Quick and Easy Card + Technique

I absolutely LOVE the Asian Background stamp sets by Kodomo Inc. This card was created using the Asian Backgrounds 1 set and scraps of paper from my scrap bin. I just picked out some scraps that I thought went well together. Stamped backgrounds on them using VersaMark Ink. Lined them up and matted them on the green cardstock, and my focal design was ready to go. The Congratulations stamp is from Kodomo Inc. also, as is the white string I wrapped around the left side. I created the fun dimensional flowers using the supplies below.
To create beautiful dimensional flowers, simply punch out a flower, lay it on top of a foam mat (this is a stamping mat, you could also use a soft mousepad or even just a tea towel folded over into several layers), then use a dry embossing tool to rub the back side of the flower petals, creating a "cupped" look. You can see that I have done two of the petals on the flower in this picture. When you turn it back over and press something in the center (in this case I used tiny adhesive pearls by K&Company) the petals just pop up beautifully. Try this with all kinds of paper, it is fun to experiment and see how different textures and weights of paper respond.
Moving on to other topics:
Stay tuned for a giveaway coming up!!! In fact, you may want to get your commenting fingers ready by saying hello! I know you are there, and would love to hear from you. But whether you comment or not, thank you for coming to visit my blog, it is an honor to share my life adventures with you.

A whole day of Alcohol Inks

Yesterday was a really fun day. A whole day of Alcohol Ink Classes, and some of these ladies were in it with me for the long haul. Some of them had never worked with Alcohol Ink before, and I must say, they did an amazing job.
This is a bookmark we made using a drip technique. I just think it's so neat how everyones end project is their own unique design, it can never be exactly duplicated, and the colors are just vibrant and beautiful. It was a really fun, inspirational bunch of ladies, and we had a great day together. So thanks ladies!

Bandanna Technique

I often visit Robin Beam's blog (Robin is the Director of Education for Ranger Industries). There is a link to her blog in the left column of my blog if you would like to visit her blog. Anyway, recently she issued a challenge to create something using the Bandanna Technique that she came up with. It is a great technique, I just hadn't gotten around to trying it yet. So here is my first "bandanna" card. The "bandanna" part of it refers to the white doodling that I added to the background. I created the background by stamping my design with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, and blending with Weathered Wood and Milled Lavendar. Both of the background colors are fairly soft, so there is not alot of contrast between the white pen and the background colors, but I liked it. You can see it better if you click on the picture to enlarge it. Anyway, the frame is from Technique Tuesday, and is colored with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and Distress Embossing Powder. The image behind the frame is from the Bird Lover's clear stamp set by Crafty Secrets. I colored in the birds with Distress Inks and Cut n' Dry Nibs. Oh, and the background stamp is the Spiraling Leaves background by B Line Designs. It is a huge stamp which is great because you only have to stamp it once even for a fairly large card like this one (5 3/8" square). Anyway, I greatly enjoyed this bandanna thing and am sure it will join the list of techniques that I love and use often. Oops, I just noticed that I forgot to color in the cute little birdies eyes, better do that...lol.

Depleting the Stash

My drawer of leftover scraps of paper is getting TO FULL. My mom was here visiting and I figured that was a perfect time to create a card using some of those scraps that are filling up my drawers. I also had a new stamp set that hadn't been used yet. The bird image is from the Birds Galore set by Inkadinkado, and the Friends Always sentiment is from a set called Messages from Hero Arts.
Do you see those little pearls? They are addicting! These are from K&Companys Wedding Collection, and they come in five different sizes. I just LOVE them...love, love, love. Ok, can you tell I love them? The problem is that I am most in love with the tiniest size, but of course I need to find a use for the bigger ones too. Guess I'd better work on that.
Did you know that tulips used to be my favorite flower? I even carried tulips at my wedding. I still love tulips, I just don't know if they are truly my favorite anymore. I love lots of different kinds of flowers: orchids, some varieties of roses(like this one), and many more.
I got this beautiful rose picture from the Heirloom Roses website. Heirloom Roses is a rose nursery located very close to where I live. Let me just say, visiting their nursery is an experience. It is just beautiful. Amazing cascades of climbing roses, rows and rows of so many varieties of roses that it makes your head swim. It's worth a visit.

