Wednesday, September 26, 2007

A twofer! Technique Thursday Challenge & A Sneak Peek!



Here's another sneak peek of the new releases from justjohanna stamps. I just love that pumpkin and the little Desmond Squeaker Birds. The big Desmond Squeaker Birds are pretty cute too.

This 4x4 card has a button, so it qualifies for the button challenge at the Technique Thursday Challenge, though I think I was supposed to use buttonS, as in more than one. Oh well. I have quite the stash of buttons and just got a bag of Foofala buttons as a birthday gift, so I'd better start using more than one per project or I'll have tons of buttons to pass down to my future great grand-children.

I used my Prismacolor pencils to color the images and Distress Ink to edge the card and the sentiment. The paper was a gift from a secret pal. I finally remembered that I had it, so I used it. Yahoo! I so love using my stash!

I'm so happy. More Prismacolors will be coming to live with me since I won an ebay auction thanks to one of my good friends who isn't scared of the 'bay (like me). Even better is that it's being financed with "found money". My friend bought a motherlode of dd's old American Girl doll clothes, furniture, and accessories. I'm splitting the proceeds with the teenager, since it was her stuff. But I'm the one who braved the wilds of the teenage wasteland (her room), cleaned it, and moved all the AG detritus into the closet in the spare bedroom.

End of today's ramble.

Thanks for visiting.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Wednesday Stamper


"Fish" was the theme for Wednesday Stamper and I'm getting this posted just in the nick of time. :D

I did complete it last week and even scanned it, but hadn't done anything to the file since then... So, I sort of procrastinated, but not really.

Anyways, all stamps are justjohanna's and include Priscilla le Chef and Michelle. I used the Sizzix diary die and broke into my stash of rub-ons. I'm not real good at getting them straight, but I've decided that added to the charm. I also used old, but beloved KI patterned paper, from my scraps file. Yay!

Then I amused myself further by adding Glossy Accents to the eyeballs of the fish and the cat.

Thanks for visiting today!

Another sneak peek!


Here's another sneak peek of three of the new justjohanna stamps that will be coming out real soon.

When I saw the cobweb image, I thought that it would work really well with the window that I made in AppleWorks Drawing Module. This time, I decided that I'd change the point of view from inside-looking-out to outside-looking-in.

So, I printed out another window, cut out the panes with my exacto (I really need exacto 101), put the cobweb onto a transparency, which I placed into the corners of two panes. I also put transparency behind the other two panes.

Then I thought to myself, well that window needs a cat! So, I colored Devilish Priscilla, cut her out, and stuck her in the window too! Then I realized that I needed window treatments, so I created a shade from dotted vellum, and adhered a piece of peach cardstock behind it all.

I had a piece of Cosmo Cricket that reminded me of a wood shingles, so I decided to mount the window onto that.

Being me, I realized that my cutting lines were visible, so I got out my white acrylic paint, and sloppily painted the wood "window frame" and intentionally got some paint onto the transparency.

I added the sentiment, which I think is totally hilarious and fits the state of my house! Now I need to ask Johanna to create a stamp about my catfur tumbleweeds.

Thanks for visiting!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

A design principle that makes me happy.




When designing a card, tag, or scrapbook layout, I try to follow a few basic design principles. One of my favorite principles is "grounding", which does NOT refer what I do to the teenager when she misbehaves!

In design, grounding refers to placing an image so that it does not appear to be floating about the project.

I recently started doing something that really resonates with me. Perhaps it's my control-freak Virgo nature, but grounding a stamped image inside a letter just makes me really, really happy.

Anyways, both of these cards feature justjohanna stamps from the summer '07 release. I live in hope that Graduating Al will get a lot of use from me next June as my dd and her friends graduate. The paper is from Reminisce and is shimmery irl.

I think that Sleeper is the most peaceful and sweet looking bird ever. IMHO he looks wonderful inside the "C" in Peace. I do believe that I'll be re-creating that card for some of my holiday cards. My dh brought home the parchment-looking paper, which is very lightweight and is made for inkjets. It takes stamping really well and also makes chalked images look shimmery. It's very cool. I'm glad I stole it from him. *giggle* Anyways, the patterned paper is very old holiday paper from Daisy D. I'm glad I hoarded a stash of it because I still really, really love it.

