clay tiles!

hi all!

hubby headed back out of town this morning so i am on my own again - y'all say a little prayer alrighty?!?!?  so we were watching the velocity channel this morning - no not with daddy - that is what my car freak daughter requested - anyway, one thing i hate about tv these days is that you might be watching a show that is totally kid appropriate and suddenly a male sex enhancement commercial comes on ACK!  so lately pezza has been going through this thing where she is refusing to go to the bathroom when she needs to pee.  of course it is gonna happen eventually and then we are changing clothes.  i am pulling my hair out.  so what commercial comes on?  a male prostate drug commercial and what does the guy say?  "i was having a problem going to the bathroom to often and it was disrupting my life"  or some such stuff.  "then i found this whatever pill and not i don't have to go nearly as much..."  and i can't get to the tv fast enough and i am thinking no no no don't tell her that!  she's gonna want to take it and think it will make her not have to pee!  thankfully she was not paying attention.  apparently momma needs to keep a closer eye out when we are watching some riveting classic car auctions (god help me).

i am pleased to say that my house is all cleaned up now though - yay me!  oh if only i could keep it that way!  i happened to catch the kid across the street leaving for the elementary bus this morning so i ran to the clock to check the time - 7:30!!!!!!!!!!!!!  holy cow another year and half and i can scoot her out the door at 7:30 and not get her back home til 2:45??!?!  that is 7 hours people!!!!!!!!!!!  boy will i ever be able to get stuff done - i will be able to work AND keep up with my house!  heck i might even bake cookies or something :P

so what else have i been up to?  fun fun fun with polymer clay - this is why i get up at 3:30 am!

i spent some time with the amazing book by laurie mika called mixed media mosaics and it is amazing!!!!

pezza helped me too - aren't they freakin amazing!  i have made all of these after going through the first few pages of the book!!!!!  and there is still so much more!

i used all sorts of things - polymer clay in black and silver, luminarte polished pigments, perfect pearls, stamps, texture sheets, beads and gold leafing.  gold leafing is SO cool!  first time i ever used it and i ADORE it!  i will be making lots more of these and then creating some larger projects using them!  laurie is also very nice and has answered my emails readily.  she is even going to be teaching near me later this year so i am really hoping i get to take her workshop - it will combine beads and clay - does it get any better than that??? i think not!

perfect pearls embellie video!

hi all!

happy monday :P  i know i know oxymoron right!?  did everyone have a great weekend?  ours was fabulous!  to kick it off we got a little bit of snow.  pezza was very excited to be out in it to play and we took bubba out for his first snow day - he LOVED it.  i knew he would.  our older maine coon loved loved loved playing in the snow when she was young.  i have pics at the end of this post.  i tried my hand at some homemade king cakes.  Meh....they were ok i guess but NOT rouse's good.  hubby loved them though.  then saturday night hubby made dinner for me while i napped on the couch - how awesome is that?!?!?!  then sunday he took me out clothes shopping and got me loads of new clothes which i needed badly.  got some for himself which he needed even more and then a few summer outfits for pezza that are SO freakin cute!  she picked out a hot pink tulle skirt and told me it was "the skirt of her dreams" BAH HAHHAHHAH.  she was super well behaved which made it that much better.  then we went and ate chinese food - yum!

i am getting SO excited for CHA!  i cannot wait to see all of my friends and get to the wonderful classes i am scheduled for.  see all the new goodies coming out up close and personal.  word from a fairly dependable source says there will be no cricut gala this year which is super disappointing because those are always the highlight of the trip.  pezza and i will be heading out to the salon today for hair appointments and i should be set to go!

i have a video tutorial to go along with my project today:

how sweet is this image???  tiddlyinks of course and colored with colored pencils of course!

and the embellishments are done with one of my fave perfect pearls techniques but i haven't done it in ages:

and you should see them in real life - so smooth and shimmery!  they are made with cardstock, UTEE and perfect pearls and you can see all about them here:

and here is bubba the snow cat:

look at that gorgeous tail - a maine coon's pride and joy!  and i think he is going to be a big cat.  he is not even 9 months old yet and he is the same size as tiger - our other maine coon and he could continue growing for another 1-2 years!

perfect pearls video

hi all!