My little girl is 6

It's official, Hannah is now 6 years old. After counting the days...and days...and days...(she's been counting since November), she is finally 6. We had a nice little party with family and friends. We chose to do some art projects instead of party games. One of the things we did was make some shrink plastic charms etc. They colored them in with Sharpies, and some of the adults cut them out, then they got to watch them shrink up in the toaster oven. Lastly, they got to string them onto necklaces with a bunch of other beads. None of them had ever done this before so they thought it was pretty neat to see them shrink up tiny.
Along with Hannah's 6th birthday, came her first two wheeled bicycle. Granted, it has four right now, but she was pretty excited to have a two-wheeler. She has a little friend that just moved into our neighborhood this weekend, so she is really looking forward to riding bikes with her friend.
She is pretty tentative on it right now, and utilizes its brakes quite often. That's my girl, she's always been pretty careful. Which thankfully means no broken bones or stitches yet, but hopefully it won't take her to long to gain enough confidence to ride at a walking or even jogging pace. I'm looking forward to getting a little exercise on our walks.

Crafty Secrets Bird Lovers Class

This is a brand new class that will be held for the first time at Stampin' Cat Studio, June 28th. This little birdhouse is made mostly with products from Crafty Secrets (thus the name of the class, LOL). Embellished with a few products from Maya Road, including my favorite metal blossoms. And of course, we will be using Ranger Industries Distress Products also. It's adorable from the outside, but the inside is where the fun really begins. The inside houses some great tags we will make, complete with interchangeable sentiments. Cute and functional, you can't get any better than that. If you live in the area, go check out the sample in person, at Stampin' Cat.

On top of making a really fun project, you get tons of great product to take home with you. Including the Bird Lovers Large Clear Stamp set, a set of Birds & Botanicals Images and Journal Notes, half a pad of the beautiful double-sided cardstock in the Earthy Paper Pad, the great Chipboard Folding House set, and a sheet of Feathered Friends Cotton Scraps. You will have TONS of product left over for future projects.

Paintable Fun

I finally got around to playing with the Prima Clear Paintables, using Blending Solution in a water brush to paint on the alcohol ink, as shown on the Prima video. It is so much fun. So easy to work with, and they turn out great. After I was finished with this one, I layered it over a tag, stamped a sentiment on the front using a gold Paint Dabber, and added a couple of Maya Roads metal blossoms. The little one is painted with Wild Plum Alcohol Ink, and I stamped on the larger one with a stamp from my Nottinghill set by 7 Gypsies. If you live in the area and would like to see this in person just stop by Stampin' Cat Studio on Wednesday. Between 3-7pm, I will be there doing a demo of this technique. If you can't make it to Stampin' Cat but are interested in learning more about this technique, just click here and go watch Primas video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwaY8ipF3MM
Until next time...

Kodomo fun

This is all I can show you for now of what I've been working on lately, but I am having tons of fun playing with products by Kodomo Inc. These are cards made on a base of wood. If you want to see the kind of wood products that Kodomo Inc. sells, you can check out their website here: http://kodomoinc.com/woodbox.html
Let me just say, I was amazed at how wonderfully these wood products can be stamped on. Perfect image every single time. If you are very familiar with Ranger products, you might recognize the various colors above as belonging to the Distress line. I love my Distress Inks.

Huge thanks to Christine Adolph!

There is a wonderful trend going around the papercrafting community. Well, I don't know if it's happening enough to truly call it a trend, but still...it's happening, and it's wonderful. Sometimes when you are designing, and working in the industry you get a large collection of supplies built up which are taking up your precious space. Ok, even people who don't work in the industry sometimes have that problem. LOL. When it is becomes necessary to pare down your stash of supplies, a great way to do it is to Stash it Forward. The idea is to pass some of what you've been blessed with on to someone who may not be able to just go buy all that stuff themselves.
I was recently visiting Christine Adolph's blog and she was having a Stash it Forward giveaway, so I decided to enter the name of a wonderful lady I know from my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group at church. Jody loves crafting and has helped me out with the crafts for our MOPS group. I was so excited to find out that she was one of the winners! A couple of days ago I received the package from Christine, and I had gone through my own supplies to pick out some more great items for Jody to enjoy. At our MOPS meeting yesterday, I got to surprise Jody with all of her new supplies. So fun!!! Thanks Christine for making this happen. It was a blessing. Now to completely change gears. My father-in-law built us this wonderful bird "hotel" as my neighbor called it. It used to be by our front door, but I noticed that some skittish little birds were interested in it, so I moved it into our backyard, and tucked it into a little corner beside a window. Now we get to watch the little birds build their nest without disturbing them. They are so cute, they fly over with these huge pieces of straw, and usually have to try many times before they actually get it into the birdhouse. It's been lots of fun to watch.