful suggestions. I've wanted to do these for a long time but this is a whole new world of papercrafting for me.

The sentiment quote stamp is by Dawn Houser stamps
The lady reading is unidentified (but I really like this stamp).
Used double needle for border stitching.

Constructive criticism most welcome.

Caffeine Fix

For the next two weeks at WEDNESDAY STAMPER the challenge is for stitching to appear on your card. Since I love to machine stitch many of my cards, this was a fun challenge for me.

My dear daughter and son-in-law gave me something for my birthday that I've always wanted but never had...A coffee bean grinder! Wooo hooo! I'm so excited. Plus the goodie basket not only included the grinder but also a bag of starbuck's coffee, a beautiful pewter scoop, AND coffee stickers and tea charms.

Well naturally I had to make some cards to get my caffeine fix after this present!

The sentiment sticker describes me perfectly first thing in the morning. OK, I don't look as good as this Stamping Bella girl stamp but the sentiment fits my morning mood.

Card ingredients:
Stamp = Gumpabella by Stamping Bella stamps
Paper = Wild Asparagus
Colored with prismacolor pencils
Cuttlebug swirl embossed background
Ribbon and brads and stitching

Anatomy of the Butterfly

One more stamped acetate card. The "Anatomy of the Butterfly" stamp is from Tin Can Mail rubber stamps. I stamped the image in black Stazon ink on the front of the acetate and then on the backside applied green and yellow stickles.

I mounted the butterfly to this beautiful piece of pearlized card stock from "The Luxury Stack" from DCWV. I used clear Studio G flourish stamps in the corners and added some yellow and clear gems to them.

Last card for today. Thanks for stopping by for a look-see.

Bubble background technique

My good friend, Jan, surprised me with an envelope filled with her beautiful Bubble backgrounds. The gauntlet was thrown and it was my turn to create a card using her beautiful background paper. You can view Jan's blog HERE and see more of her fabulous cards using unique background techniques.

For my first card using Jan's bubble background I am using a small bird stamp from Stampin' UP! and a sentiment stamp from Close to my Heart. Using those stamps double mats, some brads and feathers I completed my first card.

The second bubble background card is drying so I'll post it later.

Thanks for stopping by. And thanks to Jan for sharing her incredible talents with me.

Tea Time

I made this card for a friend with whom I would love to stop by and share a cup tea. I'll enclose a tea bag with this.

I don't know who makes these stamps as I bought them unmounted in an online stamp sale. It is set of coffee and tea images and sentiments. I think I bought it a year ago and this is the first time I've inked any of them up.

The patterned paper is by Wild Asparagus and I used my cuttlebug embossing folder on the solid section for texture.

I think it is a bit too monochromatic. I painted the image with twinkling H2O's so the teapot and sugar and creamer bowls do have a bit of shimmer that isn't detectable in the scan.

Hmmmm....I may need to rethink this card. Oh well, this is my early morning card.

Trick or Treat

This Vintage Halloween stamp is made by Paper Inspirations and is titled Halloween Traveler K8040. I stamped it on acetate and then couldn't decide if I wanted to color it or if I did, how much and with what? I finally decided to turn the acetate over and color the back side with my Stickles glitter. I used yellow stickles on the moon and green stickles on the thingy that hangs from the jack-o-lantern on the stick. For the pumpkin I used an orange sharpie permanent marker and added yellow stickles to the jack-o-lantern face. The background paper is some old Wild Asparagus that I had from last Halloween. Punched photo corners and green brads and stitching fills out the card. Last I decided it needed a sentiment so I stamped "trick or treat" with the $1 Michael's stamp.

I'm trying to decide how else to use this Vintage Halloween stamp. It is so cute but I am finding it is difficult to get a clear image, with the exception of on this acetate which really shows the detail.

Any use suggestions from those of you who are experienced using photo stamps like this?

My dog chewed it!

Sound like an excuse for not posting? My puppy chewed the cord that goes to the camera and the computer and now I can't load photos online until I get a new cord. NAUGHTY PUPPY!

I haven't been idle though. I've been sewing! Paul and I are going to be exhibiting/selling some of our wares in the local fall craft show. I will post my prim. Christmas angels when I can get the photos to load. Again...NAUGHTY PUPPY!

Paul is going to be selling his fabulous handmade wooden toys. He has designed and created train sets to rival Tommy The Train. And just so you know, his do not contain lead paint, magnets that come off or any of the other potentially hazardous elements that is affecting the toy industry these days.

