Business first and then the goodies

two items of business first:
hurricane gustave - for those that don't know i am from louisiana - outside of new orleans to be specific. katrina hit my family hard altho they were all luckier than ALOT of folks down there. well now gustav is headed directly at them again it seems. my mom and one aunt are staying put - they live in lafourche parish - raceland/thibodaux area to be specific if you watch things unfold. another aunt and my cousins in new orleans have already evacuated. my cousin has only just recovered from katrina. so keep me in your prayers and know that i will likely be fairly tense this week. the emotional tole of watching what katrina did to "my town" and "my people" was really difficult....

next item of business - fighting hunger!! my friend mary jo is participating in a hunger walk. her goal is to raise $1000!! we can help!!! not only that but everyone who donates is entered in a drawing for a HUGE prize mary jo is giving away too - check it out here

and now some fun stuff.

first up is this FUN little bookmark pattern posted over on the scrapping friends msn group i have been thoroughly enjoying. it came from this blog.

i printed it out and then copied it at 50% so mine are tiny:

PERFECT for some little studio Gs! the purple-y-green one is a leftover scrap from some reinker smooshing i did that you may remember. i experimented with varying the edge design too. these are just too fun and easy. i have a few more cut out and waiting for some dressing up...

next up is a 2-pager i did of pezzy at the playground. did another banadana technique piece - and let me just take a moment to encourage you to check out technique junkies where i got the idea/instructions. seriously one of the best little investments i have made hee hee!!!

so the background piece was SOOOO easy - just used two versamagic dew drops and smeared them on directly to the paper. then, because these inks dry a bit slower, i took my foam ink blending tool and rubbed them into each other really well - that ink just blends so beautifully! the white is my inkssentials pen.

the kids playing are from a ctmh stamp set and colored with copics. the grassy areas are some really cool stuff called flower soft in two colors {thanks cat!!} - i used glossy accents to stick it on which works really well - good for doodlebug flock too!

the tree area was another one of those silly little inkadinkado clear sets i found while stocking their holidays sets. it has all sorts of bits and pieces to make up different sorts of trees. do you see the little bird and nest - hee heee i love cute & tiny!!! the super cool font i used for the journaling was the weekly freebie over on scrapping friends - LOVE it!!

still working on some excitig changes over on the website - cross your fingers and i should have the big announcement ready by tomorrow so STAY TUNED!!!!!

technostamper AND mojo monday.......

Starting off today with the sketch from MJ:













And the card:

I am still out of skitter bug beads but SO adore my little bugs and really wanted to use them so i came up with another idea. I stamped them on and then put a flat drop of dimensional pearls down for the bodies. once dry i drew the black details on with my sakura pen. TA DA!! still prefer the skittles but until the new shipment arrives........


Here's a close up so you can see their shimmering little bodies!!!

The next card up is for Julee's mojo monday sketch:

And the card:

For the circle panel I stamped butterflies a flutter in versamark and then clear embossed with rangers detail embossing powder. next was a little experiment - i got some of the tsukineko walnut ink sprays (not up in the store yet as i try to decide if i should carry them - if you DO want them be sure and make your voice heard). i have them in the traditional brownish walnut color as well as a distress looking pink, blue and purple. for the card above i sprayed first with the pink and then a bit with the brown. i DO love the look but am not sure what makes them different than what i can do in my mini mister KWIM??? the square panel is a scrap from the SEI Chocolat line - SO yummy AND they are having a great sale 25% off right now on alot of stuff so run on over there!!!

may not get much playtime this weekend as i am doing a lot of work on the website in preparation for a big announcement on monday - so STAY TUNED!!!!!

some CKC projects

i have finished up 2 of my four projects from my CKC classes so i thought i'd share. this first one was from a class focusing on kaiser craft products - you can get kaiser goodies at Paper Patch Crafts. i LOVE kaiser stuff because it is wood not chipboard which is fun and different to work on. the bases are wooden circles. then a wooden flower is layered on top. both the circle and flower are covered with kaiser paper. my preferred method for attaching paper is a thin layer of mod podge - works awesome!!!!





next we did some pretty layering with primas, cut-outs from the paper scraps and some cool kaiser bling for the centers.











i attached a ribbon along the backs and pics of pezzy and tiger playing in the garden.










