A sad task

My aunt passed away last week, at the age of 101. I am making sympathy cards for her 4 daughters who of course are happy she is at peace but will still feel her loss. Sympathy cards are difficult for me.  But I know how much it means to get a card when you are hurting.

Happy Spring!

This card was made with my new copic colors --- and my gorgeous ribbon that I won from Paper Temptress at the copic musketeers challenge last month.  I just gathered it up with a quick running stitch to create the flower. While I hate to encourage competition and lessen my chances of winning again, you might want to try this month's challenge --- any springtime copic card with a homemade flower... and the prizes are yummy.

I did manage to scan it crooked. Jamming the flower into the scanner made the right side seem a bit dark and it isn't, really!

Winter Palm

I made this tutorial for a friend in England who wanted to know how I did my brayering. ... of course I learned everything I know from Michelle Zindorf, so lets give her credit.

Now if I could just figure out how my scanner turned the card to black and white ... but just in the middle ...
Hmmm. I kind of like it that way!  But let me assure you it was all done in blues. Guess I gotta get out the camera.

Sketchy Wednesday

Here's the card I made for Roxie. She posts sketches every week at splitcoast. About time I sent her at thank you card for all the inspiration!

It's a year away!

It is a tradition in our family that when a child ( child???) reaches 30 years of age, it is too big of a birthday to celebrate in just one day. So I create 30 cards and mail one each day for a month. WIth David it was cards, with Amanda I tried to have all of the cards have a theme, cupcakes, and also didn't sign a lot of them and sent along a box of envelopes so she could recycle. And recycle she did ... I received one of my own cards back for my next birthday! Well, Steve will turn 30 next January and I am getting an early start on his cards. Thought of a lot of possible themes but settled on shoes and running, or might expand that theme into running and biking and races. When I think of Steve relaxing, those are the thoughts that come to mind.

I remember struggling to find 30 different cupcake ideas and am getting an early start on shoes. Will be adding photos to my sidebar as I go along. If you scroll WAYYYYYY to the bottom of my blog, you will see the 30 cupcake cards I made for Amanda. Not sure if I scanned David's, I was not quite so computer savvy in those days.

Here is card Number Two.  You will find the shoe digi here... I drew it from one of his running shoes from The Chicago Marathon.

Steve's shoes, card 1

I used the Wednesday sketch at Splitcoast to begin my collection of 30 cards for 30 days when my baby boy turns 30.  I would like to have a theme of shoes for Steve since he is a marathon runner - and Mutnik created this darling design of a cow with shoes just like Steve's.

Remember the "Key Lime Pie" card?

I needed a quick RAK ( Random Act of Kindness ) birthday card for a lady turning 91--- and whipped out my Key Lime Pie ( had to have a kitchen theme, had to have a key) from the Virtual Stamp night challenge and pasted inside,

That's how we do Birthdays in Florida!

Here it was one of the cards I thought I would never use, and I ended up pulling it out of the stack first!

 She's in Texas, so I am pretty sure she won't open the card and feel sun-envy like my northern friends might!

Happy Retirement!

Beccy said this image is called " Little Harvey" but to me it looks a lot like the husband of a very good friend of mine. Since he is about to retire and put on his lake shorts and take off his tie, it was a perfect image for a retirement card. Hope he will smile when he sees it!

I used complementary colors for the copic creations challenge this month. My scanner seems to see the red a lot more than I do. I am beginning to wonder if perhaps my scanner is just fine and my color vision is starting to go!

Sigh ... this getting old is not as much fun as it looks!

Teapot Tuesday!

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All sports are game for this challenge --- and since I really don't have a great collection of sports images, it was back to the drawing board. I left the edges a little more sketchy instead of a hard line, not sure if I like the look or if it looks unfinished.   But I am always in need of more sports images for my nephews, who are really into sports of any kind.

The scanner picked up a shadow on "The Farmington Gazette" that really is NOT that pronounced on the card, honest!

As always, if you like an image, feel free to take it and use it.  If you click on the label, "free digis" below, you will find links to all my posts with images for you to grab.

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Another virtual stamp night challenge

FEB11VSNL   Make a card with a kitchen or food theme ... bonus points to incorporate a key.

Ok my cards are now getting to the point of not being usual to mail as cards, but I was really pleased when I thought of Key Lime Pie.  


If anyone can think of what this card could say on the inside to make it useful, PLEASE add a suggestion in the comment section!


Edited March 2 ... I needed a quick RAK ( Random Act of Kindness ) birthday card --- and whipped out my Key Lime Pie ( had to have a kitchen theme, had to have a key) from the Virtual Stamp night challenge and pasted inside,

"That's how we celebrate Birthdays in Florida."

Here it was one of the cards I thought I would never use, and I ended up pulling it out of the stack first!

Still doing those Virtual Stamp night challenges!

I am still doing the challenges from splitcoast. This one was to be inspired by the photo on the left.  Each of my flowers pulls out with a message on it.  This was a really quick card, but I think it turned out quite cute.

And another late card ...

8:00 FEB11VSNM  Use a quote ...  Long live the Irish! Long live their cheer! Long live our friendship, year after year!

FInishing last night this morning ...

6:00  FEB11VSNK  card or project using vellum, but it has to be embossed with either a dry or heat embossing technique. 


I think the orange eye brad is about the only thing holding this card together since the double stick tape I used isn't doing a thing!

Challenge weekend goes on!

Virtual Stamp Night at Splitcoast, part TWO.

