Celebrate today

 

 An angled view that catches the bling on the petals. They were colored with some glitter gel pens. and that sentiment, its a digital print out on standard office copy paper from the laser printer at work. from the Every day sentiments set. I did diecut this with the Mama Elephant slim tags die and then I glued that cut out to a scrap of cardstock and die cut it again to give it the depth of being a printed on cardstock looking sentiment.

This card is A-7 in real life, the watering can from the bloom wildly stamp was stamped twice and cut out with scissors for the outside edges and an gyro-cut tool for the inside of the handles. this was layered to create the shadow and the blooms that normally are seen in this can were switched out for some of the new funky flowers blooms instead. The buttons in the centers of the blooms are vintage clothing ones with some scrappers floss tied off through the holes.

WOYWW #347 Coloring Station

It's Wednesday, These photos are from Sunday afternoon because, what's on that table now is all for the feb. release from two paper divas.. and it would probably be too early in the term for being bumped for being the chick that cannot follow the rules. ha ha.. So, if you are curious about this, the link up for this party starts at our hostess Julia's blog, where you can play along.

 

 

 So, it happened... I caved... and I bought something from IKEA without ever setting foot in the store lol. ( we don't have one here) but, recently I seen a post on Instagram from kathrac with this cart (you can see it here) and I totally caved.. It is surprisingly well made ( all metal all & powder coated) for the price. and then while it was en route I seen this post.     And I thought why not? So, I think I will be coloring in February. 

So, I have moved the copic's from their travel bag to the top bin, tucked in some color charts the middle tray has watercolors and acrylic paints, some pallets, some brushes things like that oh the mind just went blank the "stems" that hold your nibs when you do calligraphy, their cleaning toothbrush & inkwell. The bottom has Kurtake watercolors (green box), the brown case is holding derwent water color pencils. ( which I just may snip out some of the stitches like Dina did here...) and the tin under that is my Christmas gift this year its the big set of Polychromos pencils, These I just may take out of the tin and move to the cubbie holes on the top of the table and put them into the same spots as the Prisma pencils. ( I honestly do not think this would be a big issue to mix them up because, the only ones that are really significantly different are the watercolor pencils because, those I have to look at the chart to get what color they are the leads are misleading) and so, I just have not gotten that far yet. I also have some little pots of shimmer paints and the flat paper ones that I hid from my self. ( can't think of the name you know what I mean right?) so, I am thinking I just may play with this stuff more having it all gathered up together. I still have the SU & Distress markers upstairs for direct to rubber things but, I have considered bringing the Distress markers down since all the pads are upstairs already and I could use them the same way I am using the other water pens on the table. Anyways, that is what is going on here. I bought the first watercolor class online here and am messing around with that.

A little bird

 So, in the push to make something for hubs dad and the general I do not have a good variety of Birthday cards on hand thought I did end up coloring these Penny Black cats Saturday with the vague idea they were fun and for me I nearly always color cats in shades of orange and yellow. ( I think I have actually owned more grey cats than orange but, orange just seems to be the go-to color choice for me with cats ( who knows why) and then I seen this fun cat card in Michele, this weeks featured stampers gallery and thought why not. The embossing folder is goochie script done on some copper shimmer cardstock. the print is basic grey and was done embedded die cuts style so, the water colored panel is taped to the frame on the back side. These three stamps are all from the Penny Black set a little bird. The happy birthday was stamped on a scrap of the background I made for one of the HYCCT projects and that used up what was left of it.

 Well, I did color two of them so, I decided to try this one a little more simple and I am half tempted to pull it apart and add in a few more layers. ( I do like the top version better) but, I probably won't. They are both A-7 in real life. I also used the Nellie Snellen oval dies for these, on this version you can see the mat's are much closer to each other than on other brands of oval dies. the happy birthday on this one was cut with an Memory Box primo label die. Other than that, a lot of scrap using up has still commenced. I'll flash the mess tomorrow. have a happy tuesday ladies.

Simple Poppies

 This weekend the Inspiration challenge headed to a store called uncommmon goods and I loved this seashell art and I knew I had this handmade ( store bought years ago never marked with the mfg info) paper and thought, well you know its almost too easy because of that but, decided to toss it together anyways. last week during the lets cut up scraps episode I did make a pile of these Memory Box poppy diecuts so, I paired that with this alteNew Sentiment from their thinking of you set. So this one is A-6 in real life.

