Travel Time

I decided to pair my travel Kim Hughes set with some office themed papers.


First I made a card to send to the home while someone is away. I used Grid Backgrounder on the background.

Then this one is for someone who is about to go on a trip. I used the scor pal to do the grid background. This one also uses a crackle background stamp that is from The Angel Company.
Supplies: All the stamps except the crackle are Cornish Heritage Farms. The patern paper is by Stampin' Up.

In other news:

I went to Stampfest Orlando yesterday. It was awesome. I'm going to go every year I decided.

I met famous people!!! Wanna see?

This is me and Keri and Kim. I had planned to hook up with Keri but I had no idea Kim was going to be there. I saw her in line for pizza and thought, "Hmm, her nametag says "Kim" and she's got a MFT shirt on, I wonder if she's THE MFT Kim?" and she was! Hurray.

Here I am with Bad Sherry. She was working at the Rubbernecker booth, doing awesome things all day long for the crowds.

Here I am with Jeanne. She was working the Rubbernecker booth too. It was cool they had three demos going at the same time. Very cool set up.

I also met Kittie. She was also at Rubbernecker, doing a demo of her new stamp sets. AWESOME by the way! AND we saw her make her famous clouds and it was so super easy. I can't wait to try it out.

I was with my good friend Anita. I'm sorry to say I didn't take any photos with her. :( I kept thinking I'd get one later... later never came.

I did buy plenty of stuff though! Lets see what we have here:

A TON of paper from Marcos Papers. Do yall know them? They will take all your money and leave you with amazing papers.

Some of those coil thingies for the Bind-It-All I have on order.

Some Inque Boutique stamps.

An alphabet stamp set.

A bunch of unmounted rubber stamps.

That ranger white pen I keep hearing about.

The black momento inkpad.

Some transparent glitter.

I totally regret NOT buying stuff at The Stencil Collection booth. They had a huge kit of almost everything that had these tiny beads, colored emobssing pastes, chalks, colored glossy stuff like glossy accents, only colors, a DVD, a tool kit, pick two stencils from the wall, and on and on. Anita got that. Well in her room later I played with it to decorate the black notebook, see it there in the center of my shot? That was SUPER fun! I wish I'd raced back in there and bought some! I'm going to have to make sure I get some next year.

Oh look, Stamping! haha

I do still stamp! I made this adorable Eat Cake Graphics card just yesterday.
I colored her with colored pencils and a bit of OMS to blend. I also added a ton of copic glitter pen to the pattern paper.

Scottie Softie

I have been wanting to do a more difficult softie. This was it! haha. I used THIS pattern, which is free and you can download it. And her dog is ADORABLE so I gave it a go.

Why was it hard? Let me count the ways.
1. Gussets. I'm new to them. I'm not sure about them. They are totally necessary for 3D stuff but still...
2. I think I was supposed to enlarge this pattern. My dog is TINY. Like I can almost totally conceal him in my hand.
3. Decided on the most difficult softie yet to try a totally new to me fabric. It's fleece. It does feel NICE though.
4. get ready for this one. I had never done a french knot until today. Ever. But I know that now.
5. I was IN A CRAFT STORE today with a coupon and everything and didn't get a new needle. Mine is super dull its like sewing with a rock. :(

and here we go:
the butt:
he looks a little sad doesn't he?
And that's the end of that. No really I might make another one, only larger. Maybe with a print fabric too.

A Million thanks to Jenny B Harris who created and shared this pattern. If you think he's cute go make yourself one. You've got nothing to loose.

Giraffe Softie

Stephen has been requesting a giraffe softie for the entire week and a half I've been making them. Last night I gave it a go. For the basic shape I used the Baby Love stamp set by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms as inspiration. I did make changes of course, one being the eyes. I bought cat's eyes to make a tiger and Stephen wanted them on his giraffe.

Here is a closeup of the face. I tried to do the cat's eyes on angles a bit to make them more silly. I didn't want an evil giraffe on my hands! I used ribbon for the tail and those horn thingies they have. I probably should have used them for the neck ruff thing too, but we learn all the time don't we. Oh and tounge out, for maximum cuteness.
So I told you I learn something new each one I make. This time I learned that the neck is not a good place to leave your opening to stuff on something with as tall a neck as this. The neck has to be stuffed REALLY tight to get it to be firm enough to let him stand up. But with the opening there it was really hard to pack stuffing in as much as I needed. I got the job done, but it would have been easier if I'd had my opening lower on the body or on his back even.

If everything goes as planned a happy tiger will be next up.

What's New Pussycat?

