Whoooo is still here? *blog candy*

Man! I had a hard time comming up with an owl pun! Ok, as a special thank you for all staying with me during my exploration into sewing, as well as something to think about while I'm gone on my trip I've decided to do some candy! I made this owl up tonight. He's sorta prim don't you think?

He is NOT for your kids. He has those pellets in his bottom and they say on them not for kids, also he has "saftey eyes" which I'd prefer you not give your kids in case the saftey fails. Also he's not really washable. You totally could, but he would fade, the color is all inkpad color. Palette ink, so it should be ok, but anyhow... Not totally washable. If you'd like him just leave a comment. When I get home I'll draw a winner. Easy as that. I'm happy to ship anywhere so don't feel you can't enter because of where you live.

All the Dolls.

Here are all the dolls I made in the past few days. They are from left to right. Lola, Ethie, Lola again, unnamed prototype doll, Sally. Unnamed prototype doll was trying a new way of the head. Sally was made using the new way. Her head does not flop. Unnamed prototype doll isn't terribly cute is she? She looks super American Indian to me too. Not that American Indians can't be cute, just this particular one doesn't look too cute.

I think I've almost got it down. Sally is pretty good. She was easy too. Her arms are not level. They should both be high, it's not like arms start half way down your torso. In some ways thought Original Lola is the most charming to me.

That's all for dolls for me for a bit. I want to make a robot, a monster and a kitty. But after my trip.

Another Lola, and Cupcake

I made another Lola. I learned a lot on this one. The first I thought was going to be the only so I didn't mind odd things and things that seemed inefficient. This time I paid attention. However I didn't make a better doll. Or a faster one. But I did learn a lot. For one I know why her head flops. She is two pieces, round head sewed to triangle body. Well that's how I want her to look. But I can't make her all one piece like that because I can't turn her all inside out through her super teeny neck hole. Neither her hair or her arms and legs fit. So with my current skill set if I want a doll with this skinny of a neck and this big of arms and legs and hair then she has a floppy neck. Also I like her face in a drawing that low but in a doll that ends up being on the curve in a weird way so I need to move the face up a smidge. Anyhow if I get her all sorted out to where I can make her more easily then I think I'm going to sell them on Etsy. Untill then I will just give them to my kids mostly. (And Sherri I'll make you one for sure)
Here is a cupcake card for you too. This was so super easy. Stamped the cake, masked it and stamped the background words. This background stamp actually goes the other way, I just stamped it three times so I could make a horizontal card instead of a vertical one. I kinda like it all super simple like that. All these stamps are Odd Bird Planet.

In other news I'm going out of town Tuesday. Just me and the kids to my mom's so that means no blogging for a while, like a week. I'm sure you will just waste away right? Haha.

A friend for Lola

Ethan really wanted to have the Lola doll, but I couldn't part with her. So I made him this "Ethan Doll" today. I'll be honest Ethan doesn't like this doll as much as he likes Lola. Then he told me he wanted a "Mommy" one instead. Sigh. I'm NOT making a doll of my fat self. I did a one piece thing for the neck, it's all attached THEN stuffed, to try to get him to not have such a floppy head. But now he has a super weird looking neck.

Are there any doll makers out there who can help a girl? I don't mind floppy arms and legs, but floppy heads? Although Sherri says she likes the heads floppy, maybe I should just embrace that as part of my style?

Lola

Her name is Lola. She's angry.
She's probably angry because she has a floppy head.
This is her second head flop option.

Lola is made entirely of thrift store finds. She's upcycled!

Sarah Kay and Octoprogress.

My friend Ethel sent me a stack of the adorable Sarah Kay images to play with. Here is my first card using them. I loved coloring this sweet girl. I used my new watercolor crayons. I only got the soft subtles and bold brights, I can't wait to get the other 3 packs so I can have a fuller range. I also stitched a ton on this. I went around twice on my stitching. Last night I was looking at it though and on the striped piece the second stitching used the SAME HOLES! On like 80% of it. I didn't plan that but it's sorta cool. The yellow flower is from the thrift store and the fuzzy center thing was part of it originally. I just glued it back on the layered flower.