Next up is my fave of all of the classes - the velvet paper accordian album by SEI:














i haven't added pics yet....i think i might fill it with some very old photos of my dad's family in cuba that my brother gave me.....

well lots to do today - working on some website changes AND new skitterbugs!!!!!

SFYTT

hi all!! today's card follows Jen's Sketch For You To Try:











And the card:

not sure if i completely love this one - first time using the little hardware pieces and had no idea what i was doing!! i DO like the center stamped part alot tho! i had another batch of kaleidacolors come in and one is called Autumn Leaves. so i used one of the Inkadinkado Foliage Trails stamps and stamped randomly. then i cut it with my nestabilities and rubbed the edges with versamagic using my foam ink blending tool. the background uses one of the new cuttlebug embossing folders which i really like. i lightly rubbed the vine and leaf parts with thyme brilliance ink dew drop.

i have been mulling over some ideas for my website for some time now and will have some changes and a big announcement Monday so be sure to tune in!!!!!

Meet the verve divas challenge (with quick tutorial)

I have not had the opportunity to play all of the meet the verve divas challenges but was feeling particularly ambitious AND i liked this sketch so i took the plunge!









And here is my card:

And a closer look at the details:

Again I was playing with the Halloween Trails set from Inkadinkado - this time stamped in encore purple metallic ink - much more purple IRL. The tag is stamped in encore silver. The background is another dimensional pearls and ink blending foam experiment. And of course some of Cat's gorgeous purple shimmery bead pops.

The background is quick and easy. Gather supplies; 2-3 colors of dimensional pearls acrylic paints, ink blending tool and foam, cardstock. Using ONE color at a time - squirt liberally on to a foam piece and dab randomly over the cardstock - you want it thick and texture-y in spots. don't cover the whole thing.

Repeat with other colors until you are happy with the results.

another late sketch ...MOJO monday as in last monday...

Today's card uses Julee's sketch challenge from last Monday:











And here is the card:

The background was brayered with a kaleidacolor ink pad in Desert Heat (here.) Again I used a stamp from the back-in-stock Inkadinkado Halloween Trails clear stamp set - available here stamped using a Gold Encore ink pad (get it here.) The background is a perfect pearls technique from the book Paper Transformed and here is how you do it:

Gather your supplies: 3 colors of perfect pearls, ink refresher, mini mister with plain water, small paintbrush, black cardstock and crumpled paper towel. Spray the cardstock with the ink refresher and gently rub it into the paper.

Mix a bit of water with each of the perfect pearls to form a creamy paint (this is where i love my ranger craft sheet - i just mix it right there.) paint random squiggles of paint on the black cardstock. now mist it with water so the paint starts to run and bleed. move the paper around so the paint runs and covers the paper. you may have to mist several times around to activate the paint. (Sorry i forgot to take a pic of this part EEK!)

Next take your crumpled paper towel and dab it up and down on the paper to pick up excess water and some of the paint to form a sort of "vein" look. I hope to get a bit more practice on this one - you'll see it again at christmas hee hee!!

Hope you enjoyed this one!!

ooops! a little late for technostamper...but i have a tutorial!

hi all! i know it's been a bit sparse here lately but i have been SO sick! very frustrating as i rarely get sick because i don't have TIME to be sick! but i did manage to get some shipping done (woo hoo!) and a little play time in.


Today i have TWO cards for you based on MJ's sketch (yes i am WAY behind as her next one comes out tomorrow!) the second card includes a tutorial on another way to use dimensional pearls and the ranger foam ink blending tool. so here is the sketch:

I was SO excited when my latest Inkadinkado shipment arrived as it included the Halloween Trails clear stamp set that has been on back order. It put me in the mood to pull the whole stack back out again and play with them.

