Minty crab

mmmm, minty crab...

Well, maybe not for eating.

So this card came from a table. I ate at Chili's resturant and our table was really cool looking. I wrote down in my little notebook, "mint, red, tan, brown, ivory" but when I got home I found that Stampin' Up! didn't have any mint. Bummer. Later on a thread on SCS I found out that they used to have a color "mint melody". A good friend sent me a few sheets. Turns out Mint Melody isn't exactly what I had in mind, but I made the card anyhow.

I think when you are using a color you are not sure about you should use it in small amounts with colors you are confident about. That's the Erin tip for the day.

And here is a cool tilted closeup, I see these on blogs and they look cool.

Ok, so the mint is looking sorta blue, but it is green. It's almost exactly that one shade of green that comes in the pastel pack of printer paper. I used to work at a print/copy shop and we used this color a lot. It was one of the cheaper cardstocks we had. So I saw it often. (stinking cheap people, just kidding) So I'm not in love with it. The girl who sent it to me (hi dyu!) labled it "Puke mint".

I colored with copic markers, the stamps are all by Stampin' Up!, colors of paper are real red, chocolate chip, mint melody and creamy caramel.

Share your icecream.

I made this quick card last night. I was going to use it for a "summertime" publication call but I decided not to. So here it is. The stamp is by Eat Cake Graphics. I colored with watercolor pencils and a blender pen. The scallop thing on the top is cut off a sheet of Bazzill scallop card paper. I thought it gave the look of that awning stuff on ice cream shop storefronts. Anyhow it's cool I think.

This is a perfect example of why I love Eat Cake Graphics, I mean look how adorable! Just LOOK! awwww.

Lime Tart Sketch

I made these two cards for a sketch on the Lime Tart Blog (how cute is that name, "Lime Tart" I love it!)

All images by justjohanna the little brads are from the dollar spot at Target. I cut the circles with my coluzzle.

Love that butt!

Here is a fun card I made today. The stamps are all Gina K from a set called...Just So Hippy, which I always call "The Animal Butt set" because it features cute animal butts. Also this giraffe has hearts for spots. I knew I'd buy it when I saw that. I love giraffes and hearts instead of spots? That's beyond adorable. So there are a few different things they can hold in their tails or hands, even a sign and little stamps for what would be on the sign. It's all very adorable. I had to put ink to this rubber within an hour of finding it in my mailbox.


Supplies: Stamps by Gina K, Real Red cardstock by SU, Regal rose cardstock by SU, Scarlet red ink is versafine, palette noir ink is the black, and I colored with copics. Oh, that tan looking paper is...more mustard. I guess it's more yellow than tan. And Ranger glossy accents on the heart balloon and I drew the string with a pen. And sewing machine stitching... I think that's all.

I'm sure you never did wonder, but just in case, here are all my stamps: When this fills up I have to sell some, that's the rule. I'm safe for now.

Oh, wait, here are some more stamps, these are just phrase stamps, I find I use them more if they are here. I keep ones that came in sets with the sets though. I had them seperate and it drove me NUTS. So these are just sets that are JUST phrases. Or random phrases that don't go in sets. Also this is all my markers and fancy pens and a few other things. See how I have more prismacolor markers than copics? I don't like the prismacolor as much but got them first. So I'm slowly replacing them, but I can't do it all at once, that's why you will see me right "colored with prismacolor and copic markers" Because it means I haven't gotten around to replacing all the colors I used.

ps, the dry erase markers in the bottom are part of my master plan! I have this huge (got it at Costco!) dry erase magnet board and I have written publication calls I plan to do on it and printed the pub guidelines for those calls and magneted them to it.

Ok, sharing is fun! :)

Pink Passion, and Sarah and the Stampstars.

So this card is for two reasons.

1. There is a challange over at Sarah and the Stampstars. I messed up the sketch a bit, put my circle thing on the wrong side. I think I can still play though. You were supposed to pick your ribbon first.

