Friday, March 30, 2012

resist class



Here are the cards for my upcoming class on resist techniques. The top ones are embossed in white, and the ink resists the outline of the flowers. It's really a gorgeous card - if you click on it, you'll be able to see the details better. I was inspired to try the technique by my friend Diane. The basic design of the card I copied from one I saw online (sorry, I can't remember the name of the person to give credit to). The bottom left card is crayon resist. The bottom right one is using clear embossing powder. I cut up old sheet music books for the background paper.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

i've got class

No, not that kind of class (as anyone knows who has seen my bathroom decorated with Hot Wheels toilet cars...). I'm going to be teaching classes! My friends Marian and Kendall told me about a stamping store in  Bellevue, Kentucky, called Your Stamping Cottage. It's in a quaint old building called Crone Cottage. Next time I'm there I'll take a picture of it to post here. The owner of the store is the truly delightful Ramona, and she sells some new products, but mostly used stamps on consignment. Eeek - it's so much fun to browse through all the stamps. She changes the selection every few weeks, so there's always something new to see.

Anyhoo, I went there with Susan (aka Brad) and we shopped and chatted and had a wonderful time at the store. One of the stamps I bought was a large kimono. My friend Claudia had sent me an amazing card with an Asian theme where she embossed the image with gold, then painted it with Twinkling H2O's. I don't have any of those, so I tried the same idea, only using Perfect Pearls. Gorgeous! So I knew the kimono stamp would be perfect for that technique.

The next time I shopped at the store I brought Ramona a thank-you-nice-to-meet-you-i-love-your-store card that I made with the kimono. And on the spot she asked me if I would consider teaching classes at her store! Yay! I put together some samples, and here is what I came up with. There are a couple of variations of the kimono card, so people can get different ideas. The one on the right was done by my 14-year-old. In the second photo are two other cards we'll be making in the Perfect Pearls class.

I'll also be teaching classes on resist techniques, and making a secret compartment box. I'll post photos of those items soon.

Here's the store info, and my class schedule. There are lots of other classes offered at the store also. Hope to see some of my local friends there!!!

Your Stamping Cottage, 605 Fairfield Ave., Bellevue, KY, 859-581-0690.
     Tues-Fri 12-6, Sat 11-5

Perfect Pearls cards - Tues., April 24, 12:30pm AND 6:30pm
Resist Techniques cards - Wed., May 9, 12:30pm AND 6:30pm
Love Letters (secret box) - Tues., May 29, 12:30pm AND 6:30pm





Saturday, March 17, 2012

burn baby burn



Every spring we burn the previous year's Christmas tree - it's become a family tradition. There are different methods of setting it off  - like when they aimed Roman candles at it. This year Mike and his friend lined up strips of cardboard and squirted a line of accelerant leading up to the tree. It took a lot longer than expected for the flames to get to the tree, but it did work. Spectacular.

(And don't worry about anything else catching on fire - the Christmas tree burns out very quickly, and we've had lots of rain in the previous few days, so everything surrounding was still very wet.)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

haircut


What a difference a day makes! On the left is Mike just before his Select Band performance on Saturday. On the right is Mike after his haircut on Sunday. Totally his choice. This is the shortest he's had it in years. I love him both ways... although I do keep telling him how much I love seeing his pretty eyes.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

handbasket casa


Today I have a chipboard house decorated with Viva Las Vegastamps for Susie’s Casa swap.

Front:
I had seen this distressed-looking lady stamp used on their 
blog and knew she would be wonderful for so many projects. She is stamped with black Versafine, embossed, and colored with pencil.

The “handbasket” stamp I found in one of my many grab bags. I decided to pair the two stamps, and go kind of literal with this one. For the basket I found this wonderful textured paper, and sketched out the shape I wanted. The handle is some trim—I put Miracle Tape on the back and curved it around a circle I had traced. The flames were done on watercolor paper for stiffness—I inked a craft mat (first with Distress Wild Honey, then Fired Brick), spritzed with water, and laid the paper down into the ink. Then I cut the flames freehand.

Back:
Both of these stamps I received in different VLVS grab bags, and I think they go perfectly with the theme.


Coordinating patterened paper is from a K&Co stack Charlotte. The chipboard house is from Red Lead.



And in case you're wondering how I know what stamps I have to be able to coordinate a piece like this (since I have hundreds of unmounted), sometime I'll post pics of how I organize my stamps - works wonderfully for me!



Monday, March 5, 2012

vlvs dog stamp - six ways


Here's another trading card I did for Jan. I made six inchies and stuck them onto an atc. I love this little dog stamp from Viva Las Vegastamps - he's so happy! I can't help but smile every time I look at his face!!!

Left to right, top to bottom:

I used a music background stamp, then some pearl-ex (mixed with Glossy Accents) for shimmer, then inked the edges (I think it was Distress Worn Lipstick). Doggie is embossed, then I added some tulle and pearls.

Stamped dog on muslin with Versafine Vintage Sepia, then did edges with Distress Rusty Hinge, and stitched with embroidery floss.

Used a gold leafing pen around edge, added some silver dots. Embossed dog on blue cardstock. His little party hat is cut from some packaging.

For the "adopt me" one, I mounted some wire mesh (using a tiny bit of E-6000) behind a frame I cut out. The tiny letters were printed from my computer. This is my favorite of the six. Except for Ricky (our $30 shopping cart dog), all our pets have been from the shelter or strays we adopted.

Here doggie is with his little sock monkey friend (stamp from Elaine Madrid). Both of them were embossed and colored with pencils. Background stamp is Stampin' Up.

Finally, we have our shy dog. Background patterened paper was gessoed, then inked with Distress Wild Honey. Everything else was done in the same ink.