Sunday: Featuring Pat

Today's Featured stamper at Splitcoast is Pat Smethers. I have received many lovely birthday cards from her and am really impressed with her cards - so it was hard to choose which one to case. I finally selected this one ... and I was half tempted to go and visit my neighbor, Sam, and ask her for a fake flower to include on the card. I settled on a butterfly.

For the turtle card, I really liked the way Pat cut off part of the front to show the inside. Why don't I ever think of that! Plus using the palm tree as a border is fun. Now I want to add that stamp to the pile of things I am packing to take back to Michigan.

80th birthday

Gosh I hope somebody posts my address when I turn 80 ... luckily I have about 19 years to bug people to do it ;)

Paper Peeling

I spread these out because I wanted to take a photo near the shells that are always on my coffee table ... They really look nice there! Kind of artsy!

Sketchy Wednesday

I adapted today's sketch - at first I was gonna add a scalloped circle that said " Dear Friend" but then the bow seemed to be plenty. My friend was a quilter - which meant I had to include stitching ;)

If you want the image, you can go grab it here:

Tuesday Teapot challenge

The teapot of the day had a chicken -- so I did this "just chickin' in" card.

Amy's Arthur

My dear friend Amy has a beautiful orchid which is called Sir Arthur. She says that it dates back to a plant grown in 1870. I had to try drawing it. I just couldn't resist adding a pair of eyes, and having it turn into a girafforchid

Amy says it is a Phrag orchid. So maybe it is a phragon dragon!

Flower card

I was up at the crack of dawn to watch the shuttle launch ... actually it was before dawn. So I have a card all made and ready to upload and it isn't even 9 am yet. Amazing how much you can get done if you get up early!


Another card inspired by Theresa

Happy Easter! Grab some flowers

For your Easter cards and pleasure
Here are snapdragons to measure
They are yours if you would like
Just grab a snappy spike
The image here is free
It's your Easter gift from me

Sunday moths

These two cards were totally inspired by Theresa, featured stamper at Splitcoast today. She did it all with copic markers ... I did the larger card with a cotton ball and the smaller one with a sponge. I did use copics on the moths.

Totally stolen

Ok this is totally a steal - and I wish I remembered WHO I stole it from, but I can't! Anyway, I had to make this card for a very dear friend for Easter - it uses the wing of the stampin up bird punch for the tulips!

A little dark

This turned out a little more stormy than I intended!

Nameste' Octope'

Nameste' ... literally, "I humbly bow to you"; also used as a greeting or acknowledgement of the equality of all, and pays honor to the sacredness of all --
the traditional greeting when saying the word namaste with folded hands and a slight bow
in yoga, the pose associated with this word, usually with the flat hands held palms together, fingers up, in front of the heart and a slight bow

Amanda is feeling stressed and I made this card to suggest she relax ... (the 20 dollar bill tucked inside means at least she can go out and buy coffee or chocolate or whatever her mood dictates ...)

The poem inside reads: Is your chakra on the run, are you stressed when day is done? If your life is just too taxing, take some time for some relaxing.

Actually I colored about 12 of these guys with my copics sitting outside in the sun by the pool. Now that is MY idea of relaxing! So you can expect to see more cards with an octopus in prayer.

Teapot Tuesday

My card looks nothing like the bunny, but if you know Mothermark, you know she tells a wonderful story ... and this week the story was of a rabbit who kept thinking he was a dog. Well, I did the family portrait and showed how his mom might have been a bunny, but his dad was a dog, through and through. I am learning how to do wood with copics ... and once again my scanner made a mess of it so I took this card outside to photograph.

3 kids 3 cards 3 bunnies ... whew

Had to get packages off to the kids today so it was wild cardmaking day since somehow it never occurred to me that Easter was coming soon.
This is Bertie, a brand new bunny image from Firecracker Designs --- actually she has been taken out of a family photo which you will see in tomorrow's Teapot Tuesday card since I was chosen to do one of the early release cards. I am liking the long and lean look of cards these days. The other 2 cards use the barb wire border I admired so much when Brandi used it. Kind of a nice touch, I think.

Brandi's dinosaur

I loved this card by Brandi, the featured stamper at Splitcoast today. I needed a birthday card for my nephew and this is what I came up with. I especially like how Brandi outlines her focus square with a doodle and plan to do that more often in the future.

Once again my scanner threw my colors way off, ever since I got the new computer we have had some real battles between the scanner and the mac. The card is actually yellow, red and green, if you can believe it!

Thank you Annie

Annie taught me a whole new way to make socks - so I made her this card. Image is reversed because I used my computer camera to take the picture. It says, " So much yarn, So little time."
Isn't that the truth!

