It came to me in a dream!!

Honest, it did!!! I took a sorta nap - just dozing while golf was on (golf is very mind numbing and perfect for napping - no one ever screams and wakes you up) and right when I was waking up for it I dreamed this card. The center part in my photo looks orange, but it's actually a warm sunny yellow - summer sun actually! The center panel is watercolor paper. I dropped a few drops of my summer sun reinker on it and then liberally applied water with my aquapainter. Then, while it was still wet, I added a few drops of green galore and painted them in with the aquapainter. The flower, from Touch of Nature, was colored with copics and cut out. Of all things, with a color called "Holiday Blue" and Aqua. The center is more summer sun reinker. I popped that up with a dimensional. The background paper is Basic Grey from one of my new packs and the card base is Taken with teal. I finished it off with a silver ribbon slider and some turquoise ribbon. Hope you like it.

Want to do something great?

I did this walk two years ago and it's incredible. I'd estimate that a little over half of the people who started got to finish - it's very difficult even if you are trained to walk 60 miles in three days. We raised a ton of money and met some incredible women. If you'd like to contribute, just click the image and you'll be sent to my fundraising page. If you want to cheer me along until November 7th, I would love that also!! If you want to walk with me that would really be great!!!

Gotta go buy some new shoes. Mine are worn out. :) I'll try to keep track of my miles here with you as I go. Today - 13 miles.

WSC 49 & B Happy!

Okay, so tonight I was feeling - well, BLUE. So I created this first card for Beate's weekend sketch challenge, which called for three horizontal bands of color and a circle element. As if on a mission from God, (or SCS) Zindorf's tutorial used this same concept so I CASED. The cardstock is soft sky, and I brayered more soft sky on. Then I sponged Celery and Ballet Blue over some embossed Stem Silhouette images. I masked th emoon with a 1 3/8 punch and a post it note. My punch doesn't punch cleanly through the post it though. I have to hand cut the top of the circle. Anyone else have that issue? I guess cardstock is the ideal medium for that punch. Speaking of punches, the one I used in the next card - the Boho Blossoms punch - is very hard to punch with .. Anyone? Of course, as you know, I'm old!! :) So maybe it'st just me.

Anyway, old or no, I did make up a card based on a color scheme in the catalog. My sort of vague somewhat

photographic memory tells me it was towards the back. It's Old Olive and Soft Sky. I randomly got the Basic Grey wasp shipment !!! from Tracey this week and it just happened to have a piece of patterned paper with both those colors in it! LOVE it. So I used it for this "Just B" card.

I stamped the B and the "happy" in Versamark and embossed with clear. The rest is easy - the punch and the felt flowers. I cheated and used a Bashful Blue brad because they don't make Soft Sky Brads. Anybody besides me want markers and accessories in the InColors? Maybe that is what they will tell us at convention - that and die cut stamps - PLEASE STAMPIN' UP PLEASE!!!!

Whoa - what just happened?

Okay - wish me luck tomorrow - gonna try to walk 13+ for training for the 3 day walk and it's REALLY hot - been over 100 already a few times this week. I'm about to post a link for my walk if you want to help me. I'm a little behind in my training now because I'm so busy it's hard to walk during the week, so I am just doing the big ones on the weekends. I gotta get with the program though - November will be here before you know it!!

Hope everyone has a relaxing weekend planned. We have a trip to the ranch, editing, stamping and a whole lot of nothing on Monday. Hallelujah!!!

He wants us to move the island...

You know how the season openers of LOST and other significant episodes begin with a closeup on one of the character's eyes? Well today was a significant day, so appropriately so does this episode of Understand Blue. It's my eye. And it's so completely freaky I had to share it with you. I had an eye exam today because I can't SEE Lost anymore. I used to be able to pause the show and read little Dharma Initiative messages, the titles of books and other critical details of the show. Suddenly a few months ago, I stopped being able to read even the little banners at the bottom of Fox News Channel. I was actually a little nervous! It turns out I am just old!! My left eye randomly changed shape and has an astigmatism. Anyway, she numbed and dilated my eye and now I look like that scary Japanese girl who was crawling around on the ceiling in The RING!! eek. So BOO!!!