So here is card #1:

The bats and spiders are both from Halloween Trails and the pumpkin is from the Cats and Bats set and the little spider is from the Creepy Crawly set - you can order them all here. the two background panels are stamped with lightening black brilliance ink - stamps black but has a gold shimmer - perfect for halloween or what?!?! the little spiders are stamped with gold encore ink. the inks can be purchased here. The pumpkins are stamped in black memento, also available with the other inks, and colored with copics. the glitter around the pumpkins is stickles and the other glitter dots are the new $1 studio G glitter glues only available on the web here.

And now the second card:

In addition to the Inkadinkado order a Tsukineko order also arrived and it included more of the gorgeous kaleidacolor ink pads. I just knew Autumn Leaves would look stunning paired with the solid Inkadinkado stamps. Take a look at these wonderful pads here. And now for the tutorial on the two background panels above.


Gather your supplies: 2-3 colors of dimensional pearls acrylic paints, ranger FOAM ink blending tool, white cardstock (yep that's it!)

Squeeze a generous amount of each color onto your foam. (Really a bit more than you see here). I used Lettuce, Terra Cotta and Butterscotch for nice fall colors.

I applied the paint two different ways to get two different looks. For the first panel I stroked the foam tool diagonally across my cardstock piece. I wanted the colors to stay somewhat separated. I added more paint and continued down until the whole piece was covered. On the second panel I dabbed the foam onto the paper in a random motion similar to applying alcohol inks. experiment and see what YOU come up with! (My Ranger craft sheet is HEAVEN when doing stuff like this because i can make a big mess and then wipe (r scrape) it right back off and keep going.)

Next I stamped my imagge using the Kaleidacolor pad. These pads are great because they keep the colors separated when you are not using them:

After I stamped my image i took the ink blending tool and a fresh foam pad and smudged Terra Cotta ink around the edges of the white circle so it was not so harsh. I LOVE this tool because of the soft gradient look it gives with almost no effort.

i plan to have another tutorial with the foam blender and dimensional pearls up tomorrow so be sure to check it out!

hugs and thanks for stopping by!!

gettin' scrappin' done

i have been determined to keep up with my scrppin and have joined an MSN group - scrapping friends - that is really helping motivate me. this first LO is for their weekly sketch challenge:

This one is for one of the many summer challenges - using stickles on a LO - which of course i use all the time - for this one i used a sketch from page maps (one of my faves):

been terribly busy - doesn't help that me, hubby and pezzy are sick and trev has already been hurt in football so i am driving him to the chiropractor every other day.

a new shipment of studio G halloween inks and glitter glues arrived today and are going right back out. i will have extras of the glitter glues if you haven't ordered yours yet. still waiting on a last shipment of series 16 and warmth inks.

inkadinkado has gotten more of the halloween trails clear stamp sets in finally and those are on the way. i highly recommend these stamps sets - just gorgeous.

skitterbugs - lady bug and bee are sold out. a few snails left. all beads are sold out but more were shipped from canada on monday. look for more exciting skitter critters coming soon! want to dress your skittles for the holidays...???

SFYTT card and others

i was busy with cards this weekend! this first one is for the sketch over on Jen's blog:






And here's the card:

how cute is she???? the panels are done usig the bandana technique from the technique junkies newsletter. the white dots are the ranger inksentials pen which i finally got in stock not long ago. die cut is covered in ruby slippers and tiara glitz stickles.

next up - the sketch challenge over on SCS last week:

i got the scarecrow from peachy keen stamps. b oth images are colored with copics.

fianlly a card i did for the current challenge over at paper patch crafts:

the owl is from one of the inkadinkado sets i recently added to my website called birds galore. he is stamped with brilliance chocolate pearlescent ink - also available on my website. primas have sands of time bead pops.

and now i am off to bed as i have had a long day and expect another one tomorrow!! i will have some cute LOs to share tomorrow.