I'm eager to share photos. Will soon.

NAUGHTY PUPPY!

You make me all twitterpated!

At the Stamp Shack site we do what we call "Virtual Swaps" in which we exchange images and are challenged to make a card and post them online. This image of the cat eyeing the bird in the tree was presented to us by Sherry G. I printed the image, colored it with prismacolor pencils, matted it with Wild Asparagus patterned paper, added some brands and prima flowers and stamped the sentiment "You make me all twitterpated" with a justjohanna rubber stamp. VOILA! My interpretation of this image.

Hope you'll get a chuckle from this card.

Hot Dog and Cool Cat

These two images were sent to me as part of a swap challenge at PCMB by Tricia (Got Cats?). Tricia holds a dog and cat challenge card swap each year and you never know what the images will be like. This year it is a dog in front of the fan and a cat in front of a fan.




For my "HOT DOG" card I used Kaliedoscope patterned paper and my cuttlebug for the center strip. I colored the dog with prismacolor pencils and added dimensional glaze to the fan and stickles to the dog's collar and breeze waves.





For my "COOL CAT" card is used some scraps from an old Michael's stack patterned paper. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and added dimensional glaze to the pink fan and stickles to the fan cover and breeze waves. The yellow and white polka dot ribbon is by Dashes, Dots & Checks.

That's it for today. Thanks for looking.

I'm a Rockin' Girl Blogger !

How cool is this award? And it is very unexpected too since I'm pretty new to blogging. I received two nominations for Rockin' Girl Blogger.

Thank you so much to Jan who's blog FAR NORTH DESIGNS is a constant source of inspiration to me for learning techniques and backgrounds. Jan is a dear friend and so sweet to nominate me.

Also, big hugs and thanks to Pascale who's blog, PESCBRICO is filled with gorgeous layouts and cards and stamping techniques. Oh yes, and you can read her blog in both English and Français. Merci beaucoup Pescale de m'avoir choisie!!! Je suis vraiment honorée!!

Now it is my turn to honor and nominate 5 blogs that I think are rockin' too! Oh this is hard because I have a LOT more than 5. But since the rules state I must pick only 5, here they are:

LESA - I must list you first because you awe and amaze me with your courage, strength and determination to beat this hidious breast cancer and all the while educate everyone through your blog. You truly are a rockin' blogger and dear woman too.

DEBBIE 1of2shoes we call her. Debbie has taught me SO MUCH in the past year. Debbie is truly the master of the prismacolor pencils and she has graciously and freely taught me how to use this beautiful medium. Debbie holds so much talent in her little finger...image how much she has in her whole hand! Visit her blog for a treat!

STACY What can I say? I HAVE TO check your blog everyday just to see all of the latest and greatest cards you've made. Your embellishing, layouts and designs are a roll model for everyone who views your work.

NANCY I have long admired Nancy's altered art at 2peas in a Bucket. Vintage altered art is her specialty and viewing her blog will leave you filled with inspiration.

BETH - color, vibrant and lovely. This is what you'll see when you view her cards. What a treat to visit Beth's blog!

Happy Birthday to me with Pierre-Auguste RENOIR !

I have had a wonderful birthday today and I have to share a couple of photocopies of real art on my blog and not just my wanna-be artist ambitions of my own creations.

Today is my birthday (way too many years for what I feel like in my head so don't ask!) Anyway, Paul took today off work and we began my birthday celebration with lunch in downtown Ottawa, ON at a WONDERFUL restaurant called SANTE's. It is an Asian-fusion restaurant...a lot of Thai cuisine. It is W+O+N+D+E+R+F+U+L!! A real treat kind of place.

From there we walked over to the National Art Gallery of Canada where a special exhibit of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's work is on display. You have to understand that Renoir and Monet have long been two of my favorite Impressionist artist and to see Renoir's work was just amazing! I actually named two of my cats after the artists and is the reason why I have a cat named Renoir and my daughter's cat's name is Monet! I can't even begin to tell you how exciting it was to see this exhibit. Plus, the National Art Gallery of Canada is one of the most beautiful achitecturally perfect buildings to house great works of art that it made it even more of a treat.

So I am posting two little photos of Renoir. Actually, the exhibit we saw today was of his landscapes. Amazing! Paul and I talked the entire way home in excited chatter about all we learned and saw.

