Watercolor scene

I have had this stamp, I'm sure, since I started stamping 5 years ago and I don't think I have used it in like 3 or 4 years. I know, I'm a bad stamp owner. It is one of the first stamps I bought and I loved the scene (it reminds me of home) but it is a lot of coloring and I guess I have been lazy in that area.

Last night I decided to try out some new watercolor I picked up at Staples to see how it works. It was less expensive than SU's (comes in a large pad of 15 sheets) and I thought I might use it for a class sometime. The image stamped on it ok but it really didn't take to the water as well as I would have liked. I used my watercolor crayons and aquapainter to color in the image (stamped with StazOn). I really like using the crayons because you have all of the colors right there (as opposed to re-inkers). I am still learning as I go but I really do like playing with watercolors.

Angie asked if the explosion box is from SU. The template is from Splitcoast, I put a link in the last post but if you have any problems opening it let me know. They are super easy and fun to do!

BTW- Angie I do check your blog daily so keep posting :)

Sandra has complimented me on my photography skills but I have to tell you that "cropping" is a wonderful tool! It can take out any areas you don't want to show in your picture (like the barn window and the mare's nose in the last pic) and any skills I have are learned from my Mother, she is a great photographer. Plus I take a ton of pictures and you only see the good ones:)

Explosion Box and a new Baby

This is the explosion box I did for stamp camp on Saturday. I used my new Big Blooms set and Bashful Blue and Elegant Eggplant cardstock and inks. The flower on top was stamped in both colors and cut out so that the eggplant center is popped up and then I used the 1/4" circle punch for a bashful blue center.

For the 3 flowers on the outside of the box I didn't want the inside of the fold to be stamped so I used "Post-it notes" to mask off the folded part. You can kind of see it in the 2nd picture. For directions for the explosion box click HERE .













Last night we went up to the neighbor's farm to see the new baby horse. He is only about 12 hours old in this picture. It was so cute to see him wobbling around. His name is Charger. Isn't he just too cute?!?

More stuff to share

If you haven't been there you should check out Allison's blog. She has links to blogs (lots with blog candy!) and has some really great creations of her own. Today she posted a link to a new Sketch Design Site that I just checked out and they have some fun sketches. You know how I love sketches :)

Ok, I'm off to finish getting ready for Saturday.

Amy is coming today...

My sister Amy is coming today and I think I might just be able to get her to help me sort through all of those cards! LOL!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that if you want to send cards to our troops you can drop them off at the MFRC in Gagetown or if you aren't close enough you can send them to me and I will take them in. Just e-mail me and I will give you my address. I am going to edit my profile today so that you should be able to go to my profile and click on "e-mail me". If it doesn't work please leave a comment here and let me know.

Only 2 more days till Stamp Camp! I think I will give you another "little"sneak peek later (after the batteries in my camera finish charging). I am very excited about the one I did last night using my new Big Blooms set!

Sneak Peek

I am getting closer to being ready for Stamp Camp and class tomorrow night. I have finally figured out the 2nd card for tomorrow night and we are using a set that I haven't used in a bit so that is good. Sorry this isn't that card because I use this set a lot! It is with Doodle this and Vintage Violet and Marigold Morning.

I won't get into too much detail on this (like how the flower is colored) because it is one of the cards we are doing on Saturday. What I can tell you though is that everyone is doing 2 of this card. One for themselves and one to send to our troops in Afghanistan.

The MFRC has just started (as far as I know) collecting cards to send to our troops so I decided that we would all do an extra card to send and I am going to go through my stash and see what I can find. Since Mom was here and cleaned/reoganized my space I have a box of cards to go through and haven't had a chance to go through them yet so this is a perfect excuse!

Sorry...

I don't have anything to share yet. I was on a roll last week and the creativity was really flowing but then I think I hit a brick wall on Saturday with a headache that lasted 2 days. Of course I am not ready for Stamp camp on Saturday and I just started yesterday.

I kind of took it easy in the morning and then was going to start when I put Emma down for a nap. Do you think she would go to sleep? NO. I waited for an hour and she wouldn't go to sleep. Joe came in with Ian so he could watch them but as they were coming in Ian let Sasha (the dog) out and she took off and wouldn't come back so Joe had to go looking for her.

While he was outside I had the kids upstairs and Emma locked herself in the bathroom (I was right outside the door when she did it by the way). She kept hollering "brush". She wanted to brush her teeth. So I had to run around the house trying to find the screw driver to pick the lock (luckily Dad showed me how to do it the last time he was here), of course it wasn't where it was supposed to be. I really only took a couple of minutes but it seemed like a long time.

