Hey! What Happened to Spring?

It's been such a cold spring here, and now it's hot and muggy. We were still using the heat last week and now we have the A/C running. What gives? Oh, yeah...I remember...I live in New England, lol!

I actually got some stamping done last night!!! I did a really cool card that I can't share with you just yet. I have to keep it under wraps for another month. Aaaargh...not going to be easy, but I'm sworn to secrecy.

Here's one I can show you now, though, and I'm really pleased with the way it came out. Those bright colors really make me happy lately. The image I used is available from smARTworks in the ABC Fresh Picked set. The printed paper is all from the Basic Grey Urban Prairie 6x6 collection. In fact, I did this card for this week's Basic Grey challenge.

I should also tell you about the flower in the corner. It didn't come that color, and neither did the brad I used in the center. The flower was a pale yellow Prima that I colored with Copic markers to match the yellow in my image. Same for the brad...it used to be a glittery white. I just colored over it with a brown Copic marker and presto chango...instant sunflower!

Where the Buoys Are

I haven't posted my progress on this in awhile, so I thought I'd let you see where I'm at. It's starting to go quicker now because I'm not having to ponder over every little detail and fool around with every color mix. My next big decision will be to decide what I want to do with the background.

I'm also trying to decide on a title for the piece. "Where the Buoys Are" is kind of corny, but I may go with that. Any ideas?

I hope to be back with a card to show you later. We'll see...it's a gorgeous day here, so I'm not sure how much time I'm really going to spend in my studio this afternoon.

smARTworks Tea Party #16 - Shape Cards

Here's my card for Giovana's shaped card challenge. And let me just say this--it was much more of a challenge than I expected! I probably spent an hour just deciding what shape I should do. Sheesh!!!!

Anyway, this is what I came up with, and I'm reasonably happy with it. My main image is from the smARTworks ABC Fresh Picked set and the sentiment is from Swirly-Gigs. I colored my little guy with Copic markers (stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black on Georgia Pacific cardstock) and added some doodled borders.

Be sure to take a look at what the rest of the Design Team came up with:

Susan (and Sarah and Peggy)
Donelda
Giovana
Trish

Thanks for stopping by!

It's all about smARTworks challenges today!

One of the requirements of being a smART Cookie for smARTworks is to participate in a semi-monthly team challenge. Susan sends each member the same stamp set, and our instructions are to make something...no telling, no peeking, no discussion...just make something. For the latest challenge, we each received the WD-211 Grow On! set, which apparently, she envisioned as a cluster of little blue flowers. Well, Susan unveiled the challenge results today (check it out here), and I had a good chuckle when I looked all those pink projects! I swear, Susan...there was no telling, no peeking and no discussion!

When I looked at those little flowers, I immediately saw cherry blossoms. And, I had already decided that I wanted to do a 3-D project this time. Oh, and I had a sample piece of handmade paper that I was just itching to try. The boxes and bags and shelves full of stuff in my craft room just wouldn't do, so I set off to Michael's where I found this nifty photo holder in the unfinished wood aisle.

After giving it a light sanding, I stained the wood using a Versamagic Chalk ink applied directly to the wood. After it dried, I brushed on some water based matte finish sealer. I stamped my image onto the handmade paper with Stazon ink, colored it in with Prismacolor pencils, and then glued it to the front of the block. I finished it off with a pink bow, but honestly, I think I liked it just as well without the ribbon.

In case you're wondering, the cute little girls in the photos are two of our DGD's. And, here's a close-up of the image:


I said it was ALL about smARTworks challenges today, and I wasn't kidding. Today is also the day to announce the next smARTworks Tea Party Challenge. It's Giovana's turn this time, and she's challenged us to make shape cards...any shape, which includes squares and rectangles. So...no excuse not to play along with this one...any card you make will fit the challenge! Join us, won't you?

Oh, Baby! I've got LOTS of stuff to share tonight!

I'll start of with the most exciting stuff...Starving Artistamps has a new DoodleFactory release called Oh Baby, You're Super! To celebrate this the new release, Tracey is giving away the entire collection to one lucky winner. Click on over to the Starving Artistamps blog by midnight EST on April 12th.



