Polka Dots

Here's a card that I submitted for this week's Stamping Bella challenge. The challenge was to use polka dots. I used the van image and colored it with Polychromos pencils and Gamsol. The paper background is a quarter of a WeRMemories 12 x 12 sheet of paper.


Here's the full sheet of the paper that I used for the background. I spotted this paper when I was in Salt Lake at Roberts' Crafts last time. It's really cool, because each sheet has four different smaller design sections on the front, which had perfect scales for cards. Nothing so big it overwhelms a stamped image! This collection was funky and retro, but I also bought some sheets from another collection that has soft flowers on it. I haven't cut into those yet.

Have a great weekend everyone and happy stamping!

Kathleen

Joanne B's Birthday Blogaversary continued

Ciao, everyone! Hope you're having a good week. I sure am glad that today is "hump" day...we're in to the downside of the week. Yeah!

Joanne B's Blogaversary challenge is continuing this week. She put out another great challenge - to use kraft paper and sewing. My sample uses a Stamping Bella image. It's colored with my Polychromos pencils and Gamsol, with some black gloss pen to make the eyes and nose "pop". The stitching is faux stitching using an old Hero Art stamp that I have to confess, I have had for years and may have never used before. The paper is from Cosmo Cricket's S'mores line.

Here's a close up of the coloring of the lion. He was fun to color.

Can't wait to see what challenge Joanne puts out for this week. It's the third and final week, but you can still play! Here's a link to her blog: ...Just a little something...

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Kathleen

Joanne B's Blogaversary

Joanne B is celebrating three years of blogging with another great challenge. This week's challenge was to use paper piecing. I've wanted to paper piece the chair on this cute cat image from Stamping Bella ever since I got it. I didn't think about the challenge of cutting out the tiny, tiny cat though, but I think it worked out okay. The paper is Cosmo Cricket's new Garden Variety paper from their 6" x 6" mini deck. I love those mini decks! The pattern size is perfect for using with stamped images. Nothing too overwhelming. After paper piecing the chair, I shaded it using Copics to add some shadows and depth. Here's how to visit Joanne's blog.


Happy stamping everyone! We're supposed to get MORE snow tomorrow and Friday, and I'm supposed to be flying to Chicago and back in those two days. I'm thinking it's more likely that my flight is going to be canceled. Either way, I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend of stamping.

Kathleen

Magnolia with Braids

Ever have one of those cards that no matter how long you fuss with it, you just aren't happy? This was one of those cards for me. The striped papers on the corners was the paper that I used as inspiration for the colors I chose for the image. Then when I went to assemble the card, no matter what I did, I hated it. I finally settled for this layout, but I'm still not entirely happy with it.

Anyway, for the details, she's colored with Copics and cut out with a Nestability. Before removing the image from the Nestability die, I drew around the inside with a fine point marker to make the border. I did the same on the shape with the sentiment.

Anyway, I'm off to work on a card that I'll hopefully like better than this one.
Happy stamping!
Kathleen

Shades of Green Challenge

Hello everyone! If you live in the mid-Atlantic area, I hope you're enjoying the snow. I'm having a ball. I absolutely love being snowed in, snuggling in comfy clothes and stamping, reading, catching up on movies. Basically just vegging. I even lucked out and a couple enterprising young men stopped by this afternoon to see if I wanted my car shoveled out. I took them up on the offer and think I got a deal, since there's over two feet of snow that's fallen since yesterday evening!

Anyway, on to my card. This is my first time participating in one of Impression Obsession's challenges. I have LOTS of their stamps, since they were one of the stamp companies I bought from in my early days of stamping, which was about 14 years ago. The challenge is "Shades of Green," so I picked this stamp which I've had for a while but never inked up. I colored it with my Polychromos pencils and Gamsol, then highlighted the image with Stickles and Glossy Accents on the bubbles. I cut out extra fish and fins and layered them on top to add dimension. The paper layered underneath is from Memory Box.

Here's a close up where you can hopefully see the dimension of the raised fish.

Have a great weekend! I'm off to stamp some more.
Kathleen

Magnolia with Bird

I absolutely love this Magnolia image! She was fun to color, and her sweater works great for paper piecing. The argyle print paper I used for her sweater is from a pack of Memory Box paper, as is the background papers. I colored her with Copic markers. I need more practice with them so I can blend without the ink bleeding too much where I don't want it, but they sure are fun to play with! I used colored pencils to draw the blades of grass around her feet.

Here's a close-up of her.

Happy coloring!
Kathleen

Stamping Bella

I made this card for this week's Stamping Bella challenge. If you've never visited their Website, I highly recommend it. Emily has a wonderfully talented design team, and there is a challenge each week with absolutely gorgeous submissions. Here's a link to the blog.

This is my card for this week's challenge. I used "Imogene the Fairy" and colored her with my Polychromos pencils and Gamsol. Her wings are highlighted with Stickles. The paper and flower rhinestone brads are from Making Memories Chloe's Closet collection. I bought the paper and some embellies on clearance ages ago at Michael's but hadn't used any of it yet. It's a fun spring collection.



I'm busy watching for snow this evening. It's only supposed to snow a couple of inches. We're expecting a storm on Saturday though, so I'm already dreaming of a day snowed in and stamping and coloring all day! Oh, joy!