Anyway, finally I got the door unlocked and Joe came in and I got to stamping. I have 3 cards done and 1 almost done. I am so excited! We are using Bundle of Joy and Bunny Hugs and a couple of my older "neglected" sets. Hopefully later today or tomorrow I will have something to share.

I know that was a lot of non stamping related stuff but I wanted to update you all on what is going on for Saturday and to let you know that I am still around:) Also, maybe give you a little chuckle this Monday morning.

P.S. Maybe Mom will share her story about the lock on my bathroom door:)

Wow! Two posts in one day!

I did this really quickly this morning and just had to share it with you. I just love the Petals and Paisley paper from the Spring Mini and it worked perfect with this sketch.

The challenge for today was to use die-cuts (in case you missed my mistake from this morning-scroll down) so was excited to use my Cuttlebug. I used the flower dies (biggest and smallest) with the Petals and Paisley paper and used a $ store brad for the middle. The elephant is stamped in tempting turquoise and the flower is done with certainly celery and pretty in pink markers. I stamped "baby" on a scrap piece of white and tucked it under the elephant piece. I just love how fun this one turned out! And I love my Cuttlebug!

Doodle Challenge

I combined the sketch challenge and color challenge for this week with Doodle This and Doodle That and came up with this card. I was having a hard time at first combining those colors and then decided because there were lots of layers with this sketch they would work well together.

I flipped the sketch so I could use the round tab punch on the top. The flowers are stamped in all of the colors (really rust, old olive, chocolate chip, so saffron, cool caribbean) and then I stamped it again in chocolate chip and colored it in with markers. Then cut it out and used a dimensional to pop it up.

Now to see what the challenge is for today. I think it is the limited supplies challenge. Hopefully I can sneak in a little time to stamp again this afternoon before I pack my stuff up for tonight.

I just checked and it it the ways to use it challenge. This week you are to use fibers, if you don't have fibers you could use yarn instead. Anyone want to play along and try it? I have to admit I have lots of fibers but very rarely use them. This will be fun.

Edited (again): I really shouldn't try to post before I take Ian to school. I guess I was in too much of a hurry and read the wrong challenge. LOL!! So the real challenge for today is to use die-cuts in your project. Here is a link to the Ways to Use it Challenge for today. Ok, who wants to do the challenge with me? You don't have to have a die-cut machine. I'm sure most of you have purchased die-cuts or if you don't have any you could fake it and make your own.

Hopefully I got it right this time and won't have to edit this post again:)

Thank Goodness for Baby Einstein

I just had to finish this card this morning so I put on Baby Einstein for Emma and snuck upstairs for a few (will maybe almost 30) minutes so I could finish watercoloring this card.

This is definately not nearly as good as one of Kittie's cards but it is way better than I thought it was going to be.

One thing I didn't have was the Watercolor Minis (I used to- why did I sell that?) so I used the end of one of the flowers from Both Way Blossoms and used a marker to ink it up.

I used reinkers for the tree and the grass and flowers but used my neglected Watercolor Crayons for the Gnome.

I really hope this inspires you to try this technique and if you do please share I would love to see them.

Now to try to find a little time today to do the color and sketch challenges for this week. Hmm...maybe I will combine them.

P.S. If you have Watercolor minis and want to either sell them or lend them to me let me know.

My first viewmaster card

This isn't a new card because I have been working on cards for classes and can't post those ones:)

This is one that I did at a party a few weeks ago. The directions can be found here. To do the piece for the words I used JanTinks directions in her Punchy Plates Tutorial using the keg tag punch and the 1 1/4" circle punch. The colors are Brocade blue, So Saffron and Mellow moss.


Yesterday I started the technique challenge on Splitcoast but didn't have time to finish it. The challenge was to do a "Kittie card" with a scene in the background. The challenge can be found here and there is a link to the tutorial there as well. I really can not draw so this was really hard for me but it was fun. I decided to copy her sample from the tutorial and do it pretty much the same so I will do another one once my practice one is done and show you.

Oh yes, I have the cards done (well not cut but my samples are done) for Thursday and we are using my new Cuttlebug! I'll share after class for those that can't be there.

Who's up for a road trip?

I am soooo excited. Who wants to go to a papercrafts event with me?

Check out Mom's blog for all of the info.