2. When I looked in my drawer for a great ribbon to do Sarah's challange with I remembered the funniest thread on Splitcoast stampers. Everyone is talking about their LEAST favorite of the Stampin' Up! colors. Kelly Sampson, who I adore, said her least favorite is Pink Passion. Now as a defender of all things pink, I was, understandably upset. (not really) So when I looked at this ribbon I said, "hey that ribbon goes with Pink Passion!" So I worked the Pink Passion angle, That's the really bold pink here. And I think it worked out just fine, thank you very much!

So supplies: Ribbon, unknown, it's been in my stash for a while, stamps justjohanna, cardstocks are chocolate chip, pink passion and pretty in pink, by Stampin' Up! I colored with copic and prismacolor markers. I drew the border on the circle (which you can tell surely, as it's not perfect or anything)

Two quickies.

The first card is playing with a color scheme I have in my head. This isn't quite it because I don't have the colors I really wanted. So this is similar to something that exists in m
y head. :) I'm also playing with my new toys. The letter "V" is Grunge Board by Ranger. I got it at my LSS. A pack of letters was $19.99 but it has 9 of every letter. All sizes, this is one of the smaller ones, on is HUGE. :) So I thought that was a pretty good deal. They showed us a video on them a while back and they are designed to take ink well or paint or whatever. Supposed to be even better than chipboard. I like it. They start out brownish but it took this blue ink really well. The stamps are by Stampin' Up! The green paper came in a Self Addressed montly kit ages ago I have no idea who makes it.

This next is a little pick-me-up type card. It is teeny, just 3.5x3. I figure I'll put it in a normal envelope anyhow though because I want to mail it. The stamps are a just barely retired hostess set by Stampin' Up! my Secret Sister got them for me for Christmas. :) Thanks, whoever you are! The paper is by SU as well. The ribbon came on a huge order I had from justjohanna. The order was tied up with this stuff! I've been using it for a while I love it! I colored the hearts with copic markers.

Paper piecing tutorial

This tutorial is a special request. (that makes me feel all special) Shanon wanted to know how to handle the detail around her head with the umbrella if you wanted to paper piece it. Turns out there are a few teensy pieces to deal with, but it's really cute so I'm glad she asked.

First stamp it on all the papers you will be using. I didn't end up using the pink, you can't see it here but I used the green part of strip under her feet here on the pink. (I know, that doesn't make sense, but anyhow, no pink)


Next you cut out the pieces you want. See how the umbrella had to be two pieces? Well look closer it's actually four pieces. Down near her hands there are some umbrella parts sticking through. You could do this umbrella in many more pieces too, have the border be different and that little circle thing in the middle. Heck you could do more than one pattern on each panel. But I think four pieces for an umbrella is enough for me. The little thing near the top middle will be her dress in the new green stripe.

Next you color your image. Just color what will show. I like to color before I put the pieces on because if not I tend to get color on the pieces or I can't get all the way to the edge because of the height of the piecing. The layer the pieces back on. I just got a cool glue pen called Quickie Glue Pen that is great for this stuff. I decided to cut the ball thingies off and just color that with black. I may go back and put some glossy accents over them.
Here is a close up of the head area, that's the part Shanon wanted to know specifically.
And here is the finished card. The stamp is by Hanna Stamps and the papers are all Stampin' Up! I colored with copic markers.


Do you know what today is? You don't??? Well let me tell you. It's "Make a Card Monday" on the kwernerdesign blog. Have you been on that blog? Well on Mondays she does a card and has a video of her doing it. It's super fun to watch. So click here and watch a card get made. :)

Erin Scraps!

eww. that made me think of scraps of Erin..

I ment Erin makes a scrapbook page. I used to scrapbook all the time, but I'll be totally honest, I like cardmaking better. I do need to get back on the ball with scrapbooking though, when I put this recent Christmas shot on a page in my book I looked and the previous page was Stephen's birthday... April. :(

But, whatever, let's enjoy this page!

I thought this photo was pretty cool. It's not totally crisp but it's so cute I don't care. Ethan is the most adorable kid ever. I really wanted the photo to be the focus so I made a very simple page. I am liking simple scrapbook pages lately. I did the journaling with my white pen from SU and although I have stinky handwriting I love handwriting journaling because then it gets done. I used to make the page then plan to go back and journal on it later. It stunk. I never did go back. Now that I allow myself to just use a pen I get it done at the time I make the page. It's not pefect looking, but it's done.