OH...I should have said that my day started off with a gift certificate from Paul to Heather's Stamping Haven in Ottawa. Little does Paul know, I went there yesterday and drowned my sorrows of being older in a big bill for new stamps. But now I can go back and spend HIS $$$. How cool is that? If you've ever been to Ottawa or plan to come, Heather's is a must see stamp store.

I received so MANY beautiful birthday cards. I just took a photo of them all and was going to post it as well. However..........someone's new puppy has chewed the cord that goes from the digital camera to the computer and they won't upload to my blog! Must be Paul's puppy 'cuz surely my pup wouldn't do such a naughty thing.

Thank you for the wonderful cards and treats! I've had one of the nicest birthday's I've had in a long time.

Stacy's welcome card for Gabriel

Look at this perfectly wonderful CONGRATULATIONS card that Stacy made and sent to me upon Gabriel's arrival. Stacy is one of the talented artists that I continually draw inspiration from. You can check out Stacy's blog, called Stacy's Memory Triggers at: http://stacysmemorytriggers.blogspot.com or by finding it on my list in the right hand column and clicking to take you directly to her.

Stacy, I love this card and it will go into Gabe's puppy album. Thank you SO MUCH!

Altered Puzzle Piece

This is truly out of my comfort zone. The assignment for Ethel's swap was to alter puzzle pieces with an "all about me" theme. There are nine people in this swap. Each person has a large nine piece children's puzzle (each piece is about 3" by 3") and each participant give one piece of their puzzle to each of the nine participants. Then each one of us alters the other participants puzzle piece telling something about themself. Then we send our pieces to Ethel, she swaps the puzzles back to the original senders and we all end up with a puzzle with something about each participant on one of their puzzle pieces.

Whew...it isn't as complicated as it sounds when I write it out but I'm not too good at altering objects ... at least it isn't something I feel confident about and also talking about myself is hard.

Anyway, I decided to make my altered pieces a sewing theme. This is one of the puzzle pieces...all about me.

The Pumpkin Patch

This was so much fun to make. Have you ever tried The Rubber Stamp Tapestry stamps? They are sets of peg stamps. Most of the sets of Rubber Stamp Tapestry stamps that I have come in sets of 5 or 6 different peg stamps. You just create your design with these little beauties.

I happen to love pumpkins. Always have. I think it is because of their color and shape and that it is an autumn thing. I love autumn too.

Anyway, I stamped the outside oval with the Rubber Stamp Tapestry pumpkin and leaves and vines set. Then I stamped the inside oval with an oval pumpkin stamp from Northwoods Rubber Stamps.

These are so fun to make.

Paper Piercing

This is my first attempt at paper piercing. It was a lot of fun to do but I also can see that my technique still needs some work. The center oval stamp is from Stampin' Up!

I think next time I'll pierce on vellum and dry emboss using this same template.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Did you miss me?

We have been without internet for 5 days. Twenty years ago it wouldn't have meant a thing. Today, though, being without internet feels similar to being cut off from the world with no mail delivery!

Anyway, I haven't been idle while computer-less. This is my favorite of things I made. The Rooster stamp is from a retired Stampin' Up! set called "Roosting." The background paper is Daisy D's (Does it look familiar? I used it last week too.)

I think I like this card the best of the cards I made because it uses some of my favorite things: Rooster stamp, feathers (I love putting feathers on cards), stitching and of course, coloring with my prismacolor pencils.

Thanks for checking in with me. I've really missed looking at everything my blogging buddies have been posting!

Thomas Kinkade - "It Doesn't Get Much Better..."

I've been playing around with my new Thomas Kinkade stamps made by Cornish Heritage Farms. You can find photos near the bottom of my blog of my two new stamps. These images are so detailed and because Thomas Kinkade is well known for his use of light and shading in his drawings so to color this myself was very intimidating. I'm not sure I'm there yet but I have to admit this challenge was a lot of fun.

For this card I colored the image with a combination of primarily chalks and a splash of prismacolor pencils. I inked the stamp with Vintage Sepia Versafine Ink. I tried originally stamping in forest green dye ink and it was "OK" but I liked working much better with the Sepia ink to bring out more details of the stamp.

The background behind the image is stamped with Stampin' UP! CANVAS background stamp in forest green.

Thanks for taking a peek. I know I still have a lot of work to do on this one but it is a start.