More Christmas... and some other birds.

I got a large shipment of justjohanna stamps today and you know what I had to do. Yeah, make cards. :) All these cards are all justjohanna.
This is another of the tall cards I've been making, I stamped the border stamp a few times to go all the way across, then cut the scallop part off. I need some really good white ink. Who has some? Anyhow I drew the frame around the bird and colored the bird and the inside of the frame with watercolor pencil, then went over with perfect pearls. White pen for the dots inside the snowflakes. The inside says Season's Greeting, which makes it a Christmas card.
This bird card is really similar to other bird cards I've made. I LOVE to make birds drive this scooter. I love it so much that although for months this has been my only bird I have several more now so expect to see a whole pack of birds driving this scooter. I paper pieced the bird and the scooter. Then that same ole paper tear background, drawn road. I drew the Santa hat, that makes it a Christmas card. (I'm trying to get them done, so almost all my cards right now are getting Christmased up.)
Just look at these owls!!! I mean LOOK at them. You can't stand it they are so cute. Ok, I colored them with colored pencils, then their eyes with the white. I believe this makes the eyes really stand out nicely. Whenever I have a stamp where I really want the white to stand out like a white animal or something I do it on a colored background then color it white. (Or I try to, sometimes I'm on auto pilot and just stamp on white anyhow) I drew the hats. The red paper was already embossed, it's by Karen Foster. See how the one corner is coming up? I'm going to go fix that right now. I think it's because of the brads, but I'll show it who is boss.
This one is fun. The flowers are actually not flowers at all! They are this birdcage stand turned upside down. It says "hope you're feeling chirpy soon" But then owls don't chirp do they? Well this one does.

Another chirpy owl. This is a LAMP, it's not a shower. That being said, it should probably have been a shower. Do you see a shower? Ok, fine it's a shower, course that doesn't explain the yellow... Well then, see it's a lamp. (I'll make a shower one tomorrow OK?) Anyhow it's that same birdcage stand from the last card. The same phrase is there if you can't read it.

I'm published.

Hurray! So my good friends Sherri and Ethel were all excited to be in the current issue of Take Ten magazine. Of course they were and I was thrilled for them. Then guess what?? Sherri got her copy and told me that I'm in there too! I couldn't be in better company.

I haven't seen it yet. I'm going to wait for my issue to come in the mail, although between me and you it's tempting to run right out and buy it!

You can see the cover and order it if you choose here. (of course you know I'm going to encourage you to get it from your favorite Local Stamp Store if they sell it) I'm way excited because I am 90% sure they carry this at the store I hang out at and if so I can force all my friends to buy it. (Friends, you know what's coming) Of course I'm teasing!

Sherri's card you can actually see on that link, if you scroll down it is the adorable one with the underdrawers on a line with tiny close pins. Oh and that's just one of her cards in there. I can't tell if any of the sample ones are Ethel's and I know none are mine. Sherri told me I have 5 in there, 3 Papertrey ones on one page, then a one with The Cat's Pajamas and one with a Stampin' Up set.

So that's all very exciting. :) I also got GREAT mail today. Like crazy insane great mail. Like better than Christmas great mail. (not better than the birth of Jesus, you know what I mean)

Tall Christmas cards

Here are a few Christmas cards I made today, they are all 4x9.25 inches. (business envelope)
This one has shimmery paper and The Angel Company snowflakes. I stamped them in versamark, then dusted them with perfect pearls. Little pink jewels for accent.
This is another set by The Angel Company, it is on watercolor paper. I'm thinking of adding some ribbon down by the Peace on Earth part, I'll have to see what they have at my LSS in a nice sheer because nothing I have will do. It's painted with watercolor pencil.
This card is all about my new Scor-Pal. I used the Scor-Pal on everything, but on this card I used it to make the emobssed borders. I LOVE that I can do that with it. The little snowman is cut from patern paper and the greeting is by Papertrey.

And those are some of my tall Christmas cards. :)

some other cards are made too I'll put them up later today probably.

Christmas Cards Everywhere.