Wow I just wrote like three sentences about 5 words of journaling. I'm a nut!

I made other stuff last night too, but it was for DT or publication calls so I can't show it just yet. I had a fun night though. :)

Oh and also I stamped and colored 50-some-odd envelopes to put VT routes in.

and one more thing: I did my hair again, fatter rolls then just sorta cleaned it up with a curling iron look:

Wednesday Stamper: Gothic Arch

This is my frist time participating in Wednesday Stamper. The theme for this week is Gothic Arch. (they have a template you can download for the arch) It's also my first Gothic Arch. It is a fun shape, and this card (I cut mine on a fold so it's a card, not just a flat thingie) fits in a normal envelope. I love different things that still fit in my standard envelopes!

All my stamping is on a sheet of patern paper. It came in one of those huge slab things. (which I promise not to buy any of this year, as I never use more than a few sheets out of them) I colored with colored pencils. I used my stamp-a-ma-jig a lot on this card. See the border, it's just a teensy little stamp, over and over, and over, and over. Then of course I used it to get my fish to kiss. (I really like those fish to kiss) I figured they could kiss under the cherries as Christmastime is over now. Then, this is my favorite part, the "love"; I don't have a "love" stamp. I mean not in this cute font at least. But I have a huge background stamp that says: "I love tea..." and so on, all sorts of stuff. So I inked just the "love" with a marker and then used my stamp-a-ma-jij for placement and got it to stamp just that word! Now this stamp is huge, it is a whole background stamp, so I think it was pretty clever to get just one word from it. :) All these images are by justjohanna.

Just for fun

Everyone is excited about the new SU catalog.


And look what will happen to my hair if I put it in rags to curl it!

Bow Chicka Bow Wow!!!

So on Splitcoaststampers there are a bunch of sorta mini groups. People who have found each other and just chat on these different threads. I chat with a lovely bunch of girls who for some reason call ourselves Bow Chicka Bow Wow Chicks (BCBW). I won't tell you why, it's special. (lol) We are having a Secret Sister exchange on that thread. This box will hold my reveal gift. I figure I can show it because by the time she gets it she will know who I am... Cuz I'll tell her right in the box. (maybe she reads my blog and when she sees the box she will know)





Ok, it's one of those adorable Target Dollar Spot mailboxes. The paper is Chatterbox. I cut the little flag thingie with my new nestabilities.



This next thing is neat, it will go in the box. It's a cool folding envelope chain. So you lay all your envelopes open and glue the one flap to the next envelope. Then at the top you are left with a flap, you wrap it all the way around the whole thing after folding it up. I made another today with 6 envelopes and it's really hard to close, this one has just 3 and it's fine to close. I am using sticky back velcro for the closure. I LOVE that stuff for fun projects like this. The metal hearts are just brads from my stash.

for these inside thingies, this is where the envelopes open. I took a scallop oval punch and punched a bit out of the squares I was covering them with so they have an easier reach into them. Also it looks a little cute.
So I stuffed the little pockets with flat goodies, and I'll jam the rest of the box full of cool stuff. (I did try and you cannot fit a handful of copics in there. :(





Oh here is my other tip for these. Sense they are flat on the bottom you can nail them to the wall. Why you ask? Well they are the perfect depth for your colored pencils, markers or whatever. :) I really want to do it, but I have almost no wall space because I'm in a shared room with DH's sports collection and I used my wall space for that card memo board I showed you the other day.

I also got this today! Gotta love the way framingsupplies ships stuff. This is 15 rolls of refil for my ATG. I got the gold 12 rolls, the regular 1 roll and 1 roll of this other kind from the second page that was super cheat at 2.29 for 60 yards. I guess that's just 14 rolls... Dang. I thought I had 15. Oh well. My son Ethan loved stomping on all the bubble wrap stuff!

Chococat.

