November

Probably you are wondering if I dropped out of blog land I was gone so long.  After my last post in October, my aunt decided she was moving into a nursing home full time.  It was left to my sister and I to clean out her apartment.  It is hard to sort through all of someone's belongings, wondering if each item is, if not necessary or valuable, something that been saved because it has meaning.  My aunt was more okay leaving everything behind than we were.  I am happy to report she is thriving in the nursing home.

In the midst of that chaos I managed to make my Thanksgiving cards and a birthday card for a dear friend.  My Thanksgiving card had to be simple because of time constraints, as in 'last minute'.  I have seen this technique using glossy paper in several places, but always with clear or white embossing as a resist.  To emphasize the fall colors I used a Claret embossing powder from Rub a Dub Dub and am very happy with the way it came out.

The stamps are 'real leaves' set of four from Hero Arts that I have had for ages. The colors used for the leaves and sponging are More Mustard, Fired Brick and Rusty Hinge distress inks.  There might be some Orange Marmalade in there too but it really wasn't showing well with the darker colors.  I added a sentiment from Inkadinkadoo, a gingham ribbon, and a leaf embellishment from my stash. The layer was added to a Bravo Burgundy card.

My friend with the November birthday is a wine lover so I knew I had to use this 'wine shop' stamp set from Purple Onion.  I colored the wine barrel with Peerless water colors and made a tag with one of the sayings from the set. The Old Olive paper from Stampin' Up along with the black paper from my scrap bin made the card and layers.  I embossed a copper shimmer paper with musical notes because I thought it went well with the rustic image.  I only wish, looking at it now, I had distressed the paper a little.

Thanks for stopping by.

More Raccoons

Hello, so how are you doing with meeting the 30 day color challenge?  I have to admit I am not doing so great except for our Thursday stamping nights.  I wish I could say I have been spending my time on other interesting projects but no luck there either. 

My time has been spent reducing clutter and reorganizing the stamp room.  So why does the work in progress look worse? Sigh. 


At least I have some cards to show you.  These are the raccoon cards made by the other Cardologists as promised in the last post.




The first two were made by Melba and Bob using the same layout and great fall colors.  Melba went with the name of the raccoon "Ginger" and made brown stripes on her raccoon.  Bob's black backgroundand star embellishment make it look like night in the pumpkin patch.

Then we have Jules' card.  I love how she grounded the racoon with the fence and the leaves.





You will recognize Susanne from her blog, Keep in Touch. She has a country look to her card and a bold hello.
















The final card is by Lola.  Don't you just love the way she colored her raccoon so it looks like fur and the punched leaves she added to the pumpkin?











Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

Day 1

October signals another 30-Day Coloring Challenge at The Daily Marker.  Yes, for thirty days we are challenged to color something, even for 10 minutes, every day, for thirty days.  I haven't been doing a lot of stamping lately because I am reorganizing my stamps... maybe that is part of the reason the stress level seems to be rising. So I look at this coloring challenge as needed therapy.

The Cardologists got together Thursday to make a fall/Halloween card and we used one of my new stamps,  the Stacey Yacula Studio "Ginger" from Purple Onion.  For Day 1 of the coloring challenge, I used watercolors that I keep in my carry kit.  I colored two of the raccoons to fussy cut, so I could pop up the scarf and tail.  I ended up popping up the eyes to look like a mask and the pumpkin too.

The background paper is a gorgeous gold and black piece from Recollections Midnight Magic pad. I didn't think it needed an embellishment, but I may add a gold banner with a vertical sentiment before I send it.

I am going to enter the following challenges as well:
The Card Concept #40 Forest Friends  inspired by clean and layered, and the raccoon
Virginia's View #19 Color It where the color challenge is on
The Male Room Challenge #20 Autumn where they are also celebrating my favorite season

Hoping to be back soon with a card made from the snippet I colored yesterday! And as soon as the other Cardologists have finished their cards and send me pictures I hope to share them with you too as we all went in completely different directions with the stamp.

Have a wonderful day.

Chloe Hugs

Many years ago when I started stamping, I had a habit of leaving new stamps on my desk until I used them at least once.  Now they have graduated to a box on the floor waiting for their first ink.  What to use first..... Do the other dies feel sad because I picked this one?


Apologies for the poor scanning job on the picture.  I am rushing to post tonight to enter in the NBUS challenge at Darnell's website.  I used my never-been-used Sue Wilson die set from Creative Expressions and Chloe stamp from the Stacy Yacula collection at Purple Onion.  The paper I used and the embellishment in the flower were recent gifts (Lots of NBUS stuff with Christmas and my birthday only a day apart!)  Finally, this was my first try using Gamsol with colored pencils.  Not tremendously happy with my background, but it just means I have to practice!

A co-worker told me that his wife said today is National Hug Day.  I confirmed by the great Google tool that January 21 is indeed an annual holiday.  So hugs to all my readers! 

Halloween 2014

It is a few hours away from All Hallow's Eve so I post the card I made for this season. 

Susanne was a little under the weather tonight and didn't make it to the Cardologist's party, so Susanne your card is in the mail.  I hope you are feeling better soon.

I had intended to put googly eyes on the outside and place the owl inside.  However, I couldn't find my googly eyes - since I am only half unpacked from Stamp Camp that is not a surprise.  So, on the front the owl goes.  Of course, she had to have her feathers dyed orange and purple for the occasion...and a little green makeup for the beak and toes.

The Spider Web sentiment is from DRS and inside,

"Wishing you a delightfully frightful Halloween night!" which I believe is an old Close to My Heart stamp.


Thank you for visiting.

Happy Birthday, Susanne

Today is Susanne's birthday! The Cardologists celebrated the occasion on Thursday night.  We usually time it so that Susanne is making the dessert when it is someone's birthday but Betty Bob rose to the occasion this time with a delicious strawberry birthday cake. 

Here is the card that I made for her this year. On her blog Keep in Touch she has been showing what she learned in her watercolor class, so I watercolored the image using shimmer colors.

  

Blowing you wishes, Susanne.

 I don't remember the company that makes the shimmer colors because I bought them so long ago at Stamp Convention.  The image is from Purple Onion Designs.