WOYWW #412 {loot & coloring}

Happy Desk Peeking day! If you'd like to play along the link up starts here at Miss Julia's blog.

 so, a while back I caved on a studio calico order and those stamps arrived in the mail on monday.

 Also on monday came a package from Simon Says stamp...

 So, on monday evening after those stamps were dutifully photographed for your viewing pleasure I did open the shut up and color set and stamp off some of those on scraps and left them to dry. so this was shot tuesday.

around the corner on the other side I have been coloring some ellen hutson mondo peonies with polychromos pencils. I stamped it all with some avery elle pixie ink and the leaf is ( I forgot it's ink name off hand but, I was trying for a no line coloring effect) and so, its hard because, I finally figured out what I think I am doing to sabotage my self and it is I spin the papers when I color. I think it would be easiest to say ok this will be the top on your finished project and so the shadows go here and here. and that's not really how I operate with blooms ( like this where they are viewed from above) I tend to cut them out with scissors and place them on card fronts around the sentiments or other elements. so, the card in the back was the first one of these and after it was attached to the card base I had this whole, the shadows do not make total sense thought about it. oh and the starting to unfold buds are even harder with the no line thing for me, they just look like pink blobs and I may add more definition to the cracks but, the pale pink peonies in my yard are barley pink (only in the centers) the petals fade to white as they open so, I was trying for something more real looking.

also from tuesday ( my desk at work) my son is home on leave so... he stopped by my office to ( use the copy machine lol) I will be driving all day for work today so, it may be late before I start making the rounds. Thanks for stopping by!

Peony Birthday

My birthday card stash is on the slim side and so, This was something for that. The peony is up on foam pop dots.

 There is a challenge from Ellen Hutson right now that based on this inspiration collage of photos as seen below and I was really struck by the pink skeleton leaf with the light flowing through it photo and so, this was inspired by that part. The base is some Neenah millstone, the printed paper is from my minds eye and was cut with a My Favorite Things homespun stitched die. The Peony was stamped with some Avery Elle Pixie ink to give it a no line coloring effect and then I colored this with some polychromos pencils. The sentiment is from the up the happy set and was stamped with some versafine onyx black.

 I have been messing around with trying to figure out where shading goes but, since this is the very first time this flower has been out of the package I guess it will be easier next time to decide where some of the shadows go in the center of the bloom.

This challenge is open until May 2nd. if you want to play along with it.

Mothers day Laughs

Sometimes when I go upstairs thinking I will just clean up the mess and maybe make something I need in the future what happens is while I am thinking about that I just make cards out of what ever is in front of me. So both of these cards were done just that way while dinner was cooking last night.

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 The Mom on this is from W plus 9 strictly sentiments 4 set and the rest of the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp Mothers day zingers. They were all heat embossed with SU white powder on a scrap of some PTI aqua mist card because, I had picked up this floral Julie Nutting boutons de rose paper recently to make Mom's day cards with. the texture is an Anna Griffin one that has some white pitt pen on the raised parts. the lace and button are vintage and tied on with some scrappers floss. this is A-7 in real life.

I think this would be funny for a mom with multiple children... the stork/baby is an vintage PSX stamp and the sentiment is from the SSS Mothers day zingers set also. with the other piece that I had cut of that floral print and some PTI spring moss card. The photo corners are from Heidi Swapp.
Thanks for stopping by, and I did warn you to swallow before you read these sentiments right?

WOYWW #411

Happy Desk peeking day! If you'd like to play along with us the link up starts

 here at our hostess Julia's blog. 

It surprised me to find things to flash on the desk, I did make two quick Mothers day cards yesterday after work with things found on the table and I had experimented with this folder and a white pen to pop the pattern but, it was too busy to go on the rose card. ( I keep attempting to add in some texture with these folders because, I have so many of them but, I am still in more of a CAS mode so a lot of the time those pieces do not make it onto finished projects. Packing the kitchen also continues. It is looking like it would be mid June before this is done so, we don't want to gut it too soon because, the hold up is the cast iron sink. I ordered a sandbar color from the mfg that will go with the counter top better than white and it will take 2 months ( insert a fainting smiley here) the appliances are in town at the stores warehouse, the cabinets are only supposed to take 6 weeks... so 8-9 weeks for the sink was a huge shock. So far I still do not know the name of last weeks stamp set. the blog shaz found has been closed and the packaging does not have a upc barcode on it. It doesn't matter that much in the long run, but stamp set names is the most common question I get about products I use and so I lately have been trying to list more of that kind of details on the blog. Thanks for stopping by, I am going to be as usual making the rounds during the slow times at work.

some odds and ends

 I had picked up this Emma background from Simon Says Stamp a while ago and spent some time heat embossing a stack of them and a few actually got colored over the last month or so.

 The hello on this is a Concord & 9th Say Hello die. ( two of the three pieces) and the Happy Easter is from the Neat & tangled cottontail cuties set.

 a variation on the theme... the outer white frame is up on popdots over the background. the gold embossing powder is from WOW the white is SU.

 This one the Happy Mothers day is from the Simon Says Stamp mothers day zingers set
This one finished at 5 1/2" square. The sentiment is up on pop dots. (all of these Emma backgrounds were colored with some derwent watercolor pencils and an aqua brush. 

This one the Hero Arts antique rose was done in white SU powder on some watercolor paper a long time ago and just cut out with scissors, it is up on Pop dots over the scrap of wood grain paper. the Sentiment is also from the mothers day zingers set. This one is A-6 in real life.

WOYWW #410

Good Morning and Happy Desk peeking day! If you'd like to play along with us the link up starts here at Miss Julia's blog.