I got a really fun new calendar this weekend. Actually Marcia found it, I looked several places and didn't find one. It's a Chococat calendar. Do you know Chococat? Say you do... Ok, if you don't Chococat is Hello Kitty's friend. Named for the chocolate brown nose. He even has a birthday near mine, his is May 10, I'm May 9. (go on ahead and put that on your calendar) Anyhow I love Chococat.

The calendar came with stickers. It's a full 12x12 sheet of them. I decided to use them tonight on cards. I also got some goodies from the "Dollar Spot" at Target, so you may see some of that stuff here too.


The first two cards were inspired by two different cards I saw this weekend on two different blogs. One of the cards was this one. I love the drawn border and how it leads into a stamped image. (Ok, her's is handwritten, and it's unfair that people have handwriting like that) Kristina has a video of her making that card by the way. That is just adorable! It is really cool to watch someone make cards. (I'm new to her blog and I'm loving it!) The second card is this one. Lauren's cards are always adorable and what I liked about this was how she worked a lot of elements into the smaller space, but the card is not super busy because she left a lot of "white" space too. (Kristina has nice white space too, but I want to include Lauren's because it really did directly lead to me getting up and making this card. Lots to learn from both ladies though.)
be happy stamp is SU, white gel pen by SU, patern paper is cut from a card front from the Target Dollar Spot, dot stamp is by SU, ribbon from the Target Dollar Spot, sticker from my calendar
be happy stamp by SU, tombow marker for inking the stamp and drawing the line, patern paper cut from card front of card found in Target Dollar spot, ribbon came on an order of stamps sent to me from justjohanna, sticker from my calendar
birthday wishes stamp by Green Grass Rubber Stamps, patern paper cut from card front of card found in Target Dollar Spot, ribbon from stash, sticker from my calendar, the black circle cut with coluzzle.
don't tell the other cards, but this one is my favorite! happy birthday stamp by Green Grass Rubber Stamps, ribbon by SU, patern paper cut from card front of a card found in the Target Dollar Spot, sticker from my calendar, black circle cut with Coluzzle.

I thought this would be fun to show you as well. This is a huge magnet memo board. (you get it at the Costco *wink*) that I have in my stamp area. All these cards are NOT mine. They have been sent to me by my tons of online friends. I love you guys! I love seeing all your cards every day.

Want a $75 gift certificate to justjohanna?

I know you do!

So if you said yes then check out Julie's blog and enter her contest.

Now it's HARD, you have to put a favorite blog, but it can't be one someone has listed and it can't be one Julie already has linked. So think hard then go on over to Julie's and enter to win!

Illustration Friday

This is a first for me. Illustration Friday is a website that has an inspiration word each week (On Friday, get it??) and all these artists make things inspired by that word. Now it's not just stampers, I don't even think it's mostly stampers, but all sorts of art, painting, collage, mixed media, all sorts. So here are the cards (I made cards cuz that's what I do) I made for Soar. All stamps are by justjohanna.

These next two are just slight variations of each other. If you have nestabilites you may notice, the one I embossed with the cutting side down, the second with the cutting side up. I love that I have the options!

Thank you

Look what I got. This patern paper and ribbon is by SU, it's really yummy gray color. :) I love it. My BCBW SS sent it. I don't even know who they are yet, but this card is for them!

The pink paper is that color that is in the "In Colors". I can't keep track of the SU color names. Then the tag I cut with my cuttlebug and the stamp on it is by Green Grass. It just says "thanks" the one time and I used a stamp-a-ma-jig to get it lined up three times on the one tag.

I also got from this SS a stamp set... I can't remember the name of it. Has a rabbit jumping out of a hat, a hanger with hearts, a graduation cap... Anyhow it's painfully adorable, which is just what I love. Also recipe cards from her! :) I'm so spoiled.

Those are my only craft gifts I got. Tons of other gifts though, it was a good year.

My regular readers will be thrilled to learn I got a gift card to Costco! We ALL know how I feel about the Costco. ;)

I hope you have everything you could hope for this Christmas!

a package, a cat, and some dirt...

Today was a good day. It was Costco day. I love Costco. It was sorta poop though because I was out of all our big ticket things so it was $140 for some boring stuff.

