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:

inspiration challenge

I chose this image to inspire me... and made this card.

Cat Thank you for Trina

I was pretty pleased with the way the reflection came out on this card. I stamped on a sandwich bag and then rubbed the ink onto the water below the cat.

Sketchy Wednesday

The first card is a matchbook style card format - and can hold a teabag inside. I used the sketch for one of my get well cards ... I have been playing with bugs all morning.

Tuesday Teapot challenge

Today's challenge is not a teapot at all, but a quilted teapot. The challenge includes creating a card that will bring comfort - If you want to visit the blog that hosts the teapot challenge every Tuesday, go visit Mothermark. You will be in for a treat.

My card has the teapot cut out so that the inside of the card is a rectangle with the teapot shape opening against it. Looks really great. I got the idea from a get well card from Amy. I wasn't sick, she just knew I would love the card...

Took a bit of doing to create the template. It is here if you want it.

Rhyme Time ...

I'm published! Pam over at Firecracker took my poem and made it into a digi stamp. I was really tickled! I really think of myself as much more of a woman of words than a doer of drawings.

Heyyyy Kimmie!

Can you believe it ... I mailed a birthday card a week early! That is SO not me!

D2D Patches

This sample is due at midnight tonight so it was the project du jour. Actually it waited till this evening and then I was frustrated with a few copics that are going dry long before I expected them to. The big question ... to re-ink or to buy a new one. About the same question I have about stamp pads when they go dry ... should I re-ink or just buy a new stamp pad. hmmm. Wish I knew!
Anyway,this image was free over at D2D and by posting a card this week, I will get next week's image free as well. Can't beat free !!!

No internet!

Brayer Player

Oh do I love playing with my brayer! I am actually uploading these cards for next week when I am in Michigan and can't get at the internet --- hope I can figure out how to time stamp the entry.

Thank You Michelle

What kind of card do you make to thank somebody who is a thousand times better with a brayer than you are? A card with no brayering, of course!

Seeing Double?

I tried to do the same card that I learned at the Zindorf class last weekend. You can see the difference between ultra-smooth paper and generic cardstock. Considering the fact that I had different ink colors, stamps and papers, i was quite pleased with how it turned out. Skipping the white gel pen across the water is the hardest part by far.

Older or Colder?

Is spring ever going to come? We are traveling to Michigan this week ... along with 4 to 8 inches of snow! Either I am getting older, or winters are getting colder.

I saw this someplace ...

"You cannot use up creativity. The more you use the more you have." ~Maya Angelou

Surfside Stampers

Off to the library where I will host a table at Trina's stamp camp. This is the card we will be making - the theme is Green but I have no good green stamp pads, plus I really wanted to do a brayer thing - and a green sky or green water just don't make it ...
At any rate, this card was inspired by my good friend Bailmac over at splitcoast - if she can do a pink sky, then so can I.

Off to Jacksonville

I am back from Jacksonville for a workshop with Michelle Zindorf. I plan to photograph my cards since I think you can see them better, but here are scanned images so you can see them. My scanner and computer do not agree on the third card so you are missing part of it and I am not sure why ... I still need to figure out iPhoto on my new computer. Also, as you can see my rendition at the class was SO much better than when I tried doing the same thing at home with different paper and inks.

Bikini Girl!

I design images for Firecracker designs, and they are having a blog hop going on. I didn't participate since my computer was not reliable ( I NOW HAVE A BRAND NEW MAC >>> !!! ) but I did make this card from a digi manatee you can find at their site ..

I hope to do the blog hop with them next month.

TJ has a blog hop going ...

Technique Junkies has a blog hop going. The challenge is to make a card using this sketch and lots of TJ techniques ... sounded like fun to me! I turned the template on its side and used marker tapping and animal spots from the current TJ newsletter. The drawing is one I did for Firecracker and is available as a digital image there.

Giroids again!

I just drew one giroid and next thing I knew I had a stack of them.
I was always hoping to find my niche in art but I never thought ( or wanted) it to be drawing silly giraffes. I guess you take the talent you are given -- but gee, couldn't it be cats, or flowers, or something else???

I cannot explain the bird on the head of one giraffe ... it was on my table and just had to land there -

Catching up on birthdays

I am a little behind on birthday cards. The teapot image is from Designed 2 Delight.