I realized the other day that although I had make a handful of Christmas cards I still had a long way to go. There will be more but here are some of the designs I have for this year:


This set is by Darcie's Heart & Home. Darcie's stamps are A D O R A B L E. Like really super cutsie adorable. Which of course I love. I couldn't pass this set up, living in Florida and all. I made these ones especially for my northern family and friends. It is colored with copic markers.

Both of the above are stamps that Asela designed for Cornish Heritage Farms. I colored them with tombow markers and a waterbrush for blending. I was sure the penguin was my favorite but after coloring the tree I think maybe that's my favorite. You have to go see the whole collection though because there is a reindeer too that's TOO sweet. They are stamped on Fabriano Notecards wich I got from Star Lit Studio on E Bay. You want to get some of these notecards, they just feel really rich and nice. I really think that you can do a simple one layer note card like these and they are so nice. It's watercolor paper too, so you can color really nicely on them.

These are two variations on the same basic card. These stamps are all by PapertreyInk. This stamp set was a must have for me because last year Julie sent me the most lovely Christmas card ever, and it had a tree limb with ornaments on it. Hers was an Asian feel and really totally different, but when I saw this set I had to have it. I bought the little clear dome thingies Papertrey sells too, and then I was delighted to find that I have a punch that is exactly the size of the balls! :) I am out of gold ink AND out of gold embossing powder (the horror) so I used gold perfect pearls on the gold parts. So I stamped the parts I wanted in gold on red paper, then punched the circle and stuck it on the dome then onto the stamped hanger hook thingie. (that hook thingie looks really nice if you emboss it in gold but I'm out.) I only had a few sheets of metalic gold and metalic red and wanted to do 14 of these cards so I had to make a design that only used a small amount of the colors. I like how it turned out.



And these I promised a while back to share. These are pincone orniments that Stephen made for his Grama Sue and my mom.

Blogger Pay it Forward

There is a blogger pay it forward going around. It goes like this. I have three goodies. I will send them to the first people who leave a comment on this post. By doing so you agree to send three goodies to three people who comment on your blog. (so yea, you have to have a blog to play, sorry non-bloggers, I love you guys too!)

The things you give away can be anything, supplies, stamps, hand made items, whatever you like. It can even be a suprise.

I am giving three clear stamp sets. They are by K and Company. I'm going to let you pick your theme. (so the first to comment gets first choice and so on in that manner) They are Girl Baby, Travel, and Wedding. I wanted to let you know so that if you just hate clear stamps, or girl babies, weddings and travel you don't bother ya know?

Ok, that's it, post away! If you are one of the first three please email me your address. (email is at the bottom of the blog)

Everyone loves cupcakes

It's a fact, everyone loves cupcakes. This bird loves them so much he needed to have seven of them.

The cupcake is from a stamp that has the cake and a little "happy birthday" under it. I would never use them together so I cut those suckers apart, so now I have a cupcake and a "happy birthday" I stamped the scooter first, then the bird, then the cupcakes. Bottom first, then on up. I actually only planned for him to have one cupcake, but Stephen was there, and he likes the number seven (and on that topic, who likes certain numbers? That's a little strange right?) so he said I should so that many and I thought maybe he was right. I certainly think seven is funnier than one. I stamped the cupcake again on the pink band with versamark ink and some layering and a bit of cutting and it was done. :)
Bird and scooter are by justjohanna (and did you know the "h" is silent? Did I tell you that already? If not now you know.) The cupcake is from those famous "dollar bins at Michaels" and the "happy birthday" is by greengrass rubberstamps. I colored with copic markers and some pencil for shading.


*this was done before Thanksgiving. I hope you all had lovely Thanksgivings, I didn't. Me and Stephen were really sick, I couldn't even taste the food! That is beyond depressing. I got no sleep and that made me very crabby, we were out of town at my Daddy's too, which is usually awesome but when you are very sick it's not. Now Ethan and Brian have it. I feel very badly about this. It's a snotty thing, major congestion. No fever or anything, just really tons of snot. There is not a lot you can give an 18 month old for that. I am feeling a bit better, I'm quite sure we will all recover. All that being said I know I have a ton to be thankful for.*

Especially for Tracey

My good friend Tracey wanted to see Hanna in these colors. Apparently this is how she's dressed today. (still waiting to hear if it's raining money there today?) Also Tracey loves bling. You can't reallytell but the hearts and the little knob thingies on the umbrella are all sparkly. I put Ranger Glossy accents over the boots.