 

 And these were done just because, I had more poppies cut to use up. so, they are both simple ones the sentiment on this one is from WordsWorth cut with an Taylored Expressions die. this one is 6" square in real life. The petals of the poppy were paper pieced from a scrap of some orange background I made during HYCCT last Oct. and that has pretty much used up what was left of that background. (the cleaning up scraps thing has been going pretty good lately)

This one is the negative part and thought well what if you make it a shadow? ( sentiment is from the SU teeny tiny wishes)

75th birthday

 

 So, I received this handy balloon punch from SU this last week ( my stamps are on backorder I guess) and I had been so excited about getting them I decided to just use the punches on scraps to do this simple card for Hubs dad who turned 75 today. He likes to tell people he is 26 ( for all the years that I have known him but, you just don't find happy 26th! on silly sentiments)  The stripe frame is up on pop dots and the balloons strings are just taped to the back sides ( even on the vellum balloons) then tied in a knot at the bottom.

This one is 6 inches square in real life, the stripe paper is from Authentique, most the other papers were scraps ( PTI vellum cardstock, dcwv, some bazzill textured cardstocks, I have mostly forgotten the prints) That sentiment is from Impress and is tied on with some scrappers floss. Anyways, we did go hand deliver this and I think he enjoyed it.

a bit of a flirt

 

 As soon as these two sets landed in my mailbox from Two Paper Diva's I knew I wanted to use them together. That line and the clothes pins are from the Wanna Hang Out set and the clothing is from the his and her clothesline accessories set. The fun thing about these stamps is they are more flexible than the unmounted rubber ones so, I did take that clothes line and curve the stamp it self in a curved shape to fit this die cut tag on the clear block before I stamped it, poked some holes in the loops to add in the bitty brads and fussy cut all the stamped images you see that are up on foam pop dots. all the clothes have a little bit of glitter gel pen work on them too for fun.

 

Because, really it's just that time of the year when all the flirty fun things get to come out and play right? and even though Valentines day is just around the corner ( if you are making your own) I kept the colors more not traditional V-day just to make it more of a universal could save it for a random Thursday that everyone is glad they are feeling Huuumaan kind of a day right? :) Those tags are die cut with poppy stamps pinpoint mainstreet tag dies and the papers are from Neenah, Coredinations, DCWV, and the base is an pre-made A-7 one from paper source in blush.  The sheer ribbon is unknown but, the iridescent cord is from May Arts.

WOYWW # 346 bitty diecuts & happy mail

Happy Wednesday Ladies :) you can find the link up for this blog hop at our hostess Julia's blog here if you are so inclined to play along. ( shoot us a photo of your workspace & link it up because, we are just as curious ;) )

 

 On this mostly sunny cold day it finds me at home again but, today I have actually consumed food and a tiny bit of coffee. ( that is water in this mug shot, I have been living on it for the last few days) and its totally Hubs fault since he caught this bug first and it was just a big shock to me that I caught it because, I don't tend to catch stomach bugs. now if you sneeze a half a mile from me and its a catchy sinus thing of course I will catch that ( I am rolling my eyes) anyways on Sunday I was feeling "tired" and not wanting to really do much of anything so, I spent some time die cutting scraps into teeny tiny dies. and monday evening I bagged some up in clear envelopes for later use. and I had happened to glance at the binders of quickutz dies ( mine are mostly alphabets) but, I have a few shape ones. ( remember those dies?) anyways, I had to laugh because over the years I think bought a few from every co. that has come along and the ones I still play with every now and again are the more basic shapes the rustic ones like that bird house. so, all those bitty cards are 3" square with memory box "resting birds" on top of them.

So on tuesday night hubs hauled in this big packet of happy mail from two paper diva's and so, when I went upstairs to shoot these shots I just kinda pushed the cards off to the side and spread them out a little. in the top corner you can see better the old stamps that followed me home from the junk shops a couple weeks ago. and that's about it for now, I did get some of these new stamps inked to color later while I was up there. :) thanks for stopping by.

Tiny Village cards

 Are those the cutest tiny houses you have seen or what? ( that was my first thought when I seen them online somewhere a while back like months and months ago) and I have been actively searching for the dies since... I got lucky and found them still at Frantic Stamper on friday and so, I ordered them and they came in the mail on Saturday ( btw I am like less than 80 miles from that store so, yep all my orders arrive in a day or two from them) anyways, the Featured stamper this week is Minnur and she had this row of mix media houses in her gallery seen here. and I spent some time studying them knowing that I could do something similar if I just had a big house shape to decorate right, and the light went off and this was done really simply. ( its A-2 in real life if that gives you an idea how teeny those houses are) they were also inked on the edges with some creamy brown fluid chalk inks.