I also have a new card for you made with the DoodleFactory Easter set. I just love those bunnies, partly because they're just plain cute, and partly because they're making me wax nostalgic. When I was a kid, my parents used to shop for groceries at the Big Bunny Supermarket. The store had a HUGE fiberglass rabbit on the roof, and darned if it didn't look like Mr. Bunny here. I can almost taste the spice cake roll we always had for dessert on shopping night!

My big bunnies and eggs are colored with Copic markers and I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink for my stamping.

And last but not least, I just finished another colored pencil drawing. I'm really pleased with this one because, frankly, I didn't think it would come out very well at all when I started. I went into this thinking it would be a practice piece that I would stick in my sketch book for future reference. Well, heck! I'm pleased enough with this one to put it in a frame and hang it on the wall. The bird is an Indigo Bunting, and it's my version of a Kaaren Poole design.


Like many of you, I have a busy weekend planned. If I don't find time to get back here before then, have a Happy Easter!

Tea and Scraplings

Looks like I'm late to my own party. I've had a busy couple of weeks, which I knew would be a grind, but thank goodness, I think I'm in the home stretch. I'm just playing a bit of catch-up this week, and all should be back to normal next week.

I did find some time to make scraplings for the Tea Party challenge, though. I grabbed a bunch of my favorite smARTworks images and limited myself to paper from my scrap piles (the one on top of my table, preferably), and embellies that were almost gone or languishing at the bottom of the drawer. All of my coloring for these was done with Copic markers.

Most of what I did is pretty straight forward, but I should explain the process for the purple one in the middle since all is not what it may seem to be. That isn't a piece of purple paper that I used. Instead, I took a scrap of white paper and colored it with a pale lavender Copic marker. I then stamped the flowers in black, masked the flower heads, and over-stamped the sentiment in purple chalk ink (Wisteria to be exact). Once I had that done, I used my colorless blender to remove the purple color from the flowers. This works great on some papers, but not others. I used Georgia Pacific and I know that Neenah Classic Crest also works well. You might want to test on a small scrap first to be sure that your colorless blender will remove enough of the background color.

Dina wasn't able to participate this week, but the other Cookies have some way cool scraplings to share...check them out!

Susan (and Sarah)
Donelda
Giovana
Trish

Hunny Bunnies

I only have time for a really quick post today...what else is new?

This is another card using the DoodleFactory Easter set from Starving Artistamps. I stamped the bunnies onto printed paper and shaded them with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The egg paper is hand-stamped with chalk inks using the egg images from the set. The sentiment is also from Starving Artistamps.

Whew, didn't think I could type that fast, LOL! See you later...it's back to the grind for me.

Not a Card {yet}

I'm away from home, and I don't have my personal laptop with me, so I don't have a new card to show you until later this weekend. This is a colored pencil drawing I did awhile back, and while it's not a card yet, I do intend to scan it and use the image on notecards.

The drawing is 8" x 8" and is done with Prismacolor pencils on Stonehenge white.

See you later this weekend!

Let's Make Scraplings!

It's my turn to host the next smARTworks Tea Party challenge, and after looking at the huge pile of scraps I've accumulated, I decided that we should make Scraplings. What's a Scrapling? There are no hard and fast rules because the idea is to use scraps you have lying around, but a Scrapling is usually a folded card about 4-1/4 by 1-3/4 inches (made from a strip of card stock 8-1/2 by 1-3/4 inches). My instruction to the other Cookies is that anything goes...just use scraps and odd and ends as much as possible in your creations.

We'll be posting our Scraplings next Wednesday, April 8th. What about you? How about grabbing some scraps and joining us?

I also have a card to share with you today. This was a simple card to make and came together quickly, and I really like the way it came together. I did the main panel with watercolor crayons direct to rubber and lightly misted with water before stamping. I stamped the edges of each mat using chalk ink a few shades darker than my card stock, and also stamped the sentiment with chalk ink. That's really all there was to it...like I said, easy! The stamps I used are from the smARTworks Daisy Square set.

See you later!