Okay - now on to stamping. I know you're getting tired of this same card, but I'm addicted! Today I took my color combo from this issue of Stampin' Success. I love grey and yellow together. I actually even watercolored the Basic Black Marker as well as the grey one and it really worked. I thought since it was "permanent" it wouldn't move around on the watercolor paper but it does! It gets a slight purply tinge to it, but looks great.

I finally found the missing leaf in this vase, thanks to Judie! It's top left. I knew there was no way there was only one unbalanced leaf but I told you I can't see anything!! I get my glasses in a week and then I'll be better!

Coloring with your eyes dilated - really bad idea. I really have no idea what it looks like, so I'm sorry if it's all jacked up!!! If it is, I hope you are all giggling at the poor old blind lady. Thanks for all your kind words about the wasps. My back and arm are still all jacked up, but I have my stamps! The postman did not deliver any packages today I guess because the key is still in that box and my sign is still on there. Very disturbing. Hope my postman isn't dead of killer wasp stings, now that I think about it.

Last, but totally not least, a lovely blue butterfly, Zindorf inspired. I hand wrote some things about butterflies with my Sakura Pigma Micron .005 pen. FYI, these don't smudge at ALL with Copics or sponging! It's a wonderful pen. I love the .005 because if you look at all my "watermarked" cards, you'll see the teeny fine line signature - that's with this pen. It's as thin as a needle!! Sakura makes a bunch of great products.

I stamped the butterfly from Wonderful Wings in Brilliance Graphite Black and colored him with Copics. Then I colored him with my VersaMarker and embossed him with clear. Then I inked up the leaf in VersaMark and then in Green Galore and stamped and embossed it. Then I sponged on Summer sun, and right around the butterfly, Pumpkin Pie. I stamped "It's About Time" in Sahara Sand onto some Basic Grey patterned paper and then layered that onto a Tempting Turquoise card base.

I mounted the butterfly panel with dimensionals.

Hope you guys are having a great Thursday!! I'm soooo sleepy right now - got up insanely early - at 3:45, so I need to hit the hay soon.

L8R

More Watermarking

Tee hee.. Next thing you know, that will be all over the internet as the term for watercoloring with markers - you heard it here first!!!



I really like this technique. It's very easy and fast.



I also have a confession to make. There are some colors that I just don't like. I have tried to like them, but I just don't. Like Beate and purple. Colors go deep into our brains and evoke some crazy prehistoric response that we can't control. At least that is what I tell myself every time I see Sage Shadow and Blush Blossom and Glorious Green. I can't change it. I'm too old.



And confession #2, sometimes I make things with these colors that make me shudder to give away to the assisted living center I teach classes at sometimes or whatever, just so I can use up the cardstock - I know other people don't feel the same way I do... But it never goes away! I swear I haven't bought sage shadow since 1992 and I still have oodles of it.



However, I see combinations sometimes that make me pause and wonder if I'm too "colorist". One of them is Sage Shadow and Blush Blossom - very pretty and soothing. Tonight I tried to step outside the comfort zone and see if I couldn't make it work. I think I got close anyway. It sure does look pretty with pink.



Hope you're having a good Wednesday. I'm sleepy already and it's only 7:30. I experienced a serious trauma at the mailbox today which might be the problem. I got my order from Starving Artistamps, and that means I got a key to one of the large boxes at my stupid group mailboxes inside my teeny mailbox that nothing fits in. So I stick the key in the big box, open the door, stick my hand it AT WHICH POINT 8000 VERY ANGRY RED WASPS FLY OUT AND TRY TO STING ME!!!!! I completely hurt my elbow twisting away while still holding the key to the box. The key is still in the box, as is my package, so I have to open it and try again. I open it and see that there is a HUGE wasp nest in the upper corner of this box by the door - OMG!!!! I bravely stick my hand in, actually touching a wasp that was crawling on the box, grab the box and run into the bushes, scraping myself all up. Mind you, I'm wearing a dress and inappropriate heels for wasp evasion. Holy cow am I PISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSED at this point.



Luckily, not stung, I drive back to my house and grap a sheet of summer sun, and write in very loud large letters an extremely angry note about the wasps and some thinly veiled suggestions about what to do with the nest on it with a sharpie, grab my packing tape and head back to tape the note on the box.



I'M STILL MAD! My dad broke his shoulder in an almost identical incident at his group mailbox.