Here is the current Octo-Progress. In case you are curious I'm doing him by putting transfer paper on the fabric and sketching on to the back of the transfer paper. Well first I sketch it on my SU grid paper on my desk, then put the transfer paper down. I did his face and spots freehand though. And the main octopus I looked at a coloring page to get the placement of the legs and such. I tried doing one totally from scratch but his legs looked weird. So I based this off a coloring page. Totally different face and spots and background. Some legs are different too.

Close up of the face. Note tiny bit of yellow. One guess as to who was saying, "Mommy put some yellow on your octopus!" Oh other interesting thing? The fabric, some of the thread and the transfer paper are all thrift finds. :) Love that!

Still don't know what I'm doing with the octopus. Taking suggestions. He's on a piece of fabric that is about 10x10inches. I'm NOT going to make like 20 more and make a quilt, although the idea of such a quilt gives me a happy feeling, it's taking forever so that's not in the cards.

Octopus in progress

Here is the octopus so far. He's gonna get light pink accents, like some spots and such. Then blue bubbles around him. That's all I know so far. I'm not sure if he will get some green sea weed too. And I have no idea what I'll do with him when I'm done.

Also I need input. Do you like me talking first then photos or photos first then talking. I tend to like photos first, but Brian my DH, said that is weird and it should be text then photos. Does anyone care?

Oh shocking update:

The plural of Octopus is NOT octopii, or octopi, or octopuses, or even just octopus! It's octopodes!

See:

Although it is often supposed that octopi is the 'correct' plural of octopus,
and it has been in use for longer than the usual Anglicized plural octopuses, it
in fact originates as an error. Octopus is not a simple Latin word of the second
declension, but a Latinized form of the Greek word oktopous, and its 'correct'
plural would logically be octopodes.

From AskOxford.

I'm sure my step-sister Katie already knew that and has been laughing at me all this time. HI KATIE! Love you!!

Snowy Night

Still hot here, still making me want to create snow cards. :) This one has Gina K Designs images. I colored the snowman with copic markers and cut it out. I scribbled watercolor crayons on some watercolor paper then painted over with water for the background. Also put liquid aplique with glitter on it for snow. You can't see the glitter in this pic, but it's there I promise. Super easy and quick card.

In other news:

• I bought THIS t shirt online the other day. I got it in brown and the classic ladies t shirt style. It's shipping via UPS which I think is a weird way to ship a single T Shirt but whatever. I can't wait to get it. I never buy clothes. :)
• I'm also working on an octopus embrodery. You KNOW octopii are gonna be the next big thing right? They are. After deer and mushrooms, which are already getting pretty hot. But who cares, they are so stinking cute I love them no matter what. *I actually am amazed by real octopii and find them one of the most unique and cool creatures on the earth* Anyhow I'll put a quick pic of the work in progress later. It's so cute. I don't know yet what I'm gonna do with it yet. Maybe work it into a doll. Like make a shirt for the doll with it or something. Any suggestions?
• My very good friend Kim has opened an Etsy store. She's selling "Kiss Houses" Which are stinking cute little house charms that are the size of a Kiss candy. They are stinking cute little works of art that you can get for a very affordable price. I personally want a HUGE one, like 3 inches tall, but I started my collection with the one that says "dwelling" because it's so super duper cute!
• And last but not least, today is Costco day! AND I have a baby shower to go to this week so I get to buy some baby stuff there! I might go all boring and usefull and get her diapers or that GIANT case of wipes but maybe I'll buy clothes? I dunno. Maybe buy wipes and make them some bibs and embroder octopii on them? haha.
  

thankful

I needed to clean my desk off today and this was made from things I found on it! There was supposed to be a wide green ribbon, but it was all weird and then it got a run in it and so I pulled it off and put the brown. I actually like the brown more. The button I got in a bag of random buttons at the thrift store. The background stamp is Cornish Heritage Farms *suprise suprise, hahaha* and the "thankful" is by Hero Arts. The kraft is SU and the green is Papertrey Ink.

It's really simple. I do this same layout over and over. I really like it though. I used to be apologetic about using this design over and over, but I'm past that. I just really like it, so that's that. :)

It's FriCake Day!