 So, anyways I decided I wanted to be away from hubs germs as he as down for the count on Sunday afternoon so, I went back upstairs after the first card and spend some time cutting lots of houses ( and some other things) from scraps. the pine bough on these is from Impression Obsession and the gold bow is also another Memory box die, ( I did cut the bow part off on the two on the edges using only the string parts) This red paper is the same stuff the coffee cups were cut from a week or so ago. so, they glimmer just really pretty.

 

 These are both A-6 in real life the one on the left is the second one with a Hero Arts sentiment and the one on the right uses both a circle and rectangle stitched dies from Simon Says stamp with an SU sentiment. ( maybe from ornamental pines?) the corrugate was placed behind it for some contrasting texture.

now, these are all 3 inches square in real life, the sentiment ( SU ) I did mask off the sprig that appears under the words before I stamped them and that was diecut with the stitched rectangle die too.

A catch up post

 Some of these photos have been piling up in my uploads folder and since most were delivered last week they are now safe to upload. the bird on this is Hero Arts and the sentiment is the Ton.

 just tried it as a flatter (less postage) version. this one is 4X9 in real life.

 That sentiment is from The Ton and the butterfly is from SU.

 The bow is Tulle and this one is A-7 in real life. The swirly die cut is from the Creative Expressions Dies, Scandinavian Collection - Background by Sue Wilson. and the pink corrugate is from fancy pants.

 

 This one is 6" square and the watercolor piece was done with some Kuretake  colors These the thing with me is for me to learn what the colors look like I just mess around making backgrounds some days. and I have a whole lot to learn about all the kinds I collected last year with no real thought of how to even use them. the butterfly is a sticker and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp.

 

 Now a week or so ago there was a challenge to "use up" something or at least stop hoarding something "special" so, this one went to June and it has I believe the most pearls I have ever used on anything lol. that butterfly die is an older spellbinders one that I had not played with before and the sentiment is from Verve. This is A-7 in real life.

 

 Just because I had picked up this paper for fun and this sentiment was laying on the table ( Verses) it was cut with an Mama Elephant slim tags die and one of the airplanes was cut out of a scrap of the paper and some of the planes I scribbled some glitter star dust pen on them. ( this one is A-6. in real life)

 

 I was not really sure what I wanted to do with this but, I had gotten this rose bird die from Simon Says after Christmas and so, this was mostly a combination of fairly new things ( with scraps) there is a pearl added to the bird for his eye and he was cut from some shimmery stardream. the Sentiment is from Mama Elephants hustle set. The square frame is up on pop dots.

 

 This one is 5 1/2" square in real life, I found this stack of premade card bases ( very thin colored only on one side) I believe they are dcwv and I think I am going to make it a personal challenge to use them up. so, the sentiment is from Mama Elephant and the heart die was cut with a lil inkers stitched heart from that watercolor panel that leaked a few weeks ago.

 

used up a whole bunch of scraps on these. all of them are 3" square in real life. the hearts have simon says stamp stitched hearts or lil inkers ones. the snowmen ( two more towards the left are stampin up and the largest one on the top right is Savvy Stamps)

A Bright Day

I think the wishful thinking part of my brain is seeing it get lighter for longer during the day already and then I walk into my closet and whack my head on the door frame and think Sure, its getting brighter lol. In all of the duck-in closets upstairs where we play the lights look like this, bare bulbs in sockets some with switches outside the door and some with pull chains. On this card the bulb from the new Watts Up set was stamped with Versafine on smooth Neenah cardstock and then colored with a clear stardust gel pen along the edges and an yellow staedtler triplus fineliner pen for the glowing part. This is up on pop dots. The pull cord on this is some silver elastic that was tied in a knot a couple of times at the end and just tucked a little behind the bulb. The frame uses a couple of simon says stitched dies the rectangle and circle and this is also up on pop dots, but slimmer 1/16" ones so when this card is tilted the bulb is the highest point on it. The base is some textured bazzill to give it some contrast with the smoother parts and this one is A-2 in real life.

WOYWW #345 Color combo cards

Good Morning its Wednesday (with tuesday evening mug shots haha) If your curious why the mess is on display head over to our hostess Julia's blog where you can play along with us. ( because, we really do want to see what you are pushing around on your workspace too) 

okay let's see, I did play in the color combo challenge at SCS on Tuesday so both those cards are still waiting to be put away. The coffee mug was a Christmas gift from Alice that made me laugh. ( if you cannot read it, it says "I drink coffee for your protection" off to the far left are a couple of vintage stamps I hauled home from junk shops last Saturday. ( we went to three of them in search of duplo blocks to use with wood mounted stamps with the Misti like in Dina's tutorial.) and we did haul home a bag of baby lego's but, they were for too young of a toddler so, the hunt is still on for those.