I will be taking my van and can take 3 or 4 people with me and if we have enough going maybe someone else will bring their vehicle. Also, I plan to make a few stops such as Michaels, Two Much Fun and maybe even the bead store if we are early enough!

I know you aren't going to want to miss this. It is going to be so much fun. Let me know if you are interested so we can start planning right away.

Have I told you..

how much I love Page Maps? Well I do!

I have been trying to get some scrapping time in lately (I have done 4 pages in 2007! LOL!!) so I have been printing the monthly page maps to help speed the process along a little. I still have lots of pictures to scrapbook from last year and probably the year before but I am going to work on this year for now and then work back as I have time. I really am having fun doing the current pics because the memories are still fresh in my head.



When I sat down with these pictures the other night I instantly thought of the new Petals and Paisley paper. The colors were perfect with these pics. I also used Doodle this and Doodle that and the Flirty ribbon from the Winter mini (I really hope this comes into the big catty in July).



Now I just have to order the Doodle

Alphabet so I can put a title on the bottom one. Any ideas for a title? I think it will go under the photo on the right.

Note: When stamping the doodles that go over both the background and the picture you need to stamp them seperately and then match them up. Does that make sense? For all of the patterned paper squares I stamped the doodle on easc piece and then lined them up. It was more work but when you try to stamp it all at once there are areas that are missed.

Yesterday I added links to both Page Maps and Scrap Maps so if you are looking for some inspiration go check them out.

SCS Color Challenges

You know how much I like to use the Color Challenges on Splitcoast and use them all the time. I decided to make this book for a quick reference to the challenges. The idea came from the 100th color challenge prize done by Leigh O'Brien which you can see Here. I used the Acoutrements paper and accents and elements from the Spring mini.

I can't believe I used these already! I am usually a "hoarder".

For the inside I printed all of the color challenges on Sahara Sand CS and punched the circles with the 1 1/4" circle punch.


Edited: I just added a link on the right to the Splitcoaststampers Challenges. From there you can go to the challenge you want to check out (color, sketch, etc.). I hope that helps anyone that couldn't find them. The other way there is to go to the SCS home page and scroll down, on the right there are links to the challenges.

Ian's new hat

I don't have any stamping related stuff to post just yet.

I had to post this picture of Ian instead. On Saturday we went to a Birthday party and then went for groceries after. Ian and I went into the superstore for a couple and while there he spotted a "Diego" hat. I couldn't say no, he was so excited about this hat. Since Saturday he has only taken it off to bath & sleep (and maybe a few other times but not many). Last night he decided to sleep with it on and when I went to check on him he still had it on! Of course I had to run for the camera :)

I have been working on a couple of things but nothing is done yet so I can't post them. I have punched and embossed a few things with my new Cuttlebug (CB) and have found a temporary storage solution for the dies and folders. If anyone has any ideas please let me know 'cause I'm not really happy with it right now but at least they are in one place.

On AmyR's blog she posted a link to a tutorial for the CB and one for the Crop-a-dile. I will look for them and try to add them as links on the side for you as well. You really do have to check out the CB if you haven't seen it, it is sooo much fun and even if you have one you might learn a thing or 2. I did.

Edited: I added a couple more links. One for each of the tutorials and a couple more blogs. If there is a link to your blog here and you would prefer I didn't have it here please let me know and I will remove it. Some of you I asked but didn't get a chance to ask everyone. I know that some people like to keep their blogs more personal (which is why I didn't add I few I check in on). If you would like me to add yours please let me know and I will add it.

Doodle Charm

I am soooo in love with Doodle This and Doodle That! You will probably see lots of things done with these stamps over the next while.

While I was getting ready for my last stamp camp I was waiting for something to dry so I pulled out my Doodle This and stamped the flowers on a scrap piece of paper. I then colored the flowers with future floor polish and pearl ex. It is really hard to see in the picture but it is really shimmery in real life.

That piece sat on my desk for a couple of days (sorry Mom) until I saw my polyshrink in the back of my paper file and thought it would be fun to stamp the flower and shrink it. First I stamped it in StazOn and colored with a turquoise sharpie and then tried my Zig Painty for the first time.

The rest is pretty simple, I just used the doodles in the background on Cool Carribean and then tied ribbon around it and used gold cord to hang my charm on.

It is kind of a long story but I don't think I have taken that long to finish a card ever and had to share it with you.

I am so excited right now I can hardly stand it. I ordered some new toys from CompuPro and they will be in today. Joe is picking them up on his way home from work and I can't wait! Hopefully I can get some time in this weekend to play and when I do I will share it with you.