Happy stamping!
Kathleen

Beloved Paper Challenge from Joanne

First of all, if you haven't checked out Joanne B's blog, ...just a little something..., I highly recommend that you go there and take a peak. She does phenomenal work! She has a challenge this week, to use at least one of five things from a list. I've used My Mind's Eye Beloved paper and pearls. I just bought the Beloved paper last weekend when I was in Salt Lake on business and managed to fit in a trip to a scrapbook store. Thanks to Joanne's challenge, I have cut into it rather than hoarding it! I don't have any of MFT's Pure Innocence stamps (although they're on my shopping list), so I used Paper Trey Ink's Everyday Button Bits. The punch border is a Martha Stewart one. This was a fun card to make! It was also the first time I played with the Button Bits and I'm itching to try some more of them out. A good way to use some of the thousands of buttons that I seem to have collected.

Anyway, here's my card. I really need to get another true color light. Sorry for the poor lighting on these! I had hoped to get them done earlier, but had to photograph them this evening.



Here's a close up to show some of the details.

I hope you're all enjoying your weekend. It's a long one for me, so I'm hoping to get in more stamping a blogging tomorrow. Now I'm off to finish cleaning up my stamp room, which is what I was supposed to do today.

Kathleen

Bella Birthday Blog Hop!

Good morning everyone! Hopefully you're having a great time following the Stamping Bella 3rd Birthday Blog Hop! If you didn't start at the beginning, you might want to go here to Blogabella to start. You can see the details here regarding three $100 gift certificates that Stamping Bella is giving away.

Here's my card for the hop. It's a little "springy", I know. I'm tired of making Christmas cards at this point. This is the bffABUGS stamp from Bella. I just love these little bugs! They're colored with Lyra colored pencils and Gamsol odorless mineral spirits, then cut out and layered using Nestabilities. The patterned paper is K & Co Citrus, which I wasn't sure I liked at first, but the bright colors have grown on me. The paper was the inspiration for the colors I used for these "bugs".


Here's a close up showing some of the bling I added. I used tiny rhinestones on the antennas of the righthand bug and stickles on the wings. I also added black, glossy gel pen on the righhand bug's hair and the swirls on her dress. I's a little more bling that I would normally use on an "everyday" card, but I couldn't seem to stop once I got started last night.

Have a great time on the hop. Now that you're done here, follow the hop to Tammy's blog Stamp Happy. I feel honored to be pass the hop on to her. I follow her blog and check it out nearly every day.

Happy Hopping (and stamping!),
Kathleen

Here's another Halloween card. I just love this little cat in a pumpkin from Stampendous. He reminds me of my cat - cute and a little silly - except I colored this one black for Halloween. He's colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. He's cut and layered with Nestabilities. Dew Drops are on the side. I took a black pen and doodled around the edge of the card.

Here's a close up to show the coloring. I got some Polychromos pencils recently, so I'll be coloring with them, along with my Prismacolors, while on Kentucky trip. I'll let you know how I think the two brands compare. Most people rave about both. I know I love my Prismacolors. Worth every penny.

Here's a picture of my own cute, silly cat. This is the way he throws himself on the floor every day when I come home from work. Just waiting to get all that long hair brushed out. (Thank heavens he likes getting brushed out! He's got LOTS of long hair.)

Hope you're getting in lots of time for stamping!
Kathleen

Halloween's Getting Close!

Halloween will be here before we know it. I can't believe that summer is almost over! I hardly seems like it's possible because, until a week or so ago, we've had a very cool, rainy summer. I hate the heat, so I've been happy! :-)

Here's an image from Impression Obsession, colored with Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol. I sponged some ink around the image to give it some depth. The edges are cut with Fiskars deckle scissors (the only decorative edge scissors that I ever seem to use). The sentiment is from Printworks, one of the first companies I discovered when I began stamping many years ago. They're still a favorite.

Hope you're having a great week!
Kathleen

Dragon Monday

Well, it's Monday again. I'm not complaining though, because I'm only working today and then I'm off the rest of the week. Off to Kentucky with my boyfriend to visit some of his family. I should be able to get lots of coloring done on the eight hour ride there tomorrow.

Here's a cute dragon that I colored up with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I don't know who makes the dragon. Even though he's wood mounted, there's no company stamp on the wood, and I bought it ages ago in a $1 bargain bin somewhere. Anyone know who made him? He's cut out with an old Spellbinder Shapability that I broke apart to use like Nestabilities. The set was original concentric shapes that were attached, so you ended up with several thin border shapes.

I used a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder on the orange card to give it a bumpy, dragon skin-like texture. I wanted some embellies on the left (no idea who makes the designer paper) but didn't want girlie flowers. I ended up using my neglected clear adhesive pebbles. Underneath, I used a small circle punch on plain white paper, inked it with orange ink, then stamped on the letters in green. It's mounted on a disc that's made to fit typewriter font circles.

Here's a close up.

Have a great week! I have a couple other posts scheduled to go while I'm traveling.
Kathleen

Changito Birthday Card

Hope everyone's Saturday is going spectacular. Today I have a card to share that I made for my niece's birthday. She LOVES monkeys. This image is Changito from Stampendous. He's colored with my Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I added the fuzzy, clear flocking from Denami Designs on his body. The paper is Basic Grey.

Here's a closeup on Changito where you can really see the flocking. It doesn't cover the coloring too much and makes his body nice and furry.

I hope you're all having a stampendous Saturday!

Kathtleen

Blogabella Challenge

I made this card for this week's Blogabella Challenge, sponsored by Stamping Bella. The image is colored with Copics, cut out and layered with Nestabilities. The paper is from a box of K & Company paper and the border punch is Martha Stewart. Sorry for the short post. My boyfriend is starting to look grumpy that I'm ignoring him this evening to get this posted before the deadline!



Here's a closeup of the image. It might show up on the picture. The wings are highlighted with a clear Spica glitter pen.

Have a wonderful Friday!
Kathleen