So today is Fri-Cake day. You don't know what that is? Well you'd better go to Kim's BLOG then, you are obviously not reading it enough! haha.

So here is my work for Fri-Cake day:
The cupcakes are supposed to be in space, like stars or planets. Unfortunately I've gotten mixed intrepretations. Johanna of Odd Bird Planet thinks it's raining cupcakes, and Brian, my DH thinks they are floating away from Priscilla. He's not sure why she's wearing the space hat, except that it's just cute. But YOU know they are in space!

Stamped on cream textured paper and colored with watercolor pencils. Easy as pie!

Back to Basics Challange by Awana

On her blog yesterday (I think it was yesterday) Awana posted some awesome cards and challanged everyone to make some "back to basics" cards.





So I did.



The paper I used is from this sampler I got at Marcos Papers at the Stamp Fest show. This paper is thick. Thicker than the Papertrey Paper. Anyhow I colored with copics and it did NOT bleed through! So that's fun.

The girl and her phrase are by Missy B Designs.
The boy and his phrase are Eat Cake Graphics.

Hungry? Then it's time to Eat Cake!

Yum, Yum, Yum! There are NEW EAT CAKE images! I ordered a pile today! I had to get out my existing ones and make some cards to celebrate!

This one reminds me of my little Ethie, at least when he was a bit younger than he is now. I frayed fabric and sewed it to the card, the colored the boy with copics and added the flowers and button.
Then I wanted to make a winter card. So I did. This stamp is so adorable. I colored with copics then went over it with shimmery paints. Stenciled some clouds in the sky and then layered it all a bunch. Easy, but I think it's cute.
close up to see shimmer
And more of my inspiring kids:
Ethan had just gotten in trouble for making a mess with some rain water:
He doesn't like getting in trouble.

Look!

Having more fun with my Pink Persimmon stamps. I stamped this boy on some gesso painted cardstock with stazon ink. Then I colored him with tombow markers. Stephen was there chanting, "Make a yellow shirt, make a yellow shirt" So I did. The gesso piece and the black piece were already cut to this size and sitting on my desk. Actually the kraft piece too! So I layered the already cut pieces and stitched tons. I went around three times. I also intentionally changed the stitch width in places to get a real shabby look to it.

And here is one of my all time favorite Creations. Although of course God had a huge part in this one, DH too! haha.
No really I was just happy to catch a bit of a smile with no flash. My camera's shutter speed is super slow with no flash *and not adjustable*. Ethan never stops moving so it's hard to take a picture of him with no flash. But he let me do it! I especially love the paint on his face.

Gesso on Fabric

More fun with gesso! So a while back I stamped the word search background stamp on some white fabric with pink ink. I didn't love it though. The other day when I was painting up a pile of cardstocks with gesso I thought I'd go ahead and paint over that too.

Well it showed through in a really nice way. Well, I think it's nice. Then it turns out you CAN stamp on fabric that has been painted with gesso. And the same magical coloring properties exist. AND when you cut out a flower that you stamped and colored on gesso painted fabric guess what? Not fraying! And this fabric does fray a lot. But not with the gesso on top. :)
Here is a close up of the cut flower. Also you can see here I put some glitter in the flower centers.

All the stamps are by Stampin' Up!. I used Tombow markers, liquitex gesso, random fabric from a thrif shop and stazon ink. I think the paper is all SU too, maybe the kraft is TAC, I have both and got the packages mixed up.

Oh and a note on the stitching, I stitched around three times, once with a straight stitch, which you can barely see, then with a wide zig zag, then with a more narrow zig zag. I like how random and scrappy it looks.

My largest gesso yet!

This piece is 8.5x6 inches. I'm not sure what I'll do with it honestly. I just wanted to use some of my new larger Odd Bird Planet stamps. So I did, cuz I likes to do whatever I want.

The whole thing is on the gesso painted cardstock that I put the cool caribbean reinker into. Made a nice sky color. Then I used the tombow markers on everything. I embossed everything too. The clouds I also put liquid pearls on, just for kicks.