I have a confession to make. I used to buy stamps, get them here and then use them a lot right away. I've been bad lately. I have several stamp sets that I've not even used! I do cut the rubber right away and get them on my shelves. But I have.. at least 5 sets that I've not used. It's terrible. It's also a sign of too much shopping I think. Why oh why is it so easy to buy online? haha!

This is one of those sets. I HAD to have It's a Mod, Mod World *which gets "It's a small world" stuck in my head all the time by the way* a few weeks ago. I felt I would perish if I didn't have it. I love space, and retro visions of the future. And cats. So you can see it was made for me.

Well finally last night I whipped up a card using it. What do you think?
The coloring is done with copics, then I went over it with the copic pens.


In other news:

Hobby Lobby had their felt pieces on 40% off last night so I stocked up, I got like 30 of them. They are normally pretty cheap but I felt like really stocking up. I got some with tiger stripes, my youngest son loves tigers.

I'm all excited about this weekend when I have that stamp convention in Orlando with my friend Anita. I can't imagine what I'd need to buy, but I'm excited anyhow. My family and I are going to Sea World Friday, then Saturday I'll go to the convention and the boys will go to a second day at Sea World. I'm sure the boys will love it. At our zoo their favorite thing are the fish that are in some exhibits.

A bunny for Kim

I made my friend Kim and her boys aprons. I've used this same pattern for aprons about a million times, but I always buy way too much fabric. So I decided they needed softies to go with them. *and I still have several yards of each fabric*
I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the "Pirate Monsters" I made the boys, but here is the bunny I made for Kim:
Back Side. I was supposed to make a yarn fluff ball but that never works for me, they always fall apart. So I didn't bother, I did a curled strip of fabric for a tail instead.
Here is a close up of his face.
He's from a pattern in the book "Softies" which I really do love. I'm enjoying doing my own designs, but that book got me into the game. And I'm going to tackle some of the more advanced designs I tell you! I will.

Blog List

I've decided to have a blog list afterall. I had taken it down a few months ago. I'll try to keep it current this time. *My old one wasn't current and it was generally a mess*. I've also added a section for the softies, and other sewing blogs I love.

I'm adding to it over time, but if you want to be on just let me know and I'll add you. No problems.

Think Pink for Caardvarks

So this week at Caardvarks the challange is Think Pink. I love to make pink cards so I thought I'd give it a go.
I have a few companies going on here. The bug is by Papertrey. I stamped it then covered it with Stampin' Up!'s irredescent ice embossing powder for glitter, then covered the whole thing with Ranger Glossy Accents. So it's shiny and like epoxy stuff but with glitter inside. Fun. The "Good Luck" is by Missy B and the Polkadot is by Cornish Heritage Farms.

speaking of CHF, they are having a sale today! check them out.

Inky Bat is done!

He might be the most adorable softie I've ever done. You know in the one week that I've been doing them...

Introducing Inky Ink the Bat. Stephen named him. He tried to change it later to "Owl Tree" but I wasn't accepting that nonsense.

Inky features poseable wings.
See how the backs of the wings is a mess? I learn something on each softie. Today I learned that when you want two side by side stitches to hold something in place either just use the machine, which would have looked really cool, or capture the wire with small stitches, then do your decorative backstitch on just the black BEFORE putting it with the red. Do what you have to do to hide the back side of backstitching. At least mine, because it's a mess.
But look at the face! LOVE IT. Oh and the one ear is intentionally bigger, I thought that would be quirky.
Here is the wireing I did inside the wing to make it poseable. Also, see that embrodery floss in the background? Whatever you do, DON'T buy that kind. I should have known, I got like 20 skeins of it for $3, and the next expensive was more than twice that. It stinks. It knots up, it doesn't stay together when you need it to, it just stinks!! Don't do it! Buy less of higher quality. Anything but this crap.
Oh and on the desk pad you can see a preview of a card I'll show you soon. The "thank you" stamp. Do you know the company on that stamp? I bet you do!

Inky Ink is dedicated to Kim, who tells me 5 times a day that bats are cute. He's just dedicated to her though, I gotta keep him.

Half Bat

Look, an actual creation. I felt bad with two posts that are not things.

Today I'm working on this bat: He stands up without leaning on something. I like that. He's definately a bat, see, he has fangs. Stephen thinks he's an owl. Kid loves owls. Anyhow he will have wings. They will be black felt with no stuffing, but some wire inside so they can pose some. Just as soon as I get to that.

See those buttons? I saw them at the thrift store and thought they looked like eyes. The fabric is from the thrift store too.