IF I AM PAYING NEARLY 50 CENTS FOR YOU PEOPLE TO TAKE A LETTER FROM POINT A TO POINT B, AND YOU CAN'T EVEN BRING IT TO MY HOUSE ANY MORE, WHERE I WOULD BE HAPPY TO MAKE SURE THERE AREN'T ANY POISONOUS ANGRY BEESTS LURKING AROUND THE MAILBOX, THEN YOU D*** SURE BETTER TAKE CARE OF THAT LITTLE PROBLEM IN THE STUPID GROUP MAILBOX BEFORE I TAKE POSTAL TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Oh, I feel so much better now! ;)



One of the things I got in the box from Tracey was a Spica Glitter pen - WOWEEEEE!! It's really fabulous. It has a marker sort of tip like the fine end of the Stampin' Write Marker instead of the roller ball that the Sakura pen has, so it's just different. Gorgeous, very smooth application of super fine sparkle. I think you'll like it.



I also got a ton of new Basic Grey paper and some stamps that maybe I'll use for my Christmas cards - it's almost time to make those, you know!!! :)

Anyway, have a good night. :)

H20 + Markers

= fun with watercolors!!

I saw a great blog post the other day about watercoloring with Stampin' Up! markers, and I thought I'd give it a try. Her example used this image from Bloomin' Wonderful, which I have actually never used! I love that poppy so much I never stray from it! But she inspired me to try the technique, and it's so easy I went on to do a few more. I bought a large pad of watercolor paper at Office Depot and cut it up to use for these projects. The floral panel is 4x3. I stamped the image in Brilliance Graphite Black and heat set it. Then I colored the edges of the vase in Eggplant Envy and did the same with just the centers of the flowers with Summer Sun. The leaf was outlined in Old Olive. Then, I took a brand spanking new AquaPainter and just watercolored - blending from dark to light and going over the marker a few times with water where the color was really concentrated. Watercolor paper is perfect for this because it holds up to the multiple applications of water without tearing or pilling. The center of the flowers are accented with my white gel pen. Then I took a Staedtler Micron pen and signed it because I thought it really looked like a little painting! On the eggplant card base I stamped the "blossom" definition from this set over and over again in eggplant ink.

The sweet little bunny and carrots are from "Can Ya Dig It?" by My Favorite Things. Such an adorable set. I took this scene from ebethneu's adorable bunny book on SCS. Her work is amazing. I didn't mount this one or anything - I just wanted to make a little bunny painting. So it's just propped up on my desk. MFT really has great imaged - heads or no heads - they're cute!!! :) (Jenn, that was for you!)

Again, this is just Stampin' Up! Markers, and then an AquaPainter to blend and lighten. What amazes me is how quick this really is. Also a note - your markers do NOT work on wet paper. So scribble first, and then use the A/P - not the other way around.

The next card features that adorable castle image from Doodle Factory Fairy Tale. So cute. I decided to get a little Zindorfy for the background and sort of Markie's Mom around the edges!! I colored the castle and then went over the whole thing with my VersaMarker. Then I embossed it (and the cloud) in clear embossing powder. That left me free to sponge in the hills and sky without ruining my main image. It's funny how the Carmine Copic Marker really coordinates with Real Red - It certainly doesn't look like that on the cap! I used Cool Shadow and the Toner Grays on the castle. The little mushrooms are from the same set, cut out and popped up on the card. The greeting is from Min Positive Words.

Finally, I got my adorable Fresh Cuts notes and stamp set this week - man I love them!!! (Demonstrators can pre-order them - if you're a customer, they're coming!) I just popped the little petals out, stuck some Basic Grey patterned paper on the inside front, and stamped "Thanks"

from this same set on the outside in Ruby Red (which is an amazing match

to this BG paper!) Then I popped one of the Fire rhinestone brads into the center. Really simple cute cards you can make with these. I can't wait until we can order them and bunches of them!!

I hope you guys are having a great Tuesday.

I'm a Queen!!

Well, sort of! I'm a featured blogger on Queen Kat's Blog!! YAY! Check out their blog - link at right! Thanks QKD!!!

Cards from and for friends

Hello everyone! Neelam had her workshop today and she was fabulous!!! She did 3 adorable projects and everyone loved them.