Well, enough rambling for today. Try grounding some images in some letters. Maybe it'll make your inner Virgo smile too.

Thanks for visiting!

Friday, September 21, 2007

Sneak Peek! Yahoo!



Johanna, of justjohanna stamps, has been one busy lady and has a new release coming out in time for the holidays, including my most favoritest holiday -- Halloween! I just love driving around town sporting my chattering skull pin, my skeleton earrings, my devil ear headband, and my mummy shirt. Then I get to see all the adorable ghosts and goblins when they come to my door Trick or Treating!

Anyways, here are two sneak peeks.

Don't you love Belle as a witch? I know I do. But I love the sentiment, "Wicked is all about attitude" even more! I can see me using it for cards for all occasions, plus scrapbook layouts about the teenager and her familiar, our diva cat, Duchess! BTW, Duchess is now famous as she's in layout (by yours truly) featured in Cat Fancy magazine. *yippee*

I totally love Devilish Priscilla. I hope you can see her stylin' skull necklace. Both Priscilla and the background were chalked. I tried to make the background look a bit "hot".

Come visit next week when I'll have some more favorites from the new release coming up soon.

Meanwhile, thanks for visiting today!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

4x4 Friday!


Here's my card for the Flourish theme at 4x4 Friday!

I diecut a large leaf from white core cardstock, ran it through the swirls Cuttlebug folder, sanded the embossed swirls, inked the leaf with several colors of Distress Ink, spritzed it with water, ironed it, sanded the edges, and finally inked the edges of the leaf with Copper Brilliance ink.

I stamped the Scenic Route Harlequin paper with Michelle's Big Scroll using Copper Brilliance. It's kind of subtle, but adds a bit of depth to the patterned paper.

I added a tag that features one of the new releases by justjohanna that will be available soon. I overstamped a harlequin pattern, then added ribbon, a charm, and metallic copper thread.

Thanks for visiting today!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Mixed themes!





Here are more cards using stamps by justjohanna, a variety of colorants, and patterned paper. Don't you love my bad pun on the invitation?

The owls are all from the latest release, under "new". The mini skull/crossbones is ever-so-trendy and perfect for milestone birthdays and edgy teenagers.

Thanks for visiting today!

Friday, September 14, 2007

Two completely different cards.







These two cards are so very different from each other that I thought it would be fun to post 'em together.

"Sea of Love" uses minimal stamping and no coloring at all! It features just one justjohanna stamp with die cuts that were die embossed, a diecut bottle with my personal "Grapes of Kath" wine label *giggle*, and a bunch of punched hearts. I hope that you can see the hearts embossed on the waves.

"Have a Yummy Day" uses two justjohanna stamps (Strawberry Cupcake & the sentiment), but I colored the cupcake with chalks, shimmery chalks, and ink, then layered papers, added ribbon, and diecuts, etc.

Thanks for visiting today!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Back to my box -- Literally!





I'm back to my box! Specifically, a "tool box"!

I altered a plain black Target pencil box to hold all the tools that I use most frequently while paper crafting.

I used Basic Grey's Oh Baby Girl line for the papers and stamped a border onto the striped paper using justjohanna's flower garland narrow. I colored the blooms using my Prismacolor markers.

Then I used justjohanna stamps and created a little scene for each of the four sides of the cube. I used aloha priscilla, the bird bath, sylvie right & left, claire, sleeper right & left, heart branch, spring tree, and owlberta. I used my Prismacolors with the Orange thinner and paper stumps to color the images. All skies are chalked. I do love my palette chalk.

I love having this on my desktop and have three more of these pencil boxes to alter that'll hold pens, chalk pencils, and more Prismacolors!

Yahoo!

Thanks for visiting today!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Out of my box -- part 2


Strange forces must have been blowing through my craft room this weekend as I created another card that is out of my box style-wise.

This card is for the 4x4 Friday "Time" theme and uses the new Timeless papers from Imaginisce. I did the CHA Make & Take, but decided to take apart the M&T and use the papers for this card instead, since they were so perfect for the theme. I can't wait to find and buy more of this line. It's gorgeous.

Anyways, Timeless papers, a justjohanna owl stamp, VersaFine Sepia, Distress ink, Twinklin H20s, Sepia Accents, Doodlebug rub-ons, and a bit of lacy trim from a rak comprise this card.

