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.

:)

Done with cake class.

Tonight was the last night of my Wilton Course 2 cake decorating class. I really enjoyed the classes. There were fun girls in with me. Tonight I made this:
Here is a closeup of the flowers.
It was really not hard but time consumeing. See the flowers we have been working on for weeks. We would make a few different ones each week then let them dry. They are royal icing flowers, they dry totally hard. They taste sorta like those dots candy that are on a strip of paper, you know the ones? Ok, so we'd make a few each week, If I had to sit down and make all these icing colors and make all these flowers it would take hours. Then the basket weave takes about an hour for me, I'm sure I'd get faster over time. The rope border is super easy and took no more time than any other border. Then you glue the flowers on with globs of icing. Then add the leaves.

so... will I be making piles more cakes this complex.. probably not.

For those who like to imagine eating the cake it's spice cake with pumpkin pie spice flavored buttercream icing and filling. The flowers are boring royal and taste like sugar because that's pretty much all they are.

I will be taking this cake to my church's Fall Festival this Friday night. If you live in the area and want a slice that's where it will be 6:30pm at the LDS (Latter-Day-Saints) church on Hendricks Ave. :)

chicks dig me

Here is one of the cards I submitted for the justjohanna design team call. All stamps are justjohanna. I watercolored the card. It's a fabriano note card.

I LOVE this little chick with the hat on him, why wouldn't gaggles of other chicks love him too! I t hink that one in the front is gonna get her man, but I'm pulling for the one that is 4th from the front, she is cute, and I know her heart is true. It's important that someone catch him, he is running the risk of becoming a little TOO sure of himself. I mean confidence is sexy but you have to be careful you don't get too vain.

bunch of random stuff.

I haven't had time to update lately so I'm going to put a bunch of stuff on the one post.

First is one of those adorable chipboard photo thingies I've seen everywhere. I think I'm going to offer this as a class at my local stamp store.
here's the "back" of it.
Next is a "Cars" (Disney movie) card. This stamp is by All Night Media. It was a set of 4 pretty large stamps and the normal price was only $9.99, but this week all stamps at AC Moore are %40 off so I got it for a cool $6! I HAD to buy it because Stephen was with me and the kid is a Cars fanatic. One of the ones in the set is a party invite type stamp so I'm hoping I can convince one of the boys to have a Cars theme party. This is colored with prismacolor and copic markers. Can you tell that the black paper is glossy? It is.
Next are two with my new holly sprig stamp. It's by Great Impressions. It's the "Stamp of the Month" (although I went online and they show an ADORABLE snowman one for this month and I rekon this one is NEXT month's stamp, but anyhow my LSS has this one as the stamp of the month) and they had this sample thing up with this one stamp used like 7 ways. Turns out if you take a cute stamp then show me a pile of unique ways to use it I will purchase it. OH and because it was the "Stamp of the Month" it was half price. Here's a link to what I'm talking about although it will show the cute snowmen instead of this: Stamp of the Month. The phrases I used are Papertrey.

I colored both with the water based marker, waterbrush, on watercolor paper technique. I'm loving this all over again, I did it a while back, then sorta forgot about it then have been seeing it around a lot lately.

Ok, that's what I have for you today.

Have a great one!

I know this artist...

So Asela is this rad artist who does stamps for Cornish Heritage Farms and they are wicked cute. She also lives one town over from me! Because I stink at keeping in touch and actually calling people and stuff I don't see her as much as I wish, but anyhow I feel all excited when her stamps come out, like I know a celebrity or something!

There are adorable Christmas stamps out:
The first (square) one is my entry for the Hop-A-Thon contest she has on her blog. You should check that link out, it's a cute contest with a great prize. (It's free stamps!)
On this one the jewls are RED, not orangeish looking. That makes me sad they look orange, the rest looks right. This is for a friend who loves "bling" and I try to always make her a special bling card. Also it uses the Fabriano Notecards which are great. (the link is who I purchased them from, you can get them other places, but I did have a great transaction with this seller.)

Ok on both cards I did the water based marker blended on watercolor paper with a waterbrush technique. That's it, no fancy techniques. Oh I drew the "lake" in with a pen. And the blue square card came that way, it's by Bazzill and they are very cute I think. I buy one almost every time I'm at the LSS.

And that's what I have to say about that.

justjohanna Design Team projects

I think I'll share a little sampling of my projects for the justjohanna Design Team Call:




I will show more of them as it gets closer, I don't want to jinx it or anything. But I'm done! :) I finished the last project two days ago. I will ship them Monday, not today because me and the boys are sick. (AGAIN, I swear I'm sick more than anyone I know, but it's just colds this time)

So what do you think? Can you eve tell from these little samples? I see other people put these cute little samples and I wanted to try them out.

Inkspirations cupcake.

I made this card for my mother-in-law who is having a birthday this Sunday. I got this cool paper at Big Lots, a package of 8 sheets was one dollar. It is flocked paper. (As Brian would say, "Of course it's flocked, that's why there were EIGHT of them, not just one" if you don't get it, don't worry, it's not that funny) The cupcake is Inkspirations, the shadow oval thing is by A Muse, the "Happy Birthday" is from my stash and says, "Annette Waters" on the side. The cherry has a glossy accents by Ranger on it. (Same as crystal laquer, glassy effects, and whatever that stuff SU sells is that is called something like that.) Colored with prismacolor and copic markers.

By the way, if you ever wonder why I use prismacolor AND copic markers it's because I'm cheap. I bought a bunch of prismacolor markers before I was convinced that copic were any better. I do love them both, I tend to like the copic more, they don't dry out as fast and you can refill them if they do, also I like the brush tip. But I am not going to get rid of my prismacolor ones, so I'll use them up and as I replace them or add new colors I use the copics. (Which I'm lucky because my stamp store sells them for $4 a marker, but you can use a discount card they sell and get them even cheaper, I think I get a great price on them)