Plush Show!!

Ok, chances are if you are reading this AND you love softies AND you live in/near St. Louis you already know, but if not and all those things I said are true then click THIS. There is a plush show TODAY.

I wanna go.

Plush show people, please have a show here in Jacksonville.

*and not "plushies and furries", I saw that episode of CSI you can't trick me*

Short enabler alert!

Don't read this if you, like me, have already spent all your stamping budget for the month! Come back next month and read it.

Ok, it's Kim's fault again! She sent me the link, enabler her.

Here you go, ready?

Pink Persimmon.

I warned you!

Ok the top three sets for ME at least are as follows:
Oh Deer Ouline
Little Red Wagon
and
Little Cuties

Oh the cuteness. Think fresh vintage, or cute vintage.

Oh and Cardvarks is having a challange and you can WIN a bunch of the new stamps! Click HERE for that.

super simple card.

This card is super simple. I was inspired by cards in the stationary section of Target. They have all these recycled cards on kraft colored paper. One had a background that was a light moss color and then the floral in red. I LOVED IT. So I raced home and made this, inspired by it.

All stamps are by Cornish Heritage Farms. I love them. did you know? I do, I really, really do. I actually have a pretty good collection of CHF going on too! Didn't have dark green ribbon so I colored some cream ribbon with an inkpad. That little thingie it's tied on Kim gave me. I have no idea where it comes from, but I like it bunches.

In other news:

I'm waiting for two packages today. Tracked them. They are UPS, will come today. UPS comes very late here though, sometimes even after 6pm. Blah. Anyhow one is Bare Escentuals makeup from QVC. I love Bare Escentuals. Really, really love it. The other is a HUGE package from Viva Las Vegas Rubber Stamps. Some grab bags, miracle tape and a CD holder that I'll use with unmounted stamps. I cannot wait. It's the largest grab bag thing I've ever ordered, so I'm really excited to see what I get. I'll take pics for sure.

I am thinking about selling some stuff on Etsy. Not a ton, at least at first. Simple notecards mostly. If anyone sells on there or has or otherwise has comment or advice I welcome it. Either here on the blog or by email is great.

Two Face and Dee Cap

I made two cute softies last night. Both original, well one is sorta original, you will see.

First I have a turtle. His name is Dee Cap, because his neck is so skinny I had to almost cut his head off to get polyfill in there. If you make any animals plan them so they don't have any super skinny bits. The legs and tail were not picnic either. In the end I think he's stinking cute and Ethan loves him. (he's for Ethan)
back of Dee Cap
Next is a tooth. See now, I have the book Softies which I HIGHLY recomend. There are actual patterns in the back for all the projects. And a pocket thing to hold them all in. There is a tooth on the cover see? And Stephen thought that was super darling and wanted a tooth. But the tooth appears to be super hard, it's a molar type tooth, four little feet things, dent in the top, and so on. It scares me. So instead I googled "tooth" then clicked on where it gives you images. I found this, and used it as a template for this tooth.

I call him Two Face because, see he has two faces. He's happy on one side (and featured Bare Escentuals blush) and he's sad on the other side. He's also a hit, Stephen loves him.

In other news, this scrap of red felt made a great background for these pics! I am officially in the market for a large piece of black and a large piece of white. For all my photos. I rekon I'll fashion myself a box and everything. Sigh.

Friend card

I made another card with the Mokume Gane clay technique. (ultra thin layers of colors of clay, stamp into it. Then shave off the relief to show a smooth surface with the print of your stamp.)

I had wanted to do a mother-of-pearl look, but it didn't work out, it just looked gray and ick. So I added some gold to the mix and got this. I like it. Not what I had in mind, but nice.
Close up. Oh and the brown I stamped with versafine ink. You can use pigment ink on uncured clay and it will not dry, so be careful. But after you bake it it will be perminant. So that's nice. The stamps I used did press into the clay a bit, so it's not totally smooth, but it's ok. I also did add the clear finishing stuff.

I actually made a great necklace with this clay too. I only have black cord though and it won't work. I need to get some brown/tan or even gold cord.

All stamps are Cornish Heritage Farms.

I have lots of other projects that I just took photos of and will be showing soon!

In other news:

I am recently addicted to Etsy. I know it's nothing new, but I've just recently been to where I have to check it out every day. Yesterday I bought this. It's a handmade notebook with all found papers, so one might be yellow ledger paper, then white, then map, then whatever else. I really want this one. Which is sewn *the binding is sewn I mean* and has mixed papers and also envelopes bound right in. Drool! I have a Bind-It-All on order so I guess I can try to make my own of this type found paper creation. In the mean time I don't mind buying from this girl because she ROCKS. I'll let you know all about my notebook when it comes.

