Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Hybrids


I attended a downline meeting at Marcia's house this weekend.  It was fun.  I got to meet some of her new demonstrators.  Always so good to talk to other women as crazed as I seem to be about paper crafting.  We were talking about My Digital Studio and I mentioned I really liked the look of hybrid projects - starting out with something from MDS and then taking it up a notch with some stamping and embellishment.

So I thought these tags from one of the blogs I visit daily (me, my stamps and I) were a great example of that.  Can't wait to try these out.

And can't wait for my evening at the shop tonight.  It's been way too long!  See ya' soon.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Friday Freebie

It's a joyful day!  Congratulations Val !!! You're a free woman at the end of the day today!!!!  Hope there are wonderful, grand adventrues ahead for you.

This digital image is one that was posted on StampTV.  Here's the link if you want to grab the .pdf.  Thought it would be a really fun one to color and embellish.  Here's a gorgeous card that someone over on SplitCoast posted which uses the image.  How cool, huh?

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Transition


This is another card from the Lovely As A Tree set.  I thought it was a good transition card between Fall and Winter for the weekly family newsletters.  Kind of looks a little wintery without being too Christmas-y.  The outlining technique is one I stole from Simplicity - my favorite clean and simple blogger.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Last of the Fall Cards


Here's how my watercolored card turned out.  Thank you Mona! for the help with the blending technique.  I added some mossy green under the tree which I thought added a nice color balance.  And then because it looked a little drab mounted on plain cardstock I randomly stamped a branch stamp in Early Espresso ink to create my own patterned paper.  Can't quite decide if I like it or not??

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Lovely As A Tree


Have had my Lovely As A Tree stamp set out for the last few weeks.  Made this card  for one of the weekly family cards.  Loved the gold embossing.  Used the Dazzle sticker lines to outline the tree and the sentiment.  Wish I would have done something a little different on the quote - different font? different alignment? ???  but I just ran out of time. 

Here's another version where I used a different patterned paper. 


Have been trying to go to my scrap folders first before cutting anything new.  That's actually been kind of fun and something I want to do more of in the New Year.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Gratitude


Feels like a long time away - away from this blog, away from my gal pals, and away from being able to breath.  I've been struggling with a really nasty cold for over a week now.  Early last week I thought I was on the downhill side of things but then Thursday I really bottomed out.  Have been home and quiet for 3 days now.  Although still very congested, my energy feels a little better than it did on Friday.

I'm trying find quiet things to do and to resist being up cleaning or wrapping presents.  I feel so behind on everything for the holidays which makes me so sad and disappointed but I'm trying to find the lessons in all of this - maybe that you just can't control anything and just have to accept and go with the flow.

So I'm cleaning off my desktop and will be posting some of the weekly cards to the family.  Some you've seen at the shop and others - maybe this one? - will be new to you. 

The word panel on this one is a jumbo wheel stamp from SU.  Of course I can't use the rollers to save my soul so I unmounted this one.  Then took my watercolor crayons and randomly colored the words.  I misted it with water before I stamped it.  I loved how it turned out.

Hope your week gets off to a good start.  And this is a very special week for our gal pal Val - her last week of work in the looney bin.  After Friday she's a free woman - free to define whatever next chapter she chooses.  I'm so excited for her!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Dilema Solved?

You know how we've been talking about what to do when Val retires with the "library" of stamps sets we co-own???  Well I have a suggestion to run by you. . . .

I stumbled on this concept while blog surfing on SplitCoast
Did you guys ever see that movie?  "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"  Well a link on this stamp company's web site describes something similar to do with stamp sets.  You take a stamp set make something with it and then forward it on to the next person. 

Well I'm not sure we want to put that kind of creative pressure on us but we could do something similar. . .

Maybe split the co-owned stamp sets into 3 sets and then each of us would take a set for 4 months.  At the end of four months we would swap/rotate sets.  That way over the course of a year we'd all get a little dedicated time with the stamp sets.

Maybe we can talk about it a little more on Tuesday night.