Also I need feedback: Do you like the white background or the dark one better? Or should I use which ever gives better contrast with the project, sometimes the white seems to wash stuff out and sometimes the dark makes the edges unclear... so both right? I'm talking about the background in the photos I take of my cards. :)

New toys!

I have tons of new stuff to play with!
Let's see, what order to share my stuff.

I'll start with my new pencils. You may have noticed I have not colored with pencil in a while. I got totally burnt out on the gamsol, magic colored pencil thing. I still love to see it I just wasn't digging doing it. So I sold all my 132 prismacolor pencils, and my gamsol and my stumps. I got markers, which you know I love. And I always had my watercolor pencils which I totally am head over heels with. But sometimes I felt I needed pencils. So I decided to buy a small pack. I was going to get crayola. But my awesome mother-in-law, who always encourages me, told me to look in the art section for something more mid range.

I did and I found these:

Oh woodless pencils I love you. First of all they were cheap, they were $12.99 for the 24, but you know I used a coupon. Second, they are woodless which makes them look really cool and artsy, and no breaking leads which happened sometimes with the prismacolor. Third they are really soft and creamy. Now not everyone would like that, but I do. So although I still think prismacolor is the leader of the pencil industry, these are really great and I love them.



Second I got my new Hanna Stamps! in the mail today! The newest one is my favorite of all. (You know I have all three sets so far.)

For this first one I colored her with the pencils I showed. I used the prismacolor blending pencil to get all the pencil marks out. The prismacolor blending pencil will not give the magic colored pencil technique, but it will blurr your pencil strokes out. So I like that. The patern paper here is by The Angel Company. It's all one sheet, I just cut it on this little seam part so it looks like I'm clever with layering. Also see how the umbrella is sticking out? I LOVE that technique and I use it all the time. LOVE it.
On this next one I colored first with lighter tones of the copic markers, then back over with the pencils. But the pencils were so new to me and yummy that instead of subtle shading I pretty much went all vivid again and so this is the outcome. I also put Ranger Glossy Accents on the rain and the puddle. I can't decide if it would have been better to mask the entire Hanna off and have the rain sorta go into her... This was easier though. Oh I did make a mask of the boots for all the puddles, the puddle is so stinkin cute I know I'll use that mask every time almost.


Another new toy is a pair of clear stamp sets. They are by Inky Antics. I picked them up at my LSS on Friday. They have turtles and all these turtle accessories. I got the boy themed one and the Halloween themed one, I felt those two had the most versatile turtles. (I couldn't get the hat to line up right on the birthday themed one. and I don't have a girl.) So this turtle is from the Halloween one, but all the stuff with him is from the boy theme.
Here is a close up of the coloring. I let myself do the shading more on this one. I especially did it on the tummy plate thingie. And there is glossy accents on the sunglasses.


And that's what I did today. :)

Another "adore"able card

I had to try again with this awesome Eat Cake Graphics stamp. I wasn't happy with how I got blue on the face of baby Jesus. This time I stamped the scene on blue paper and embossed with gold. Then stamped again on watercolor paper and colored with watercolor pencil and blender pen. Then cut out the colored and layered it back on the blue. I really ike how it turned out. The whole main image and the brown layer I embossed all around with gold, then again on the bottom of the card.
a close up:

More cards from last night's crop.

