Happy Hoppers Easel card

The challenge this week over at ISC was to make an easel card. I knew right away what image and sentiment I wanted to use but had one of those days where I struggled to pick out the right patterned papers, border punches, and any embellies! I tried so many different combinations of colors and papers- my craft desk is a total mees now! I walked away from it for a few hours and was determined to finish the card. I finally decided on the plaid paper and had to stamp the sentiment a few times.....crooked once and an oops stamping too! I somehow got it all done. It still isn't that great to me.....wishing I had stuck with my orginal idea, but it will have to do. Directions for making and easel card can be found here.

Do you ever struggle with a certain card ? Please tell me yes- and that I'm not the only nutball that does this.

I painted the wings with pearlescent white for some "wow" factor, and also added glossy accents to the flower, tops of the antenna, and the one bunny's eye. Added a bit of yellow/gold shimmer paint to the body as well. I'm most pleased with the coloring of the image. A friend sent me these images but I just might have to buy this stamp- I can think of so many other occassions it can be used for!

Anne

Just in case you weren't feeling too old today .........

The people who are starting college this fall were born in 1992. They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.
Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
The CD was introduced eleven years before they were born.
They have always had an answering machine.
They have always had cable..
Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.
Popcorn has always been microwaved .
They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.
They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.
They never heard: 'Where's the Beef?',
'I'd walk a mile for a Camel ' or
de plane Boss, de plane'..
McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.
They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.

P.S. Save the earth. It's the only planet with chocolate!

Hope you enjoyed that- my friend sure enjoyed emailing to me!!

Anne

Stickles and Reinkers Organization!

For the last week or so I've been thinking to myself  "I have to get my little drawer full of Stickles, alcohol inks, and reinkers organized one of these days". It's a mess- they are all just thrown in there piled high- so I have to dig through them to find the right one when I need it.  Well I was making a batch of cookies yesterday and the recipe called for shortening. So I grabbed my Crisco sticks, and as I was about to pitch the clear case that it came in into the recycling box an  idea hit me, "Let's see if the reinkers and Stickles will fit in here?" (I'm a big fan of repurposing and recycling items instaed of just throwing them away). So I ran into my craftroom, opened up my messy drawer and grabbed a few bottles-and to my surprise they fit in there perfectly! Wohooooo! I had 3 sticks of the Crisco so I grabbed the other 2 clear containers to use, and how lucky could I get- all 3 containers fit perfectly into my drawer. All my little bottles are lined up nice and neat now, I even had room for a few tubes of microbeads. Simple- quick, and a cheap fix to my storage problems. You never know what you will come up with out of the blue!!

Yellow & Orange sponged card!

Here is my last challenge card as the Queen over at ISC this week. I asked the ladies to create something using the colors yellow and orange. I started out with a very pale yellow piece of carstock and stamped the Hero Arts "Antique Writing" in Brilliance coffee bean- then clear embossed it. I then got out my sponges and went to town sponging yellow and orange ink all over in a random fashion. I stamped the butterfly again and cut it out and colored it as I wanted some dimension on this card. I decided I want a rough edge on here so I tore the edge all around and came back and responged the edges. I used my cousin's Nestabilties to cut out the oval tag and stamped the Hero Arts sentiment in coffee bean as well. Found some gold brads for the corners and it was done! I love doing sponged backgrounds as it is really easy and goes very quickly.

I was going to do a video tutorial while I was at my cousins but we were too busy chatting and playing with her cats and time passed to quickly. We will try to get together again next week and will try hard to get a sponging tutorial taped. Wish me luck- I'm still learning how to edit the moveis and figure it out!

Here is a picture of me, my 2 older sisters, and my niece. We all went out for dinner and drinks the other night to celebrate my birthday and my nieces birthday as well- a bit early but that's fine with me!

Thanks for stopping by! Anne

Painted butterfly's

After visiting with my cousin and trying out her Lumiere paints last week I had to get myself some. I wanted to play with painting some butterfly's, but not an image that was too detailed. Yesterday I dug out my favorite Hero Arts butterfly stamp and got to work stamping, embossing, and then painting them. I'm no expert at this, but I tried to blend 2 or 3 colors together on some of them, others I just painted a single color. The paint seemed to dry very quickly so I had to work fast. I wish the camera had picked up the amazing detail of the glitter and shimmer of the colors better. In the right light they just sparkle and look absolutely amazing. I will make a card or two with some of them (already have an idea in mind), but I will be giving a bunch of these to one lucky gal over at ISC for particpating in my week long reign as the queen- ha ha!

Stamps used: Hero Arts  "Heart winged butterfly" F5158

Lumiere Halo & Jewel Paints

Stamped in Versafine Onxy Black

and Brilliance coffee bean

Clear  heat embossed

I purchased the paints through the Dick Blick website here for a reasonable price, and to my amazement they shipped very fast! The set I got is called the "Exciter Pack", 10 colors in small bottles (about the size of Stickles). I picked up a small plastic painters well at Micheals to drop the paint into. The paints are really fun and you can also use them om many other surfaces other than paper. Check them out!

Stamps: HA Heart winged butterfly

Stampendous sentiment set: Encouraging words

DCVW The Sweet Stack paper used

Here is my card I whipped up using one of the painted butterfly's. I also painted the pearls in the butterfly as well. I had to wrestle with the sewing machine again, we just don't seem to get along all that well! I will send this to a friend who needs some encouragement and prayers right now.

Thanks for stopping in! Anne