off to the right are some things I stamped last weekend waiting to make them into cards the Penny Black ( cat on a stool) is a new one to me and I had considered coloring it to suit the challenge and set it aside for something, hauling downstairs to color it completely instead. The hearts, that was that one of the sheets of water coloring I had masked off the largest heart trying for one of those IC type cards a couple Saturday's ago, and ended up cutting all the smaller hearts out of the sheet when I realized it leaked ( that mask) the sentiment on that is from two paper diva's. not sure yet how it is going to go along so, its just waiting. on the paper cutter is some new watercolor paper I bought to try ( another Dina made me do it post) its called Yupo and it is so slick and smooth to the touch ( I have not colored any yet but, I did rip a sheet off to do so sooner or later. )  I am hopeful the smoothness will work good with masking tape and not tear off the top layer of paper when removing the said "delicate" frog tape lol.
So, that's about it for this morning. will be later tonight before I can make the rounds. have a good day ladies!

Colors

 The color combo challenge today at Splitcoaststampers is Black, White & Red ( and add in a ribbon)... and seeing that this morning made me remember I had stamped this Hero Arts treeline in black last weekend while I was messing around with stamping it in various shades of pale aqua's trying for a soft snow look... and after that dried I used it as the guinea pig with the stickles too. So that crochet trim is vintage and sparkles in real life. the sentiment is from Dylusions and this is 6" square. Thinking someone may want to you know give this to a spouse  (after they have already said.. no, of course I don't need a thing for Christmas) lol.

So, While I was poking around looking for some kind of sentiment for the first card. ( did not want to do happy winter with the trees) I came across this mysentimentsexactly sentiment that had been previously heat embossed on the chalkboard cardstock. and thought that would be really easy to pair with red... and so it was. the white Corrugate is up on pop dots and the vintage bingo chip is glued to a metal white tag. The make a wish is from the old retired Gina K set called "make a wish" This is actually the second half of that first sheet of cardstock that was cut for the card above and it had already started getting darker out by the time this one was shot so, you know its that red thing... red is a harder color for me to shoot than an all white card.

Jail...

So, it made me laugh... that sentiment. I have some friends that I can totally see this happening to. and I have had this Judith critter colored on the table for weeks now. So thinking waking up in jail would be a hair raising experience you think? The papers are all scraps and I thought OK when they show people on tv being arrested or leaving a court house don't they all wear big sunglasses? lol so, I remembered these ( which were a charm with a dangle chain on it) that I had hauled home from Virginia last spring and I used my metal cutters to whack that off. ( I was impressed that I was able to actually cut these my self and not make a half way cut and big fluttery eyes at hubs to finish it off for me. kwim?) That sentiment is a riley & co. funny bones one, die cut with a MFT stitched rectangle die. the circle die is from Simon Says. and this one is 6" square in real life.

Holy Cow

lol that is the name of this stamp set from Unity, but it fits you know those weeks where it seems like everyone but your mama has a birthday? ( lol this is one of those weeks for me and my mom does have a birthday this week haha) So, in between all the snow cards I have been working on replenishing the birthday cards stash. This is one that it is safe to post since it did not go out in the mail for one of this week's birthday girls. the Cow was stamped with versafine on a scrap of brown texture cardstock ( on the back smooth side) and then I scribbled just a little bit of white gel pen into some of the spots of the hide. The layers of papers under it are all scraps and its A-6 in real life.

More Snow

 So, this week's featured stamper is Gunilla, and I came across this gorgeous card of her's this morning and thought... I have that snowflake, and if you dangled it maybe you would use it. ( it is very very skinny so, hard to glue) the metal snowflake charm I have forgotten who makes it. the cord is from May Arts, the sentiment is from Stampendous. one thing I did as a change was instead of stenciling a background I scribbled over an dry embossed panel with a soft sky marker to help the snow pop. this is only 3" square in real life.

 So, knowing the first one was just a little gift card size and the fact that I am basically at ground zero for this years quota's... decided to dig out a box of snowmen stamps and gave this cute card a whirl. (also from Gunilla's gallery) That snowman is from Penny Black and the sentiment is from Savvy stamps done on a piece of Prima flowers paper. the string is from May Arts and the stars were pressed into an tea dye distress pad for some extra color. this one is 6" square in real life.

and because, I had the snowmen out... stamped off this Savvy Stamps one on a scrap that was the inside of a frame I made the other day that was just laying there. the snowfall is the scrap of the smallest card and the wooden snowflake was left over from the IC cards I did yesterday as was the sheer ribbon. so, this one used up lots of scraps. YAY. :) ( its also 6" square in real life)

Snow Day

 The inspiration challenge heads to a winter white board on pinterest where I seen this photo and it reminded me I picked up this stamp Hero Arts maybe a month ago or so, and it had not seen ink yet... so, I grabbed an Avery Elle sea glass pad ( also fairly new and not used yet) and thought ok this is good but, it ended up being fairly hard to photograph. ( that base is actually soft sky from SU if you are familiar with the shade so, this has gone through a whole lot of bumping the blacks up post processing for these mugshots so, you could see it was even stamped haha...
these are both A-6 in real life.