Here are the other two cards I made last night.
These stamps are by Gina K. (Carolyn King collection) Isn't that doggie's face adorable? I mean just look at it! This may be the most adorable dog ever. And a bird on his head! I couldn't stand it if this stamp was any cuter. I'm really digging this torn paper background technique. You will see it again on my next card. The brads are from the "dollar spot" at Target. I love Target, not as much as Costco of course. I colored the doggie with copics. The main card is by Bazzill and it comes like this all scalloped. I'm nagging my LSS to get more of these in. They sat on the shelf for a bit then all the sudden everyone bought them, I think they have one sheet of blue left. I'm trying to leave it for some other stamper, but if it's there next time I'm taking it!

These stamps are also Gina K. It was one stamp, but I cut it apart so I could use the sun on other things, as it's a particularly cute sun. I did the torn paper background again. Honestly I think I like this because I don't like coloring sky. The sand castle and sun are colored with copics. Oh and we all know I don't have the name of the paper company. I'm going to try harder to get that for you.

Of note: My son this morning got up at the crack of 8! Shocking! So I was laying on the couch with him and he was watching TV. He's two. The Joy of Painting came on PBS right after some PBS cartoon. I sat up to change the channel, because of course he would want more cartoons? NOPE! He wanted to watch the soothing Bob Ross paint happy trees. He stood near the TV and watched every stroke, anticipated where Bob would put a tree or a bird. He loved it. It made me very happy. I used to watch Bob Ross with my dad growing up.

Crop cards. :)

The crop was good. Only 4 of us but I got some good stuff done.

The cat is by Eat Cake Graphics I colored him with copic markers. The rest is patern paper. I circled the ad with a copic. I colored him to match his ad. Isn't he cute? :)
This stamp is by Eat Cake too. I got a bit of blue on the baby Jesus' cheek and I will probably redo it because of that. I mean if he was just any baby maybe not.. but it's Jesus. Colored with copics again.
This is also Eat Cake, colored in copics. I know this paper is Bo Bunny. I usually never look then I can't figure it out, but this time I looked. I really like these stick robots.

Did I tell you about my new ATG I got? I love it. Love love love love it. I did already to through a roll of tape, but I had that class earlier this week and there was so much stuff in it all my students kept running out of tape so I let them all use this. I bet this next roll will last a bit longer. I do know I'll be buying it by the case next time. 5 rolls, what was I thinking?

A little story for you.

all stamped images are justjohanna. I colored with watercolor pencil and waterbrush. The book was a children's story book that I painted and such. I do not remember the fot I used, but if anyone just loves it I can try to look it up for you. Lots of use of stamp positioner and masking.

Just so you know...

I'm going to a crop tonight. I'm bringing a bunch of stamps and do NOT plan to make a toilet card.

:)

So those of you who aren't so keen about the potty humor have no fear.


thanks to everyone who left kind comments about my last card.

It ain't my fault!

I cannot be held responsible for this. I mean Gina designed a toilet... what was I supposed to do? And puff paint, that already existed. Wasn't it obvious that I'd be forced to put them together.

I hope I don't loose all my readers with this one. Come on... it's funny right? Jason?? You think it's funny don't you? Jodie? Suzi? Someone???
I colored the toilet with copic markers. It's a 50's toilet. The poo is brown puff paint. Glossy accents on the "water" The stamps are all Gina K (so blame her teeheehee!) You can't really see it but I stamped the toilet brush and the toilet paper on the black over and over, in black, so it's like a watermark effect.

Does anyone know what the font is on "This too shall pass."? I love that font.


Ok, I'm definately nervous that no one will love me anymore after posting this so if you still do please tell me.

Gina K Bunnies

I love these bunnies from Gina K. I know they are not new at all but I just got mine so that's what I'm excited to use. (Although if anyone see's my good friend Sherri and she asks, just tell her I'm already doing Easter, what's she working on?) This is for the sketch challange at Splitcoaststampers for this week. I super love the sketches but forget to do them. Some of the hundred blogs I read each day reminded me today. (Thanks hundred bloggers!)

So to do these bunnies I stamped them with palette ink on vellum. Then I flipped them over and sort of dry embossed over the back of them, filling them all in, which turns vellum white. Then flipped them right side up and added a little pink to the cheeks and ears. Then cut them out.