Did you know about my love of Vivid! ink? I think I'm going to have my LSS order ALL the inks in that line for me. I have ISSUES with ink. First of all I totally dislike felt pads. So if an ink has felt pads I don't like it already. (Exception is versafine, they have felt but it works and never gives that felt pattern... do they have felt? Now I'm not sure.) Versafine is actually my favorite ink, but doesn't come in enough colors. Like, no pink! SHEESH. Anyhow the vivid pads are dense foam. NOT the cheap airy foam you might know. Actually all the clearsnap inks that I've had have dense foam on the "mini" but clearsnap is who makes those "cat's eye" inkpads and they have the cheap foam. Not sure why. Ok so Vivid! really is vivid. If you like your subtle browns and all it's not for you. I love vivid color so I think I must have them all. I'm not getting rid of anything, so it will be ok.

I'm going to a stamp convention with my friend Nita next weekend. In Orlando. If you are going drop me an email and maybe we can meet up and say "hi" or whatever.

I've made more of those softies. Some rad ones, some cute ones. More on that later. I do love softies though.

Ok that's about all.

hugs!

Owl Softie

Softies are hot. And I love ANY super cute trend. Kim and I have been talking about how adorable they are and I decided I had to try one.

So I sketched a supe simple owl, then cut the pieces out to use as templates to cut the pieces of this critter out. My stitching is sort of a mess. but whatever. I think she's pretty cute. *it's a girl because of the pink stitching*
I put wire in the wings so they can be posed however you like.
And a flower on the butt. I'm gonna stitch a flower on the butt of all my softies I think.
And there you have it! One owl softie to love. But don't love her too hard, the stitching is not all that great. haha.

Smile

It's sketch time again. The Cornish Heritage Farms girls are keeping me scrapbooking I tells ya.

First of all I have just boys. And there was all this WONDERFUL K and Company stuff. Girly to the max. I mean there are unicorns on some of this stuff. I almost didn't get it. But it was sooooo cute.

So I hereby propose that you CAN use glitter and girly stuff on a boy's page. If the page is about FUN, use FUN stuff. I refuse to believe it's not ok.

I felt it needed some glittery turtles. Glittery to go with the "thermal sealed glitter" that the papers feature. So I colored them with copics, cut them out, inked the whole thing with versamark ink pad and embossed with Stampin Up iridescent ice powder (glittery powder) Then I covered the whole piece with glossy accents and let it dry.

Here are the glittery turtles. Also please note the stitched hill I have for my turtles to stand on. They can't just stand around on a pink border piece ya know.
I'm really happy with how it turned out. I wish I had known I was going to put ribbon across the bottom before I stitched all the way around. I would have liked to include the ribbon under the stitching. These are the type of details that I notice on other peoples cards and amaze me. I think that doesn't happen for me because I don't plan ahead.

Zindorf Inspired Fish

I, like almost everyone I know, have been inspired by the cards that Michells Zindorf is blogging. *side note, she has a tutorial EVERY DAY. How is she doing that? I'm gobsmacked, she's my hero* I especially love what I'm calling "The Zindorf Technique" where you stamp, color, cover with versamark pen and clear embossing, then brayer or sponge over for a background, leaving your embossed part clean. I'm sure it's been done, everything seems to have been done, but I think we can all agree that Michelle is taking it to an artform.

That is what moved me to make this card. I used The Zindorf Technique for the background fill in. I watercolored the images with watercolor pencils. I tells you, I jump on EVERY coloring bandwagon, I'm a big fan of coloring. But I keep coming back to watercolor pencils, which were my first coloring method. Love them! Anyhow watercolored them with watercolor pencils, then clear embossed over them. Next I brayered a ton of cool caribbean SU ink over the background. *My CC inkpad, my only SU inkpad, is dipping in the middle... you know what I mean? I won't buy any more SU inkpads, it's frustrating.* Then I sponged some Turquoise Vivid! ink on the bottom and around each of the fishies. You can't really see it, but I also stamped the black background with a grid backgrounder. Oh and three little blings. And a phrase.

I'm REALLY happy! I think it gets the look I love from Michelle's blog.
The fish are a retired Stampin' Up! set, the phrase is by Gina K, and the backgrounder, which you can't see is Cornish Heritage Farms.

tiny miracle

Oh My HECK people. The new Kim Hughes release of baby stamps at Cornish Heritage Farms is DARLING. When I ordered it I thought, "I don't have any need for baby cards, but it's too cute to pass up". Well a few days after I orderd it I got a call from church to bring a meal to a woman who just had her baby. I knew she was pregnant, I sorta... forgot. Anyhow talk about timing!