So, I decided to try it again, this time using an off white ( milstone) shade to stamp on. ( which really faded into the cardstock) Added in some Stickles to the falling snow part of the scene and lined it with a kraft base. the wooden snowflakes are from SU. the mini brads and sheer ribbon are unknown. the Sentiments are from Northwoods done in some vintage sepia Versafine and both panels were cut with stitched rectangle dies from Simon Says Stamp.

Tea Cleaning

 I had some free time in the daylight on friday to play. so, after the heater got warm enough for glue to stick I tossed these two together from things I had die cut and stacked on the papercutter last weekend. the cups are tim holtz Sizzix dies and the sentiment on this one is from. ( my mind just went completely blank as I type this so, I have to go look and edit)
I do remember that the embossing folder is a cuttlebug one. and the sentiment is cut with an MFT pierced fish tail die.

Now see that bright heart in the center? haha that is one of the remains of one of the first attempt sheets of the masked water colored cards from last weekends inspiration challenge. While I was messing around with these I may have figured out a way to actually use one of the sheets ( what's left of it) and that makes me happy. ( no clue why) but, tossing things is really hard for me so, this card was mainly made with scraps. the pink corrugate is die cut with an Taylored Expressions die and the ruffled lace is vintage. the sentiments are from two different Two Paper Diva's sets His & Her clothesline accessories and watt's up. Both of these cards are 6" square in real life.

WOYWW # 344

Happy Wednesday Ladies, I know its been forever since I had time to sit here and actually load the photos I took of my desk ( I took photos... and that is as far as I got) If your wondering why this is happening you can check our hostess Julia's blog here for all the details of how to play a long. ( shoot a shot of your desk and link it up) PS any photo on this blog you can click on them to enlarge and hit your browser back button to get back here again.

 Saturday the inspiration challenge went to a etsy store of watercolor paintings and the samples Lydia made she used wide frog tape and masked the designs into diecut leaves... so, I have this roll of delicate frog tape and I had not opened it but, we went into home depot after breakfast and picked up the only roll our store had on the shelf which is a little wider ( the green one on the bottom) so, after these photos were shot. I did try masking some die cut shapes. ( tried the heart from the lil inkers pile below) and I ended up tossing the card front and cutting hearts from the whole thing when it was dry because I messed up the sentiment. ( and mine the watercolors leaked through the edges of the tape too) so, this is going to be an ongoing thing until I "get it"

 Had happy mail on monday night and hauled it up the stairs on tuesday before I started playing. ( which is what these shots are. ( an "almost" clean desk) to see how much I really had to pick up after my self you will have to scroll to the bottom to see the week before..

 the pile on the paper cutter.

What my desk looked like last week... so, you can see the struggle to clean up was real.
anyways, hope you are all doing well and off to see what you have been up to.

Two Paper Diva's New Release Day

Today is a new release day at Two Paper Diva's and this note card uses a flower from the funky flowers set and the sentiment is from the New Watt's Up set. So, the "sunny" shaped flower was stamped with Versafine on Neenah solar white and also faux water colored with markers. the hills were cut from scrap green card stocks using a lawn fawn stitched hillside dies and the entire layers of cardstock were cut with the Simon says stitched rectangle die. tied off with some grosgrain ribbon. the base is A-6 in real life from PTI spring moss.

A series of Cups

 Just a few things that happened after Christmas before the end of the year. the sentiment is one of my new Christmas gifts from The Ton and the cup is an tim holtz Sizzix die.

 The sentiment is from The Ton

 As is this one, this card is A-7 in real life.

 The sentiment is from SU ( one of the old snowflake sets I think)

 The large sentiment is from The Ton and the happy anniversary is from SU. The large mug dies are also Sizzix ones. cut from some shimmery red Recollections papers.

 So, all of these cup cards are A-7 in real life.

An angled under construction view that shows off the bling of this red paper.

The snowflakes on this one are layered stitched ones. ( either avery elle or lawn fawn) ( I have both)
and it was bitterly cold all week so I think a cup of joe was at hand or in my hands nearly non stop.