The next trick was I wanted them pop dotted up but they are pretty much clear so foam tape shows. Here's the tip, I used the clear pop dots and cut them carefully so the'd be the exact same size as the feature they went under, so there is one under each head and one under each tail, you don't notice them if they are all contained on one area.

The sun is from another Gina K stamp (this set) and I paper pieced it.

The little "you & me" phrase is from the Stampin' Up! hostess set "So Many Phrases".

Here's something funny I had made all my layers way too big so I had to cut the whole thing down, which resulted in TONS of layered paper on the main image, it almost is as thick as chipboard! Look at that! Also I noticed this just now. These are Stephen's play doh's. He spent some time putting them away and apparently it was so he could situate them in this pleasing arrangement. Pretty neat. Or maybe not... perhaps I just find it neat because I love almost everything that kid does.

A busy but nice day

I imagine this is how people with jobs feel.

I taught my Birthday Calendar class twice today. It took over 3 hours each time, so that's practicly a full day's work. It went really well. I had fun students in both sessions. The night girls all got a little silly, which of course I love. In both I had people who have taken from me before so that helps. (Helps with my nervousness, I get nervous, I'm sure you would never had guessed)

I'm feeling much better health wise too. I'm still getting tired easily, but I don't have any congestion left. The boys have some still but they are such troupers when they are sick, they still play and run around and smile. Not their mommy, I'm a big wimp when I'm sick.

I don't have anything to show you today so I'm going to tell a funny Stephen story instead:

Stephen is two if you don't know, about two and a half actually. So he has a few tiny chores. (because I'm a big fan of forced labor) One of them is feeding the cats. I help of course. So I get down the huge tub of cat food and hand it to him. Because it's almost full we have this conversation:

S: Dis bowls heavy mommy
M: I know, can you carry it?
S: yeah
M: Cuz you gots mad skillz? (because I want him to appreciate all cultures... nah, because I'm a nut!)
S: No mommy, I gots happy skillz.

Now how can a girl stay down with that kind of interjection in to normal daily chores.

Ok, everyone! I'll make something out of paper and put it on here tomorrow.

Floral under glass.

I love dandelions. I don't care one bit that they are weeds. I don't really love them when they are yellow, but when they turn white and you can make a wish and blow on them. :) Also we don't have them here, I mean they may exist in my town, but not in my yard, we get these huge ugly thistles instead.

Anyhow when I saw this dandelion stamp in a baggie with a few other flower stamps for just $2 I had to get it. Then at the crop Saturday night "Susan the SU demo" told me again how to do cracked glass. I've tried this a few times and it never worked. I think the big magical Susan tip is to crack it while the freezer is still open, as in right away, no walking two steps away and doing it... Anyhow it worked! :) So here is my card:
Here's a close up of the cracked glass. The dreamy effect edges is because I'm so excited about this, it's like a dream or something. Also I forgot to say that I used the "tonal applicator" stamp by Stampscapes to get the blue on the background. LOVE that stamp.
This card confuses me. I really like the starkness of the flowers on white, and their placement over there on the right. I didn't know what to do next so I stamped this phrase. Now to give me a teensy bit of cred back, it's NOT ugly gray, it's turquoise perfect pearls, but you know when the light hits that stuff it gets silver so it looks silver, but believe me it's not the only thing wrong with this card. I'm thinking the flowers on a nicer cardstock, like a Fabriano notecard, but still in the black, with a script phrase, something simple... then maybe I'd like it.
Stephen made an AWESOME craft today too, but he made them as gifts for his Gamma Sue and his Gramma (my mom) so I won't show them until after they get them. He was too cute making them though.

Two fun girly projects.

First of all, let me apologize, I've been sick. It hit me Wednesday night, and on Thursday and Friday I was sooo sick. I even had my wonderful mother-in-law come watch my boys on Friday so I could lay on the couch and doze all day. It was some funky throat thing. I'm pretty much over it now but still really tired and run down. It's poop.

So I didn't blog. But I'm back and with two projects.