Shortly after getting home though I got this package:
It's from my Bow Chicka Bow Wow Secret Sister. (you probably don't want to know.) I can't decide if I should open it now or wait until Christmas.

Then I made a card:

These stamps are by Pink Cat Studio. I have a complex with this particular cat where I always color her pink (I think because the name of the company is Pink Cat) So I forced myself to make her this retro shade of blue instead. The little paw prints were Stephen's idea, he instisted the card needed more stamping.

Also I had to repot a plant today. I'm not much of a gardner, so I thought I'd show this because it's pretty rare:

Real live gardening dirt under my fingers. Makes me feel like some sort of super gardner. Like I'm so at one with the earth it doesn't bother me to have it under my nails... totally not true, I'll be finding something to dig it out soon.

Great Impressions card

I made this card with my brand new Great Impressions Stamps. I colored everthing with copic markers, then added lots of stickles and some glossy accents (by Ranger) on the shoes.

I have a hard time with scenes that are supposed to be dark. I try coloring the sky a dark blue but it never looks right. This is why you will see me cutting them out and layering them over some darker papers. Then I dont have to color it.

ohmyheck!!!

So you should know Jason Sampson. He is the husband of Kelly Sampson who is this super talented SU demo/blogger type. (they are both must read blogs) So Jason has the whole story on his blog but in a nutshell he was helping Kelly and started playing with the stamping supplies and now he stamps for his own fun and makes funny cards.



You may have heard of The Chicken Who Did It. If you have not you need to click the link and go read it. Basicly it's a whole story told in cards that Jason did. It's been going on for some time and lots of us chicken stalkers have been eagerly reading each card story. (I'm not going to tell the whole story here, I'd never do it justice, just believe me when I say it's funny)



So Jason and Kelly have two daughters, one of them is autistic. Because they are pretty much awesome, they have handled it awesomely. Jason decided to auction his entire Chicken who Did It collection to benifit a local (to them, not local to me) autism charity that has helped them a lot. Bidding happened and I won!!! So I will be getting the entire collection in my hot little hands!!





Erin, what will you do with 42 super funny cards?

Um... I'm keeping them! Duh! I'm going to get an album and stick them all in with the stories for each one and then if you come over here you can see them. (but you can't touch them... well maybe if I see you wash your hands first)



So that's what's exciting for Erin today.

busy busy busy

I'm to busy to stamp! Oh the horror!





I did find a few minutes to go the LSS and pick up a few things, look:

The stamps are by Great Impressions. As part of their Stamp of the Month program. If you look on their site it lists this as the October stamp. Not sure what's up with that, but honestly I love this one best of all so I don't care. If you look here you will see a bunch of samples with this stamp. The snow village is also by Great Impressions, and it's wicked cute. So the snowmen are the actual "Stamp of the Month" so I got them at 50% off! Awesome!

If you are not jealous yet, I got the snow village and the copics at 20% off because of the once a month discount my LSS gives. AND the copics are only 3.99 at my LSS which I think is a pretty good price anyhow. So yea, I have an awesome store! I've mentioned that right?

I bought these copics because I have both copics and prismacolors. Guess what? My prismacolors are all drying out already. :( Now part of this may be my fault, I got a bunch of them in a clearance bin, they were probably old already, but some I bought fresh and they are still starting to dry out. So as they dry up I'm replacing them with copics. (Which my awesome LSS will refill for me for $1.50 a refill!)

Ok, back to work getting ready for our busy weekend!

Look! I finally made a new card.

I thought of this card when I saw the patern paper in a local scrapbook store. I think this sub is so fun because really anyone could be driving it. Right now the flamingo is driving. He wants to get a better look under water, perhaps figure out where all the good shrimp are.
all images are by justjohanna I colored with prismacolor markers.

I'm feeling a lot better. It was pretty much awful. We are having a party on Saturday, but first we are going out to lunch with Brian's family, then on Sunday we are having company for dinner again. So I'm very busy this week with cleaning. Actually my house looks really good right now. I'm sure my tots will have me starting over by Saturday though, plus there is a good bit of cooking I need to work in. So my point is I might not post again this week. Ah... the holiday season, it's busy and wonderful and stressful all at the same time.

hugs,

E