She also introduced me to Welch's frozen passionfruit juice, and WOW. That stuff is good!! Then I went shopping and they were doing samples of Central Market Organics apple and pear soda - shazaaaam!! That stuff is great! Then I went to Target and put together the emergency kit for the BMW - I had to get a smaller one than my own. And just to expose you to this particular dementia of mine, I have to have an emergency kit in my car. It contains: an extensive first aid kit, a pair of tennis shoes and socks (Chriss can appreciate that my normal footwear is completely inappropriate for walking or running long distances), two large bottles of water (I have driven American cars for the last 24 years so if you have too, you know this is for my radiator and not for me), flares, a lighter, jumper cables, one of those emergency power thingies that charges your battery from the cigarette lighter, a flashlight, a large collection of maps and atlases should an electromagnetic pulse bomb destroy my phone and or my Garmin Nuvi, a can of coke (good for cleaning corroded battery terminals OR rescuing someone who has diabetes, a box of antibacterial handwipes, a trashbag, Benadryl fun strips (the kind that melt on your tongue), aspirin (in case someone has a heart attack), a box of latex gloves and a roll of toilet paper. I know, I'm crazy. However, when I'm sewing up your head on the side of the road after an apocalyptic event of some sort, I will accept your apology with grace!! :)

Anyway, my sweet friends have once again sent me wonderful things. First, Bee, who has the most enchanting blog you've ever seen, sent me this lovely BLUE and sunny card - I love it! My photography does not capture the iridescence - it is lovely. And that ribbon is so sassy I can hardly stand it!! The edges are sponged orange and just so intense and lovely. Thanks BEE!!!

Then, speaking of blue, look at this heartstopping blue beauty from my friend Vee - she's been reading the Zindorf tutorials and doing amazing work. My favorite flower really comes to life on this card - look at all the details!!! The symmetrical stamping in the corners and on the border - amazing, as always Vicki!!

I don't know whether the edges are sponged or brayered, but I can tell you that they are the most amazing deep & bright cobalt blue. Just stunning. Hoping my irises bloom this year!

It's year three after the transplant, so it's time.

This one is my card, featuring an Inque Boutique image, I actually made for Kristina Werner, who had a birthday this week! It was really easy to make the background by sponging various blues, and then I just stamped that lovely bird on two separate panels and lined them up. The patterned paper is Basic Grey, and I took Not Quite Navy and sponged the edges of this piece too. It's amazing how cool just sponging background paper is. Why have I never done that before? I distressed the edges of the Bashful Blue piece with my distressing tool.

Then this last card, for a friend, I made this afternoon. I actually took the part of the panel from the card above that I had cut off and used that for the background of the main image, which is a beautiful weeping willow from Impression Obsession. The trees in this set are really nice. This is a sympathy card, so I thought it had both beauty and a serious, reflective note. I used postits to mask and sponge the ground. First, above the post it notes with Always Artichoke, and then below the post its with Chocolate Chip. The tree and the greeting are stamped with Adirondack Pitch Black. Believe it or not, the base of the card is Not Quite Navy, which is horribly distorted in this picture. Sorry about that.

I used the perforating tool from the distressing kit to run a vertical and horizontal perforation line on the card. Then I stamped the other image from Kind Thoughts all over the background in Not Quite Navy.

I'm so excited because my Fresh Cuts notes (OMG THEY ARE SO CUTE) and the stamp set came yesterday. Tomorrow is busy but I'm hoping to create something for you with them!

Hope you're having a great Saturday!!

Blech

I am sick today. :( Grr. I am never sick so it's annoying. I didn't feel well enough to prepare for my class I have tomorrow. So I will update you on what I'm doing right now. Tomorrow I have a class for my friend Lulu's moms group. That should be a lot of fun. Then, later in the week, I have a charity event that I was invited to by Lulu's Arbonne rep. It benefits a family with young children that lost their mom recently. They will be raffling off prizes, so I donated two prizes - a box of eight cards - two blank, two birthday, two baby cards and two get well soon cards. I also donated a two hour class for 8 people. I hope someone likes the prize!! For the blank cards I used the tree cards. I can't get over these - they're so pretty and easy. The colors I used are Bashful Blue - brayered on. Then I sponged on Taken with Teal and then Ballet Blue at the top. The bottom was brayered with Creamy Caramel, then sponged with Chocolate Chip and Really Rust. The center was sponged with Green Galore. I stamped the tree in Always Artichoke, then sponged on Green Galore and True Thyme. I colored the trunk with Close to Cocoa and outlined with a drafting pen. The swirl was stamped in Chocolate Chip.

