A little on the top

and a little on the bottom ... brayering is really fun. These atcs will go in their holder to Juliet - only I forgot there is no mail pickup today!

D2D B Cake

I earned another free image from Designed 2 Delight ... cute, huh!

Get around tuit

Next choice for the Zindorf tuts ... and it is my Valentine card for Mike. I wrote a schmaltzy poem about when get get around to it we can be old ... but for now ...
yadda yadda yadda.


And ... here is 1/2 of my February set of Christmas cards. Yeahhhh me!

Not my favorite

This definitely goes into the "not my favorite" pile. Maybe it is because this Zindorf tut takes an artist to make it work. Hope this next one will be easier.

Juliet's Owl

the Zindorf tutorial can be found here ... and my crackle stamp is THERE --- in Michigan. So I did the whole image and clear embossed the bird and did all the moon and sky and all and then held my breath, took a piece of crumpled LLBean catalog ( I stamp on them ) and added the "crackle" look.

Whew! It worked!

Unfortunately I didn't really crop it too well with my scanner and got an uneven scan of the off white background and totally lost the next layer which is teensy and beige. I was just glad I got it to scan at all!

OK Juliet ... your turn to pick!

I added the tail

I missed Sunday featured stamper Bar because of my computer issues. So here are my cards a bit late. It is interesting to see how my scanner made the colors change on the shells card, they really look nice to the naked eye.


This was such a cute bunny by Kraftin Kimmie... I cased the card but added the tail.

COMPUTER CRASH !

Can't do photos on Mike's computer so I will be back online as soon as I get MY computer fixed.

Z moonglow

Another Zindorf inspired card ... her tutorial is excellent. However, I managed to substitute different colors and use cheap cardstock from Walmart so her gorgeous sunset on the lake is more of a moonglow in a hazy sky. But I am happy. I am not a fan of square cards since I feel I need a square envelope and the post office is not a fan of square envelopes.

Designed to Delight ...

These owls were free at Designed2Delight. If you go there and get a set of owls for yourself, tell her Cat sent you and I will get another free image! Can't beat the price.

The sketch is from Splitcoast and was a bit complex but I like how it turned out.

Juliet's turn ...

This would have been the next challenge ... but I complained so THIS is what I got instead ...
This is one scary rabbit man. Fortunately as is my habit, I made several backgrounds and can play with doing something different as well. And yes, I cheated. The tutorial has you stamp right on the cardstock and color right on the cardstock. Then you versamark and clear emboss over it before doing the background. I cheated. I made the background. I made the rabbit .. and I taped 'em together.
Here is a look at Juliet's interpretation.
Now I am going back to the Owl challenge. You know, the one I complained about ... that one.

Tuesday is Teapot day

Mothermark at Splitcoast provides a picture of a teapot every Tuesday along with a story for everyone to play along. Today's teapot is a man in the moon, so this card was a natural followup. To read the stories and tomfoolerie, please go to splitcoast and check out the teapot gallery at MMTPT79 ... yup, this is week 79 of the challenges!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NISE!

I was going to publish your card here for all the world to see since I don't know your new address and don't trust the Bay City Post office to find you. But then I sealed the envelope before I scanned it!

HOPE YOU HAVE a wonderful day and the start of an even better year.

Big hugs and culver sundaes to you!

It only took 6 hours ...

This card took about 6 hours ... honestly, 6 hours. It is based on a tutorial by Michelle Zindorf seen here ... and while my finished result looks very different, I sure learned a lot along the way ...
1. You cannot substitute kaleidoscope embossing powder for clear embossing powder. It has a texture that catches the strands on your cotton ball which you are using because you don't have a sponge.
2. You cannot store white embossing powder in a hot closet over the summer and expect it to work. It doesn't. When you heat it, it clumps, then burns to the lovely golden brown you see here.
3. If you start with a piece that is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, and expect to add borders, duhhh, your card will not fit in an envelope that is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.
4. If you make enough mistakes, you can still be proud of your final piece and say, HEY ... look how I creatively changed the original.

That said, ... I do like Michelle's much more. Oh well.

Here's the next challenge ... and mine is turning out VERY dark. Maybe this is because I am substituting the colors of ink pads I have which are considerably darker. Guessing a star in the sky and I would have the sky at twilight - but then last time I added an evening star to a card that got too dark, it only looked worse ...

Marker tapping

This is such an easy technique. Hold 2 markers in your hand, loosely, and tap tap tap on paper. Sure looked like raindrops to me! Since it is POURING outside, seems appropriate for the day.

Juliet 2 ... me 2 ...

and the competition goes on, or the friendly challenges, yeah, that is what they are. Juliet created a gorgeous sunset and then went and did a sunrise as well in a different colorway. You can go see her cards here ... I on the other hand, started 4 different cards using the tutorial and came up with 3 that just didn't make it. I am kind of pleased with this one ... and planning to frame it and put it in my stamp room --- probably with the saying that Juliet shared from a Tim Holtz stamp ... creativity is
allowing yourself
to make mistakes
art is knowing
which ones to keep

Juliet's challenge

It was my turn to pick a card and this one really makes me think of Clearwater Beach. We drove across the state and down the coast and got to the gulf just as the sun slipped below the horizon. Everything they say about a sunset over the ocean is true, we live on the sunrise side and the sun kind of pops up with not a lot of fanfare. But the setting sun, and the noise and conch shell blowing on the beach, and dolphins breaking the surface of the water as they dove ... now that was a day to remember. And ... the sky was JUST THIS PINK !!!
For the whole tutorial, visit this blog... I am so lucky, I am going to take a class with Michelle in February.