 I did make a few cards on Sunday and some of them are in the previous post. and a few were Easter cards that are still in the mail somewhere so.. I did not pick up anything after that last card and off to the left is the bear card that needs fixed. ( almost every time I use some PTI cardstock I manage to glue it down crooked and that paper has no forgiveness to it) after this was shot I just cleaned everything so, behind those cards on the far left is a stamp set from Melissa Francis that I was trying to add to my evernote file and ( I do not see a set name on its packaging) and I do not see stamps of any kind in their web site and I don't know how long I have had this set but, I am hoping to find out its name if anyone knows. In the lower right are some other previously made stenciled/shaving cream backgrounds from last year as one was used for one of those cards.

This is the stamp set. my mind keeps thinking it was called baby something maybe baby animals? but, it was too long ago, I don't even remember where I bought it anymore. And I am officially starting to pack up the kitchen so that it can be remodeled next month and that is kind of scary and exciting at the same time. So, once that starts I don't know how much free time I will be spending up here.

Last Weekend's VSN Cards

 So yesterday was hubs hunting buddy's birthday... and this went to him. the memorybox diecut is flat to the card base and has some clear wink of stella on it, the center frame is up on 1/8" foam dots and the outer edge frame is up on 1/16th ( I tucked more in after this was shot and glued the panel on the left into the inside of the card) The stamps are from Hero Arts Irreverent birthday messages set. I had originally thought I would keep it no stamps on the front because, that was one of the VSN challenges but, I ended up adding the happy birthday at the last minute because, it fit in that corner. and they are a two piece stamp I didn't actually cut this one.

 Sunday was the day the new featured stamper was revealed and I found this cute card in Donna's gallery and I knew that Robin had a odd sayings challenge and that there was this VSN challenge for an animal to be crossing the road or what not and this kind of morphed from there. It's 5X7 in real life and when I tried to take it apart to straighten it out after this was shot it did not want to move so that told me the blue is a PTI color ( their papers do not have any seconds of re-arranging as far as I can tell, I can move things easily for a while using perm. glue on bazzill because of the plastic content that paper has so, this one is sitting on the table while I think about it. I am also trying to hunt down the name of that Melissa Francis set the bear came out of, I will flash some photos of the stamps with the desk peeking shot and at scs.

Kim's VSN challenge was to make a background using a shaving cream tech. and I had stacks of things in the file cabinet I had made last year for one of the challenges to use that with stencils. so the stencil is from Simon Says Stamp ( waves) and yes, it still smells like barbasol. The hugs is from My Favorite Things. I have been trying to make this post after work for days but, this is the first time blogger decided to load the page for me and the desk peeking post will follow.

WOYWW #409 { lighting }

Happy Desk Peeking Day! I thought I really had nothing to show, and then I looked up. and thought what the heck. if you'd like to play along the link up starts here at Miss Julia's blog.

 So, I have often referred to this corner of this FROG as a "cave" and really had not been kidding, do you notice that none of the table lights are on in this shot? the remains of what I did sunday with the 5 VSN cards are still out, I did print off print screens of the remaining 10 to work through this week but, so far have not gotten any more play time yet.

 This is the natural light at 7:30 am PST  today.. there are actually two of these overhead lights in the space the other is above this computer.

Last saturday the light that is over the computer end of the room died, so when hubs went to the store to get the ( inside component to fix it, the light is so outdated that he would have had to rewire the whole thing or he could buy new lights) so, he picked these LED lights ( the most watts they had like 50? 52? something like that) and OH MY what a difference.

I think I will keep him. ;) Thanks for stopping by!

VSN Weekend

 So, it came... I knew it was coming... but, I could not steal time to play until today. The first one I did was from Nicole's challenge to make a "no fail watercolor background" using baby wipes to apply the color. when it was dry I happened to glance at the tray on the right and seen this monster ( whipper snapper) that I had colored a couple weeks ago and thought well why not. the sentiment was previously stamped on the green scrap and its from Impression Obsession.

 what it looked like under construction, I did over pat the colors so they would mix a little.

 Shannon has a challenge that goes to a web site of 100 top pranks people played for April Fools day over the years and I stopped on #22 which was comic mix up/ move ( I guess there was a day the illistrators for the comic's got to mix things up.. and I had intended to do a different couple in one of the windows with some of these stick people ( lil inkers ) and then the other one I thought of was too big so, I kept it all from the same set, the saying off to the left was later glued inside the card.

 Sharon has a masking challenge so the monster & box are from avery elle and the texture is an old Hampton arts one and the sentiment is from technique tuesday.

 This bird was also colored previously and I used it for Misti's challenge to do a snarky card you'd send to a friend...

Jeanne's challenge was to do something silly with animals so... this one was also colored at work last week. the sentiment's from Clearly besotted message me and the image is from Art gone wild's Michelle masters special delivery. that is a silly wabbit to expect this delivery to be made yes? that's about it for me.

Caring thoughts

 Last Sunday our featured stamper turned out to be Heidko and I found this beauty in her gallery that I loved every single detail. Changes were the die was switched, I eliminated the sequins and I stamped the sentiment (Altenew thinking of you) on a scrap (lawn fawn everyday sentiment banners die) instead of direct on the diecut/background and popped that up on foam dots. I had started out with the broken china oxide and decided it needed a little more somber to that cheerful color ( sympathy cards) and added in some iced spruce with that. the woodgrain texture is from gmund and I used a Memory box woodland oval die to cut it and the color was done on some neenah solar white. This is A-2 in real life.

one of them was personalized like this on the inside and the other did not have the blue postage stamp die (Avery Elle) and a different sentiment from the same IO set.