The Get Well cards are made with A Little Birdie Told Me. I paper pieced him with my Prints Pack.

I punched three holes in the Almost Amethyst strip and I did this after acting on a tip from another blogger. Take a pair of pliers and pop off the little door that holds the punched out pieces. Voila! You can SEE what you're punching! Simple & revolutionary. The guards pop off without breaking, but just a warning - empty yours first! I did not and shot little confetti everywhere, including directly into my eye! Seriously - right in the old ojo!

Okay, on the inside of the card I stamped the little umbrella and "you're under the weather." It's cute. The card base and the other print piece are Certainly Celery.

The next card is just a direct theft from Kristina Werner's baby card on her blog. I have always loved this card (actually bought the stamp set after seeing her make it) but the second I bought it everyone stopped having babies!!! So I'm really glad to have somewhere to use it! I had to cut a teeny scrap of a dimensional to mount that little pennant with. Labor of love!

I hope whoever wins these cards knows a pregnant lady!

The colors are certainly celery, Bashful Blue and So Saffron. The set is Nursery Necessities. I really do like this set, with the exception of that strange little duck - have you looked at him? He's odd. Not gonna lie. I've seen some cute cards made with him, but he looks like he got smooshed. I tied on some Bliss Blue gingham ribbon. I was copying KW's and I was wishing for some yellow or celery gingham ribbon. God knows I don't have enough STUFF, right?

I went back to Felicia's Scrapbooks and got a piece of the Nestabilities mat to try embossing with. When I'm feeling better I'll give that a shot. Her store is really great and she's so sweet. My Austin readers really need to check her out.

The birthday cards are courtesy of Beate's latest design. I changed very little of what she did - it's gorgeous.

The stamp sets are Baroque Motifs, Simply Circles and Circle of Friendship. The cardstock is Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, and white in the center (sponged with Soft Sky)

I don't have a Scor Pal, so I scored the center piece with my paper trimmer. The trick to scoring on a diagonal in your paper trimmer is the following. Start by scoring the center of the piece - meaning corner to corner. Position the corners in the scoring track and score. Then move that out to the left and line it up on the edge of the trimmer (that's an inch) and score, and repeat! Rotate it and repeat on the other angle. Very easy and requires no extra spending on your part! :) I suppose some day I will have to get

a Scor-Pal, but right now I don't have a burning scoring project that can't be done with a paper trimmer or a bone folder. Anyway, just be sure you stamp before you score unless you are deliberately looking for little voids in your design. (which can be very cool when done on purpose)

What I loved about Beate's design, aside from the obvious stunning color choices, was all the layers of detail - the piercing, the white gel pen dots (a la Markie's Mom) and the scoring, the ribbon, the punches - it's a very tactile card. When I looked at her photo, it looked like the center piece was soft sky, but that is just a testament to how well the Stampin' Up! ink colors are coordinated with the cardstock. Every time I reach for another company's ink pad I remember that too.. Like "darn, I have nothing that precisely matches that". I am falling in love with the Adirondack pitch black though. Thanks for your comments about that product. Is it my imagination, or does it coat the stamps more evenly than the SU basic black? I'm getting great clean impressions with it, so I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Now, since we're on the blue section of the post, a few notes on the color. Jenn gave me the heads up that Starbucks was putting their new merchandise out today and that it was BLUE! And oh my, IS IT!! There are beautiful blue mugs that you just HAVE to see. I don't know how they keep coming up with the most beautiful ceramics!! They also have at one store here (our only 24 hour one up by work) something called a "splash stick) which is an ingenious cross between a coffee stirrer and a plug for your cup lid so you don't spill in the car. I love it! Wish my stores that I frequent had them!

Okay a few more updates and then I'll leave you be. First, the TV show is on the schedule!! It will be on starting June 1st, every Tuesday at 1 PM, on channel 11 on Time Warner!! How exciting is that?? It's called Understand Blue Paper Arts for those of you in Austin - set your Tivo! I don't get Time Warner so I need someone to record it for me!!

Second update - if that goes well, I'd like to enter it in Martha's Dreamers contest! Wouldn't that be fun?

Third, I saw on Martha today the Wild Charge - have you seen this thing? What a freaking brilliant idea!!! I can't tell if the Blackberry Curve is compatible yet, but Ipods are! WOW. Thank you Wild Charge!!

Hope you're having a good Tuesday!