ahhh 2012 - off to a roaring start!  pezza has been in rare form - lack of routine, boredom, not good for little miss insanity.  lucky for us all school is back in session tomorrow.  it still never ceases to amaze me how different she is from the boys - girl thing perhaps? or maybe the boys were so long ago i have blocked out the difficult parts?  it's a good thing she is so stinkin' cute!  we HAVE been down in the studio together and i have been teaching her more about painting with watercolor paints.  i plan to have a mixed media class up on Color Me Creative soon too so she will be doing the lessons right along with me - that will be fun!  but FIRST i need to pack all the christmas decor away!

i have another FaveCrafts video tutorial for you today - this one is a perfect pearls background technique called Shiny Stone which i used on this card:

I began by using glossy cardstock - i covered it completely using a brayer and a kaleidacolor rainbow ink pad.  Next i mixed some gold perfect pearls with water to make a creamy paint and dabbed it randomly over the surface.  I misted with water to get the paint to "move" and then dabbed slightly across the area with a crumpled paper towel.  This creates a shimmering "veining" across the rainbow ink.  finally, i put it through a cuttlebug embossing folder.  i think i could create these all day there are so many possible variations and the perfect pearl paint just looks so cool!

 I used an adorable little Gilli stamp - these are done by my friend anaRy.  I colored her with colored pencils.

for those who prefer video instruction here it is:

let me know what you think and i wish you all a fabulous new year!!!!

winner!! and more yummy flower soft!

i am a bit late but i do have a winner for the $40 gift certificate - Karen D!! she made these two adorable ballerina cards - dontcha just love flower soft as cake!?!?!

i have been playing with my flower soft too and here is one that i am very pleased with:

i stamped the Hydrangea and berries with memento black and colored it with copics. next dotted some flower soft glue on an sprinkled it with delphinium blue flower soft from the floral bouquet kit:


Quick and easy but LOVE the effect. the colors in the floral bouquet set are multicolored mixes and really give stunning results.
















i covered an acetate box with a strip of blue bo bunny paper and then i took a brown piece and punched it with a fiskars border punch. i stamped randomly with the same stamp using versamark and brushed on a bit of heirloom gold perfect pearls. i tied some bo bunny polka dot ribbon around it and then added my image with pop dots.

be sure and get your flower soft now! imagine what you can do with it for spring! we have also added some more items - we now have some of the flower soft stamps, printed papers and the individual colors missing from the sets!

TECC36 AND bellaholics challenge all in one!

FINALLY got some extended play time in this weekend. Hubby did a fanFREAKINGtastic job taking the baby of my hands ALOT this weekend - LOVE him! alas he is out of town for the week so i will be on my own *hair stands on end* - so i have a double duty challenge card today. i used this -->-->
sketch from Taylor's cupcake challenge.



and here is my card:

FINALLY inked up one of my new chichiboullies from stamping bella - this is patricia cupcake - isn't she ADORABLE?? the embossing is rubbed lightly with a brilliance pearlescent thyme dew drop - i find the dew drops are easier to do this with - not as much gets on the unembossed parts. the patterned paper is from the new DCWV sweet stack - oh wow is it YUMMY!! the buttons are from SEI - oh how i love SEI - and that is where the bellaholics challenge comes in - we had to use 5 buttons.

i colored the image with copics and then used spica glitter pens for her cake - it's not a cupcake but it's close right? also rubbed the embossing from the nestie with the same thyme ink. her wings are painted with perfect pearl perfect pearls powder and an aquapainter.

In case you missed it yesterday i am having a sale on big & juicy Rainbow ink pads - $8 instead of $12!! and free shipping still in effect!

i have a very exciting project for you tomorrow so be sure to come check it out!!!

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!!

WOW is it really friday?????

my gosh!! where on earth did the week go??? has it really been since monday that i last posted? well i sure hope y'all missed me HAHAHA!!! i have a card for you today - it is for a sketch challenge on Our Creative Corner:



I took the SEI velvet paper class at CKC and i am SO in love with that paper. i came home with a stack and it was the first (and - so far - the ONLY) thing i pulled out to play with. this stuff is so versatile - you can really do anything to it - stamp it, cut it in the cricut, emboss it, ink it. it comes in ALOT of colors too. so here is my first little prject with it:













the camera does not really SHOW the velvety-ness of it but the purple - dark and light - is the velvet. the green side is stamped with a chinese calligraphy solid stamp i got for my bday *waving to Cat* which i stamped in versamark and then dusted with interference green perfect pearls and spritzed lightly with water to set. i tried to capture the shimmer with the camera but it's hard...

the brown circle cut out was done on my cricut with the new storybook cart - a must have if you are on the fence. i rubbed the leaves and flowers a bit with versamagic ink. i ran the dark purple velvet thru the cuttlebug with the new Floral Screen folder and then inked the edges with versamagic. the sentiment is a studio G stamped right on the velvet with versamagic. i mean how cool is this stuff!!!!