The first one is a frame made with two chipboard coasters. It's different than the normal hinge ones though. You can mail this one in a normal envelope! :)
The paper is Basic Grey's Perhaps. It goes really well with these cool flowers. This stuff is all actually leftovers from that huge Birthday Calendar class I'm doing Tuesday. So you can slip a photo in the ribbon (there is ribbon under the flower). Here is a back view so you can see how it's held up.
That easy, fold a second piece of chipboard in half, try really hard to get it to fold even, it tries to get all wonky on you. Then attach a bit of adhesive (I recently got an ATG thingie and LOVE it I got it here. They shiped crazy fast and I can't say enough positive about them.) to the middle edges of it, then put some ribbon on one end. Push the whole fram to where you think the angle is good and attach the ribbon so it's taunt. Trim any excess. Then to mail it you just fold it down and stick it in a card or an envlope or whatever. Tadaaa!


Next we have a Hanna Stamps! card. This is with the newer "Tis the season" set. I colored her with tombow markers and waterbrush for blending. I wanted to do something a little different on this so it has two inside parts, one is normal and blank and I'll write my greeting in there.

The other you can see here. It's pretty much useless. But it's neat with all that bling and stuff. I thought it might be fun to attach a gift card in this little flap part, then write out a greeting inside the main part.

Ok, I should go lay down and rest some more. I have that after-the-illness fatigue you know?

Another justjohanna Design Team card

I'm not going to show them all. (because I didn't take pictures of all of them) But here is another one. I love this one because that bird really likes shopping. It's important to have a way to get all your junk home. That's the only reason a bird would really drive a scooter I rekon. I mean she could just fly, but not with 5 packages, 2 cupcakes and 1 full size cake! So she does what any smart bird would do and that's use her trusty scooter.

I am loving paper piecing these backgrounds. It makes me happy. Here's to hoping it makes just johanna happy too!

Flamingo Christmas

Here is a card for those of us in Florida. Although I'll be entirely honest I never see flamingoes except in the zoo. Does anyone get them wild in their area? And the ones in my zoo are so light pink they are almost white... But anyhow this is to send to people who do NOT live in Florida and think we have all these flamingoes running around. If I see one I'll stick a Santa hat on it and force it to do tree decorating labor.

The flamingo is by Viva Las Vegastamps, the greeting is by Papertrey. I colored with prismacolor and copic markers. Then used tons of liquid aplique (Oh it was liquid aplique on my Santa's Coming card too thanks to Joy for telling me the name and reminding me I didn't know yesterday.) I also used glassy accents and glitter and stardust clear glitter pen. The greeting is embossed with silver EP. :)

Santa's coming!

Well Halloween is over. I don't make many Thanksgiving cards. So it's time to really get going on Christmas. You may know about my card keeping track of delima. If not don't worry, it was crazy but it's all good now. So I went with the notebook idea. I'm going to note who gets each stamp used on their cards in a notebook so I don't use the same stamps on people's cards twice. Because that would bother me if I did that. Because I'm OCD.

So this stamp is by Stampabilities and it's called, "Hurry Santa" It must be old because I got it in a clearance bin a few months ago. I thought he'd be fun to color. He is! For the white puffy parts I put that puff stuff (can't remember what it's called, you put it on, let it sit a few hours then heat...) so I put that on and then put glitter over it and let it sit then heated it. Very cool how the glitter sorta gets all in there. :) He's colored with prismacolor and copic markers.

He's stamped ON Strathmore's Smooth Bristol paper. I almost always use this paper when I use the copic/prismacolor markers. I find it is the best. The only negative is that it's slightly cream instead of white-white. It's usually fine, but if I need a really true white I will use the Papertrey white which does ok on the markers too.

Also I'm not sure if I've shared this but some watercolor paper you buy in pads at the craft stores has a smooth side. Strathmore does and this one I got today... Canson Biggie jr does. So one side is bumpy like normal watercolor paper, but the other side is all smooth. Which is better for stamping of course. And it still blends and watercolors and whatever just fine, so that's cool. :)

Guest Artist

Stephen (my 2 yr old) made this lovely snail out of play dough today. It's pretty cute.

:)