I missed 1:00 and 2:00 but at 3 we had to do a card using soot stamping. I didn't have a candle other than a citronella pot, so I had quite a time sooting up my glossy cardstock in it.

At 4 we had to do a card showing a lovie from our kids --- David had this plaid blanket, Amanda had a stuffed giraffe, and Steve loved the book Good night Moon.

Virtual Stamp Weekend at Splitcoast!

Wedding Song card

Every hour on the hour, there was  a new challenge posted.  Here they are in reverse order because I can't make Blogger behave.





Card 5 10:00 ... A card with a lady in red to celebrate heart health.  I have GOT to get to bed now, as I am hoping to do a 2 mile run tomorrow at ... ugh ... 8 AM!!!






Card 4  9:00   A card with 2 or more techniques:  marker tapping for the rain, gray shadowing around the frog, and blender pen warts!




Card 3   8:00 PM  --- Song bird ... I love this image and copic colored it.

Sketch Card

Card 2   7:00 PM--- based on your wedding song???  We didn't have a wedding song, only a small wedding after college, we were both pretty broke, a nice dinner after and that was it ... but I loved the song Cherish by the Association, I remember arguing that it was a pretty song even though it was mostly one note on the piano which made it very easy to play ...This will be my card for our 40th Wedding Anniversary in June.


 Challenge number one - 6:00 PM - was a sketch, in the shape of a heart and its 4 chambers. With the image of blood pumping in my mind, I switched to water pumping through an aquarium and made this get well cod. Yup ... it says cod. Although there are really 4 cod. Cods?  Goldfish!

Wednesday Sketch Day!

Here is today's sketch from Splitcoast ...

The joy of doing a card a day late is that I can also do the Ways to Use it Challenge which is to use GRAY as a background. A little different to color on, but very effective I think with the black and the pink.

This card was made for my yahoo copic group's challenge this month - I drew the image and you can grab it and use it too ... HERE ... and the text was from HERE.  Image was colored with copics, and I used a blender pen in the indentations in the cookie on top, can you see it?  Just touched it to the chocolate color and let it pool into a little circle.

You can play in the challenge too ... group members get to play twice, but anybody with a copic in their hand can play and have a chance to win some prizes. Of course if I tell too many people I won't win the cryogen paper or the coupon from Oozaks, but I really think it could be fun if more people played.

Teapot Tuesday

I had this card finished early ... Mike is traveling for work which means I give in to my crazy sleep schedule and don't feel guilty about it. The teapot was MOST unusual and the story to go with it requested elegance ... I was SO tempted to make an elegant lady and then put her in scruffy running shoes but ended up using the shoes I colored and cut out on my turtle instead.  My lady uses the dress technique from Sunday, I had the template sitting on my table so it was a no-brainer.

Not my usual style, huh !!!

Man man man man manly men ...

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If you watch "Two and a Half Men" on TV as much as we do, then the song from my title will get stuck in your head too and you will be going around the house going "Ooo ooo ooo" to the melody.  The challenge at the Copic Musketeers Blog is to create a manly card.

To me, a manly card is not a cute little 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch card. Just the envelope alone says "girly."  So I made my card in a nice manly business size, the size a fellow can bring in from the mail and not feel embarrassed about.

The text is free here and I drew the ice cream sandwich, which I posted for your enjoyment - feel free to snitch it off the site, I am honored when somebody likes my drawing enough to use it.

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Click on "free digis" label below to find other goodies I am HAPPY  to share!

Orchids from Amy ... Phalaenopsis Maria Theresa

How do you capture such a gorgeous flower.  Actually drawing the GROUP of flowers turned out to be quite challenging for me!  Now that I have the drawing ( please grab it if you want it ) I want to somehow recreate the vibrant colors.

Maybe if I would tear the pages out of my sketch book, I wouldn't get that gray shadow in the corner of my image. Oh well, I really like to keep them all wirebound together.

Click on the words " free digi " below to find other goodies that I am happy to share.

Phalaenopsis Maria Theresa

Copic Frog

It is 9 o'clock at night and I just discovered a really cool site --- plus they are looking for a new Design Team Member.  I have been on my own since my term with Firecracker ended and I like the direction and kick in the pants I get from being on a design team.

Scribbling with my copics at this hour under a light on my desk is not the way to make art or influence people, but I came up with this frog and the colors I used.    Then I whipped him into a card so I could get it submitted before the deadline which just happens to be ... TODAY!   So from finding it to posting the card was less than an hour. Imagine if I could take my time and work in daylight!  I doubt that they will choose me since the stuff I saw there was quite artistic and skillful,  but it was fun trying.  Besides I love doing warts on frogs. ( poke the blender pen into the ink and watch it spread into a well-defined dot!)

Please click on the label "copics" below to see all my coloring and a few tutorials.

President's Day Here I come

Actually I have to admit I don't even OWN a dress, but sure would love to squeeze into this one for President's Day tomorrow.   Inspired by this card on Splitcoast.

This card flips open at the top and says " You look younger every day" as a birthday card.

What is WITH my scanner?

This card is really gorgeous, with all coordinating pinks and browns, but my scanner refuses to cooperate. So take my word for it, the peach is really not peachy at all.

Card Sketch Wed

I played with my copics and used a soft pink and warm gray around the image. I am hoping that my pink and beige coloring will distract you from the fact that it is indeed a Christmas image with holly and holly berries ...

I was really happy with the way the colors worked out.