UTEE tutorial - part 3 - and the best!!

ok Catherine - this ones for you! this technique comes from a book - Paper Transformed by Julia Andrus (creator of perfect pearls):





The perfect pearls is "captured" in the layers of UTEE in a sort of web-like pattern.

















Gather supplies: UTEE, cardstock cut to size, cardboard cut to same size, ink pads in 2-3 colors, foam blending tool, versamark, perfect pearls, small paintbrush, heat tool.

Run your cardstock thru a xyron or cover with adhesive and attach the cardboard to the back - i use cereal boxes :) - UTEE can be heavy and make your paper curl - this will keep it straight and stiff.

color your cardstock with the ink and blending tool (or start wit colored cardstock). smoosh it into the versamark pad and cover really well - remember you can check under a light - the versamark will be shiny.





brush on 2-3 colors of perfect pearls. this works best if one is a "metallic" (here i used bronze) AND if you don't put the same color pearls as the ink underneath. now the tricky part - cover the piece with UTEE BUT there is nothing for it to stick to. SO i heat it just a tiny bit to get it a little sticky and then cover with UTEE. start heating with the gun really high up and move slowly closer to the paper - if you see the UTEE start blowing back up a bit. once it starts melting you can get closer. this can take awhile - 10 minutes even - be patient! the effect is so worth it! the UTEE will bead up and drop through the layer of perfect pearls creating "windows" to see the ink beneath.

i am out of town right now at CKC but have this set to post automatically

UTEE tutorial - part 2

Here is the next UTEE tip from the LO i posted yesterday - this will explain how to do the pearlized embellishments:

I love this technique because they aren't just all shimmery but also sort of "poofy"


Supplies: grungeboard or chipboard pieces, versamark, UTEE, small brush, perfect pearls, small stylus or tweezers to hold the piece while heating. Smoosh your grungeboard piece into versamark until it is coated really well. Place it in the bead tray and cover with UTEE. gently dump off the excess.

Use the stylus or tweezers to hold the piece still and begin heating - start with your gun high above and slowly move it down as it begins to melt, once it melts you can get closer. Aim your gun away and sprinkle on more UTEE into the soft UTEE until you get a good solid coverage. Let it cool slighty - this is a bit of trial and error - and then brush on the perfect pearls. it will stick to the UTEE. once it is covered heat it just a little bit so the perfect pearls sticks-you will see a slight change. sometimes i add another layer of perfect pearls so it is good and shimmery!

have you seen the new grungeboard coming out???? i am SO excited about it! nature shapes and holiday shapes PLUS grunge BOOKS!!! you can preorder on my website.

happy stampy hugs!!

2 sketches 4 you DT call

here are the two cards i made for the DT call over on 2 sketches 4 you - a blog i JUST discovered and hope to play on more:
First the sketches given














And the cards:

Some details for you:
i got these cute little acrylic charms from CTMH and dyed this one with alcohol ink.

Images are the new studio g series 16 and colored with copics

one of the new edge punches YAY!!

bird is pink cat studios and snail is pink petticoat. i printed it out at 5x 7 size so the images would be a bit smaller. the tweet is stamped with brilliance pearlescent chocolate ink and heat embossed with clear. wanted to try it but really the pearlescent ink looks great by itself. then i went over the flower, stem, and plumes on his head with a versamark pen and brished on some perfect pearls. images colored with copics.

the background stamp is also pink cat, stamped in versamark and brushed with various colors of perfect pearls. added lavendar dreams bead pops at the bottom and for the prima centers.

yellow stickles for the dots - i am into dots right now if you haven't noticed!

sentiment is from the new studio g series 16 - LOVE the sentiments in this set. stamped in brilliance pearlescent chocolate for more shimmer.

all are products i carry so check the web store if you want some!!