... the competition goes on, or the friendly challenges, yeah, that is what they are. Juliet created a gorgeous sunset and then went and did a sunrise as well in a different colorway. You can go see her cards here ... I on the other hand, started 4 different cards using the tutorial and came up with 3 that just didn't make it. I am kind of pleased with this one ... and planning to frame it and put it in my stamp room --- probably with the saying that Juliet shared from a Tim Holtz stamp
... creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes art is knowing which ones to keep ( or in my case which ones to use as a background for a crazy octopus drawing ! Clearly I am more on the creative side than the artistic one.)

the OTHER Zindorf attempt ...

Here's the one I sent to Juliet ... since the background was the size of a business size envelope, the whole thing kept growing and growing. I ended up using a really pretty file folder as the card base!

Featured Stamper Nicole

I drew the froggy guy ... I think I overdid it on the brads. Featured stamper card is here

Steve co
coffee gatefold cat

Christmas cards # 6 - 10

Whew... I finished the January challenge to make 10 cards for Christmas. These all use a polar bear from Delightful Inspiration that I got free!

Warm Wishes!

My desktop weather watch tells me that my dear friend in Michigan is shivering along with my kids in New York and Massachusetts, so a WARM WISHES theme was just the thing for the Christmas cards I started today. I joined a challenge to make 10 cards a month so that I would have a stash when the holidays roll around but when Jan 29th rolled around and I still hadn't started, I realized I would have to get moving on it! I did a one-sheet-wonder and cut it up to create the cards you see here. I know, I know, there are only 5 and there are supposed to be 10. Guess you can guess what I will be doing tomorrow! These are generic enough to be used for Christmas or Hannukah, although I guess the red and green are a Christmas thing ...

Don't tell Kathleen

I finally got Kathleen's card in the mail. This is it !!!

Sickies and ouchies

If you have a friend who "coad a code" please feel free to take the snurflepuss image and make a card. Click on comments and tell me if you do - it's great ego food to think someone else likes my drawings.

Octo image is free to a good home.... and has been cleaned up and sharpened by my good friend Juliet.

I sent the manatee image to Pamela at Firecracker... you never know when you will need a manatee on crutches!

I have to say, my scanner does really strange thing when I color with copics. The colors are blended and much more smooth in real life. Oh well.

Jessica's Just Ducky

This digi stamp comes with an empty word cloud so you can have it say anything you want ... or leave it empty and it is a cloud. I did a cloud on the inside as well to carry out the theme --

Teaparty Tuesday

Tuesdays are the days that Mothermark posts a teapot and a story .... today is no exception. Click here to read the story. Seems Rapunzel's castle has a moat around it and all kinds of swamp things live in the moat.

My card shows an octopus who lives in the moat, but comes out to style Rapunzel's hair when she comes out of the castle to sun.

I don't even want to discuss how BIG this card ended up after adding borders and a brayer attempt at a Zindorf card that went awry and was sitting on my desk ... but here is my Octopus "all set" to do Rapunzel's hair at the castle ...

Coffee ATCs

Gotta keep a steady flow to Juliet's mailbox. These are my ancient paper atc's. The ancient paper is a brown bag, colored, crumpled, colored, crumpled and colored some more.

Please visit Marika!

I received an email from Marika and she made some wonderful cards with my giroids. Please go and visit her blog to see them! Click HERE

Note to Marika ....

Marika, I hope it is ok that I published your link.
I am so happy to see what you did with my drawings!

Tooting Karen's horn

Check out this card and this card and the ones I made just like them ... Karen Barber is the featured stamper at Splitcoast today. I love Sundays. Mike goes out running and I sit with coffee and look through the featured album, then go off all inspired to make a card.

Here are the ones I thought I could use as inspiration from Karen: Her room hummingbird quilt dragonfly circle all over pattern melon snowman snowman2 flower branches Zindorf scene black magic wreath blackmagic flowers butterfly

That's only from the first page - she has 6 more pages of fantastic cards. I like to keep my list here so I can go back to it later if my muse is missing.
flowers God's gift snowflakes weeds silhouettes snowman 3 folded snowman inside folded snowman black magic flowers mitten popup owl Z mountains shaded flowers Z flower hydrangea cutaway embrace cutaway snowman wisdom Christmas blessings halloween zebras and giraffes joy flower bird and flowers

Inspiration at Echo

Splitcoast challenged stampers to pop on over to Echo to get some inspiration this morning. I could not resist the seahorse. Since I am in a drawing mood, I gave it a hand and will see if Pam is interested in Seahorses as well as manatees.

It's a bad photo, but I couldn't scan it because it would squish down all the dimension I put in.

Big news!

Pam, over at Firecracker designs, has offered to carry my giroids and any other drawings I wish to send over. She will be offering them as digi stamps. I feel so honored, and after going over to see her site, I am a bit humbled as well to be in the company of some actual artists. So ... you can hop over there and see my tomfoolery and penciled outlines. I did a new Giroid for her, the ones you see here are still here for your use and I would love it if you took them.
Spent Saturday morning drawing manatees while Mike is out on a kayak ride SEEING manatees.

Toot, Kayak, Toot!

Ok I know kayaks don't usually toot, but for that matter, giraffes don't usually ride in them. Today is 01 22 2010 which is a palindrome, reads the same backwards and forwards. So in celebration of the date here is my card with totally balanced and backwards and forwards clouds in the sky, punchies on the side, and a K A Y A K ( go ahead, read it backwards) to boot. I mean T-O-O-T.
Ha ha ... get it?

I think this card is perfect for an inside sentiment of ....

feeling out of it?
Or ... up a creek without a paddle?
Or ... stick your neck out again? Look where it got you!

ha ha.