I wanted to show you a doodle I did too. I read the blog http://www.cuteoverload.com/. On there they have rules of cuteness. I used some on this. Especially "Your head looks down but your eyes look up" and the rule concerning Large Foreheads. So that was my intention. To simply draw the cutest head I could. Turns out Stephen, Brian and Kim all think it looks like ME! I guess this is a reflection of how painfully adorable I am. *snort* Perhaps it has more to do with the smirk. I sport a smirk pretty often.

Here's the same chick, only this time she's mad:

Oh and no worries, I can draw like 10 things and I won't show you all of them anyhow, so don't think I will start tortureing you with horrid drawings! haha.

Gesso Giraffe

Another card using gesso painted cardstock. This time Mel asked me to see if I could emboss on the tombow markers. You totally can. It suprised me too. When I colored it didn't look wet. But I poured the embossing powder on anyhow and it totally stuck to the colored image. That allowed me to very easily paint in the background on this.
The giraffe is by Viva Las Vegastamps, the waterplants are by Eat Cake Graphics.

Thanks again to Mel for the inspiration!

Bad Kitty

So yesterday a package came with a "few" Odd Bird Planet stamps. You know, one or two:

Roniece that cupcake is for you, call a girl and I'll bring it to you.

So today I had to crank out a card with a few of them:

I drew the angry lines on Prisciall and also some sad details on the poor chick. I have a stove too, but it was too much for me to actually stamp that in too. Too sad ya know? Maybe this chick will escape? We can have hope.

Another Gesso card!

I needed to clean my stamp room but I still had gesso covered cardstock out. You know what happened then right?

Stamp credits: all sorts today. Stipple iris from SU, "thanks" is from Cornish Heritage Farms, from the Silhouette Blooms II set, the woodgrain is by TAC, and you can barely make it out but there is a map type stamp on the background too and that is by Viva Las Vegastamps. *wanted to just use the map but it didn't look right then used the woodgrain and now you can barely see the map*

Thanks again Mel!

Oh this is my first time coloring these flowers? What all colors do they come in? I guess I can google it, but my MOM will see this and tell me I'm sure! Love you mommy!

Inspired by some favorite blogs!

Ok, so yall know I faithfully read like 100 blogs right? Thank heavens for Google Reader. *and thank Kim for showing me Google Reader*

Lately Mel has been driving me INSANE with her gesso cards. Yesterday I had to run out and buy me some gesso. I have made one card using it. I have to say this, I want to paint all my cardstock with gesso now! Regular ole tombow markers just blend and blend on it. I've never seen anything like it. Now this is just my first fun with the gesso, and I'm no Mel but look:

This gesso piece I died the gesso with a few drops of cool caribbean reinker *Oh and I'm low!!! someone save a girl and sell me some cool caribbean reinker STAT*. I stamped the image while it was still tacky because it has a lot of texture and I was afraid I wouldn't get a clear image if I waited. I'll try stamping on dry later. The this morning after it was all dry I colored with tombow markers. I also stamped over lightly with a background stamp and gray ink. Then edged with a silver leafing pen. I really enjoyed it.

The next card is inspired by Michelle Zindorff's creations. I stamped the flower on watercolor paper and watercolored it, then covered the whole thing with versamark pen and embossed with clear. The next step was to brayer inky blue Vivid! ink over the piece. I used a sponge too and the sponge to remove the ink from the image. I edged this one with silver leafing pen too.

Stamp Credits, the flower stamps are from a Stampin' Up! set that Tracey gave me. The script on both is the same French Script Backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms.

Pink Persimmon ROCKS YALL!

So you know about a week ago I found the Pink Persimmon site and went all nutso and told you about them and bla blah blah. Well anyhow I went ahead and ordered some on Wednesday. They came today. :)

I made this great deer card. I love these deer, they are what pushed me to HAVING to purchase these stamps. This set is called Oh Dear! (Outline). There is a solid version that's deer too, but slightly different poses and it's solid.
I also made this fun doggie card. The words are just on pattern paper, I just cut it so it would say that. :) He's from the Little Red Wagon set.
I think the Little Cuties set is my favorite one! I love this cupcake stamp. Not that I don't have a LOT of cupcake stamps already, but I like how this one is super fun to just stamp in a colored ink. The houndstooth background is by Cornish Heritage Farms. All this yummy ink is my new Vivid! Ink. *I bought ALL the vivid inks, it's my favorite kind*
This is basicly the same card, this adorable dog is even from the same set. I just did him in brown, then colored his bow yellow. The phrase on this and the cupcake one are from the Little Red Wagon set.