I'm a night owl, so this card is very me! Random song lyrics about "my time is the night time" reverberated in my head while I made the card.

Thanks for visiting!

Out of my box -- part 1


Hmm. This card is out of my box style wise and I'm not sure if I like it. It's my first Gothic Arch challenge.

The moon image (Stampin' Up) and Owlfred by justjohanna were stamped on the arch, masked, and the background was inked with VersaMagic and two Brilliance colors. I then stamped Michelle's Big Scroll by justjohanna in silver Brilliance. I unmasked the images and colored them with Twinklin H20s, which isn't showing ell on the scan. I hand stitched the swing, then added plain Twinkle stickers for the swing's seat, and star-shaped Twinkle stickers randomly around. I added "moonbeam swinging" using epoxy stickers, but am not thrilled that they're so yellow. Cuttlebugged some silver vellum, mounted it, and called it done.

But, it's done and done is good. It'll make a cute card for someone some time.

Thanks for visiting!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Challenges are fun!



I've discovered that blog challenges are such fun! They make you try new stuff, which can distract one from the irritation and agita caused by a procrastinating, know-it-all, snarky, attitudinal, stressed-out teenager. And that, my friends, is a very, very good thing.

Wednesday Stamper's challenge this week is to use handmade or mulberry paper. I happen to have a ton of handmade textured paper in my stash, so this was a great challenge for me!

100% of the paper for both cards are handmade papers that I've had forever and a day.

I stamped on the reverse of white loosely patterned floral textured handmade paper using VersaFine ink. I tried coloring with Prismacolor markers. They ran. I tried using Twinklin' H20s, which sometimes ran and sometimes were okay according to the thickness of the paint. Colored pencils tore the paper and didn't go on smoothly. So, I reverted to my tried and true Chalk pencils to color the main images. I then used a cotton swab to blend the color and smooth out pencil lines. I added background (floor/sky) using a cotton ball and pallette chalk.

Handmade papers are difficult to cut, especially when you layer them, so I'm not totally thrilled with the sharpness of the card edges. Oh well.

All stamped images are from justjohanna. They are: aloha priscilla, hearts branch, sleeper left, sleeper right. The sleepers are from the newest release. Aren't they lovely?

I added Prima's mulberry flowers to continue with the theme and added some jewels/jeweled brads for "bling".

Thanks for visiting today!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Coolin' off.


We've been enjoying wonderful weather this past week. It's cooled off sufficiently so that I can open my windows, which is wonderful for a variety of reasons. The house can air out. We're saving on the electric bill. The cats can enjoy sultry breezes and interesting scents. Lastly, I can use alcohol inks and other volatile or smelly substances and not asphyxiate myself.

I've got asthma and allergies, plus I'm married to a chemist, so Gamsol frightened me somewhat. A while back, I purchased Eco House's Citrus Cleaner #115, which contains mostly orange oils with a tiny bit of mineral spirits. However, it is rather overpoweringly orange-y which was a bit much in my poorly ventilated craft room, especially since I tend to color with my face rather close to my work surface (which will be remedied soon after a visit to the eye doctor).

So I was delighted to pull out my Prismacolor pencils and the Citrus Cleaner and have at it. It was my second time using the Citrus Cleaner and stumps to blend the pencils and whereas it's not staggeringly wonderful, I'm fairly happy with the card I made.

4x4 Friday's challenge this week was to create bird themed card. So I did! I think this was my first 4x4 and I must say that I love this size!

All stamps are justjohanna's. The birds are Sylvie left & Sylvie right (I do love that she does mirror image stamps) and the hearts branch. I've used this paper a lot, but I bought a pack of it at a warehouse sale a while back. While I was looking for something, I found a stash of epoxies that I had also purchased at that sale and put "someplace safe".

I sure nattered on about one measley card today. Didn't I? *chortle*

Thanks for visiting!

Monday, September 3, 2007

The Cool Chick's Fashion Statement


This is what happens when you stamp after drinking a fair amount of wine and are in a weird mood.

All stamps are by justjohanna. The images were colored with Prismacolor markers, which I still haven't mastered. The little bird cages were stamped with Brilliance ink. The papers are by SEI and are shimmery/metallic, but of course, the shimmer was obliterated by my scanner. *sigh*

It was a nice change work with bright colors in out-of-my-box combinations.

Thanks for stopping by to visit!