So this card is to welcome the newest Moorecraft baby! He's a boy, they have all girls until now. Exciting stuff.
I do not have any of that painfully popular clear cardstock. I read on someone's blog that it's the same weight as the clear stuff the stamps are sticking to in their packaging. I don't keep them in that packaging, and this new set is HUGE, so I had a big enough piece to make this card from! I stamped on it with my white stazon, edged it with the white stazon. Then did the image. I used white fun flock on it. Oh my goodness I love fun flock.

Oh my heck it was an awesome mail day.

Photo: This tiny art is from Cakespy. And I love it to a painful degree!

The magazine? I have several cards published in it. TWO of them with the Hanna Stamps!!! If you are a Hanna Stamps fan you know what that means!

A TON of this was birthday gifts from Tracey, who is one of my very bestest friends. Oh and also a stack of Kraft Cardstock which I've been needing, but forgot to photograph.

I'm possibly the luckiest stamper of the blogasphere today.

More Mokume Gane And a SMALL blog candy

I couldn't wait to try more of my new favorite technique. This one is totally flat, I wasn't afraid to cut more deeply into it. I think this look is almost looking like a snake skin.
Close up. *Oh and I only have a handful of colors of clay, is why I'm rocking similar colors*
Ok, then I took the scraps and tried to put them on a gray scrap from last time, to make a necklace, but it looked weird. So I mushed them up in a swirl, then pressed a stamp into them and did the cutting to get this pattern. You can NOT see what the stamp was because the veriation was already random. But it's a cool look still.
Second view.

The blog candy is the pendant necklace. I don't hate it, it's cool. But it doesn't go with anything I have, I don't wear much gray. If you think you'd enjoy it please tell me so in the comments. I'm happy to send it to you. Unlike tradational blog candy where there is a drawing the FIRST person who says that they would enjoy this pendant can have it.

If you want to comment on my general awesomeness but don't want the pendant that's fine, just don't say you want it in your comment!

The stamps are all by Cornish Heritage Farms.

Fan-Tastic Birthday

I made this card for Brian's Grandmother. Her birthday was last weekend. We are going to see her today, so I made the card last night. I paper piece the fan and cut the blades out twice so I could have them spin. A brad attaches them.
Here is a VERY short clip showing how the fan blades go around.

The patern paper is all from that fruit themed pack by Stampin' Up! and the stamp is by Gina K.

Mokume Gane card

So I've been playing with polymer clay a bit lately.

I got some books out of the library. All of them mentioned or showed a technique called mokume gane. I could never explain it well so if you are interested please click HERE. The basic is you make thin layers of clay, stack them, make the whole thing thin, stamp into it, shave off the relief and this is what you are left with. It's smooth to the touch, but looks like so many layers. I did black and white but you can do any colors or lots of colors or even put metalics in it or anything really.

Here is a close up of the piece I did with the clay. I did go over it with a clear gloss stuff after.
Both stamps are by Cornish Heritage Farms. The clay is Sculpy III.

And for the record it took me FOREVER and I wasted a ton of clay. Finally when I got it though it was quick, so I could do more in a short time. I also made my piece super thin because it was going on a card. It's not even 1/4 of an inch, more like 1/8 or even less. So it's really light and all.

Please tell me what you think it was my first time and it's sorta advanced for a clay newbie don't you think?

Livin' is easy

This phrase always makes me think of a song. I can't remember who sings it... or any of the words. Wow that's a great story Erin.

Ok, so this a new set from Gina K. I really like it for a nice beachy card like this. I watercolored with marker inks. Added some glitter pen for accent here and there. And some of those faux dew drops that I picked up in the floral section of the craft store.

ETA: still can't think of the name of the song, but Sublime is the group.

ETA Again: It is called "Summertime" in super original song naming tradition and HERE is a link to it on YouTube. In case YOU also want to have it stuck in your hread.

Super Boy!

I got some new Pink Cat Studio stamps this week. I LOVE this boy, his name is Billy. How fun is he? On the one set he's a super boy, a cowboy, a pirate and a regular boy with a frog on his head. Super fun.

I went over his red and black with some glitter pens, the Atyou Specia ones that are by Copic. It looks super shimmery in real life, but you can't really tell on the internet. I also love this patern paper, it's from the Be Happy line by Cosmo Cricket. They make some of my favorite papers.