So my full review: We all know that some clear stamps are better than others. These by Pink Persimmon are top quality. I don't have any that are better. You can see I did some solid images, although small ones. I usually totally stink at that with clear stamps but these worked fine. The customer service from them was stellar. I emailed a few times before placing my order and they were great. My stamps also came with with a nice sheet on "How to use and care for your clear stamps" that has great info about cleaning them, test stamping, what types of inks work best and so on. *doesn't mention my beloved Vivid! inks though, sigh* I felt the shipping was really quick. I ordered Wednesday evening, Then Friday and Sunday were not mail days, so that's like 3 days really. Oh just noticed a handwritten note on my invoice. That's nice too. I don't know what else to say. I know they are new, so if you want to know anything else let me know and I'll give you my honest opinion. *as usual*

OH website, in case you didn't save it last time! www.pinkpersimmon.com

More handmade envelopes

I picked up this childrens' book at the flea market this weekend and tonight I turned some of it into hand made envelopes. I love them!

Her is a close up of the inside of one of them.

In case you want to make your own I use my Scor-Pal and THIS tutorial from their website. They are so super quick and fun.

Another thing to note is thickness of paper. This paper is actually a smidge thin for envelopes. I'm ok with it, I'll use it on flatter cards, and maybe tape the corners. It was too beautiful not to use. But if you want to whip out a ton quick and not worry about that the slightly thicker or best of all slightly glossy kinds of book papers work best. Oh and see the lovely cover? I'm gonna try to do something great with that too. I'll keep you in the loop.

My arm burn doesn't hurt today! Thank for your support and stories about the dangers of irons. Those of you who just pull stuff out and hang it up, how do you get away with that? My denim skirt gets all funky on the end, like it wants to fold up on itself, my husband's work shirts get weird on the placket (sp) so they don't lay flat when he buttons them, or the collars get weird. Anyhow I do pull them right away, it is just that they still need some ironing. And that offends me. I actually have a sore muscle in my one arm from it. SHEESH.

Ironing offends me

Why would you do this to me iron? I've taken great care of you, only put distilled water in you, don't iron weird crap that shouldn't be ironed, wrap your cord nicely. Why oh why would you do this to me.

Burns also offend me. I'm telling you this hurts way worse than it looks. Anything that hurts this much should look nasty.

ETA: this is my arm, the inside. (Inside? you know the palm of my hand side) and yes, my skin is see through, that's my blood you see in the middle there. Super sexy.

Fall!

I don't really make many fall cards. I don't know why. I do love fall. I think because then it's Halloween and those are my favorite cards to make.

Anyhow I got these stamps from Just For Fun at the StampFest I went to last weekend.

I colored with my watercolor pencils.
I do think it's an especially cute chipmunk.

got cupcakes?

Here is a card I made using the new cupcake image from Eat Cake Graphics. I wanted to make a variety of flavors. YUM.
They are colored with copic markers. All the stamps are by Eat Cake Graphics. I sponged with pink and peach inks.

Enjoy!

Special Winter Card with Gina K

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ACK!! I just realized that STEPHEN, my 3 yr old posted this! I had uploaded the photos and was going to post it later. Stephen did the awesome typing you see. He's really fond of "x" and "7".

Ok here's the card info. I wanted to make a snowy card. So I stamped the house on vellum and colored the image. Then flipped it over so you are looking through the vellum. Then I stamped the snowflakes. I wanted you to be able to look through the whole piece so I made a window card for that.

On the inside I put another piece of vellum, stamped with the snowflake. *used ribbon to hide adhesive*
You can see in this pic that when it's closed you can see two layers of snowflakes, I think that gives it dimension. Also I put TONS of glitter with my Specia pen.
All stamps are Gina K.