Punchy Rosebud ... and Wood

Found 2 tutorials online that were really fun. ... punchy rosebuds and how to make wood with copic markers.

I now have about 10 ATC sized wood grain pieces, the first few are not as good as the last ones.

My card is reversed because my scanner doesn't work too well on copics and my camera battery is dead. So I used the camera on my computer which reverses everything.

Hetty's Velveteen Rabbit

Hetty used a rabbit to showcase the beautiful bracelets she makes --- you can go see them here. I was fascinated with the bunny ... and made this card:) It is for the design team challenge over at Firecracker - to use the letters in the word S P R I N G ... well, I have used my Scissors--Photo --Rabbit --Ink--New digi image-- Greeting

Image is reversed because my scanner is going bonkers with colors so I used the camera in my computer to take the photo.

Hetty's Parrots! And a sketch

Hetty has a bird feeder and her visitors are parrots. And no, she doesn't live in the sahara, she lives in the snowy Netherlands! I love doing the splitcoast sketch challenges and this was a perfect combination! Unfortunately my scanner turned a perfectly green parrot blue ... so imagine the photo on the card matching the photo of the bird; which it does, minus the flip, and you can imagine how my card looks in real life.
You can visit Hetty for some great card ideas ... and more photos of the parrots outside her window. Click here.

Teapot Tuesday

On Tuesdays, Mothermark posts a teapot and a story and we all play along.

so very sorry

A friend lost her husband... she is 55. I am over 60. I DO forget to count my blessings, don't I !

My First Blog Hop EVER !!!

You will notice I am not too computer clever at this stuff,so my photos are not nicely spaced between the text. But if you read along, You will learn to make a card with a digi image drop shadow. Hope you enjoy my first tutorial and first blog hop.

The theme of the blog hop is optical illusions... and I think you will find that this card can trick the eye quite handily.

The official start time of this Hop is Friday, at 8:00 AM (EST). If you arrived early, please be patient as all the links may not be live yet.

This is a “circular blog hop” where the only beginning is wherever you start!! You will know you are at the end of your blog hop when you’ve come back to the blog you’ve started from! (It’s not a huge circle…so it should be easy to remember where you started.)

The winner will be chosen from a mystery blog hostess; we don’t even know who it will be until the hop is over…so that’s why you’ll want to leave a comment on EVERY blog, so you don’t miss out! The winner will receive a variety of images from several artists - they can be seen at Pam's blog when you get there.

**To find out if you’ve won… you will be contacted by Pamela via e-mail (so be sure to leave it with your comment.) and you can also find out on Pamela’s blog after the blog hop ends on Mon, at 8:00 PM (EST).**

You can move on from here, or read through the tutorial; a link will be provided at the end so you can hop along the blogging trail from there if you prefer. To leave a comment, click on the word "comment" below.

Now, to continue the circle, you will need to hop on over to Pam's place ...
and keep going until you’ve come back to where you’ve started! Thanks so much for playing along with us and we hope you have a great time!

Here goes the tutorial ... click on any photo to enlarge it.



Step One: Color your image and cut it out.




Then position it at an angle from an imaginary horizon across the center of your paper.


You'll need white pigment ink, and a sponge. Rub ink from the sponge off the edges of the upside down image to create your shadow.



Use a nestie to cut out your moon or backdrop. I sponged the edges of the orange cardstock with red. Position it behind the colored image face up.



As you rub white pigment ink off the back of the image, you will create a negative dark space that will create the shadow. Lightly "dance" a white pigment pen across the surface to create reflection on the water.



Here's the finished card again... an optical illusion of a drop shadow. Hope you enjoyed my tutorial - don't forget to leave a comment for a chance at the blog hop prize.
now hop on over to Pam's for even more ideas!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

I made this card to mail to my son with 2 packages of cheese ... the inside of the card reads, " CHEESE< The Vegetarian Response to Corned Beef and Cabbage for St. Patrick's Day."

Well, he will laugh, I think!

Teapot Tuesday

On Tuesdays, Mothermark posts a teapot and a story to inspire some outlandish cards. Today's teapot is quite over the edge --- kind of looks like the kind of teapot you would expect mad hatter tea inside. But I made up a poem and used a Firecracker digi for the card.

There once was a seagull named Ruby
She was quite the flat footed booby
But she got the blues cuz she wanted new shoes
For dancing the shoeby dooby.

81... young

What kind of a card do you make for someone turning 81? I have to admit to having no inspiration and a deadline, a bad combination. So this is the card I made for a friend of my elderly neighbor. She liked it but in my heart, I knew it was just a generic card and truly had no spark.

Featured Stamper Kristen

Kristen inspired me to make this card: