Julee Loves Coffee

I think it's safe to say that my friend Julee - the owner of Verve, might have a coffee addiction.

I'm basing this purely on the stamps she designs, of course. If you are also a devotee of the bean, as am I - she has a bajillion coffee themed sentiments, which always come in handy. 27, to be exact.

I had a Derwent Inktense background on my desk when Falliday Fest started, and I thought I'd use the Coffee Cafe dies to cut it into a coffee cup for the holiday beverage challenge by Kathy Baffone. I know that I like to be super caffeinated for the whole Octobernovemberdecember BLUR, and I think you should be too!

I love that these dies come with the heart shaped stopper die. I cut it twice - once in red and once in black and glued them together. I used my MISTI to stamp the Java background from Better With You in a row in Smoky Slate, and did the same with the sentiment on the cup from Always Time in Versafine - I stamped this probably eight times because it's cold press watercolor paper. (Man, I made poorly inked cards before the MISTI.) The sentiment so perfectly fits that cup - it's like they were made for each other!

That's a good holiday wish for anybody. Strong coffee and light burdens. I hope that's what you get.

Speaking of holidays - my newest online class is available now - it features the Santa's Suit Bundle!
Also - on that same page - there's my new, searchable Stampin' Up! sentiment database - check it out!

Oh - and you can win my Arkon giveaway for October one of two ways. Simply place an order in my store using host code M2U9DE6V - and you will be automatically entered once.

Then fill out this form below and you will receive one entry - or a second entry if you placed an order. Entries close October 31st at 11:59 PM.

Loveyameanitbye.

Happy Fall, Y'all!

I know I've been hitting Christmas hard lately, so I am rewinding to fall today with a card I actually finished quite a while ago.

The background is left over from a very fun video I did that you'll hear about soon. But in the meantime, I'll just torture you with this adorable fall card.

I went into shopping overdrive in September and I got a lot of cute stuff. With Falliday Fest happening, I always give myself permission to get some new stamps in here for the challenges - and I swear I do my favorite cards for these challenges. It's a combination of the time pressure, the inspiration that gets me out of my creative ruts, and the fact that there are 30 creative prompts during the event.

This particular challenge was by Lisa Swarm - who pretty much inspires me every day on Splitcoast. She's so creative and such a positive presence. Her challenge was perfect for a fall card - we had to use items that began with the letters in the word ORANGE.

So I used - (O)range Copics, (R)ed Copics, (A)lcohol Markers, (N)ew Neat & Tangled stamps, (G)reen Inktense blocks and of course (E)nergy in my little jumping mouse! We only had to use four of the letters, but as you know I suffer from Full Set Syndrome, so I couldn't quit at four! So Happy Fall, Y'all, from an energetic mouse!

Isn't he the sweetest?

For the background, I just spritzed the Ornate Background Stamp with water, rubbed some Inktense blocks onto it and stamped it onto Bristol Vellum by actually putting the paper onto the stamp instead of the other way around - that's my favorite way to use big background stamps to make sure I get good contact. This one was just a "pick up" print - where I was actually done with the technique, and was cleaning the extra Inktense off the stamp by creating paler monoprints with what's left.

For some reason, I'm drawn to images of animals wearing hats and scarves. Or heck humans wearing hats and scarves. It's just so much FLAIR! But this mouse is especially dapper with his teal and white scarf. He's both formal and casual for his leaf jump.

We actually got a small taste of cooler weather this week - a few days in the 60's which is pretty cool for us. We're usually sweating in October, so it was a nice reprieve before it heats up again and all the little kiddos are melting under their Halloween costumes.

I hope fall is treating you well!

Loveyaasmuchasamouseinascarfmeanitbye.

Festival of (Six) Lights

I'm always looking for ways to stretch my stamps - either by using them for a purpose other than what they are intended for, or by the things I pair them with.

When I was trying out Merry Patterns on my team FB live a few weekends ago, I thought it might be fun to give a Hanukkah feel to this winter set, so I set out to give it a general festival of lights feel, just with color and the little candles from the set.

(Now before all the snowflake leg counters revolt and get all bejiggity about the fact that there are only six, not nine candles on my card, please know that I give you permission to repeat three of the candles in the design for a more technically correct Hanukkah theme, however, this is a card, and a feeling, and no one will die with just six candles.)

One of the reasons I love Hanukkah crafting is there's sooooo much blue! So much lighter and prettier than all our heavy reds and greens. So I decided to make these two shades of blue.

The way these layering stamps line up is pure magic too - so clean and precise.

Such a bright, clean bunch of cards you can make with this set! It would make a great one for mass producing holiday cards with the MISTI for sure.

This card is for one of today's Falliday Fest challenges - but you can barely see the challenge portion on my card because - white card problems - but the challenge is to score lines on your card. There are actually two parallel lines scored on each side of the card panel the images are stamped on. Squint really hard and you can see them!

I hope your week has gone well - it's finally Caturday! Enjoy it to the fullest!

You can enter to win my Arkon giveaway for October one of two ways. Simply place an order in my store using host code M2U9DE6V - and you will be automatically entered once.

Then fill out this form below and you will receive one entry - or a second entry if you placed an order. Entries close October 31st at 11:59 PM.

Loveyameanithappycaturdaybye.

Dendritic Printing

Shannon Horch had an amazing challenge on Splitcoast for Falliday Fest this week on Dendritic Printing. It is such a fun technique and the samples in her challenge gallery are amazing and all so unique.

I decided I'd try a twist on the technique using my Gel Press plates today - because normally this technique is done between pieces of glass.

As a person who lives in a house that is 100% slate tiles, and as a person who owns two little wrecking ball felines, I didn't feel like sheets of glass would be in anyone's best interest, so I made do with what I had.

One of the most common questions we get at Splitcoast is "Will X work with Y?", where X is a product mentioned in a technique, and Y is a product that the person owns.

Our answer is always the same.

just try it.

For some reason, people are terrified of their own tools. Think about a Y-Chromosome human going to Home Depot one Sunday morning to buy a hammer. He buys the hammer and comes home and starts hitting things with it.

He does not spend three hours on the internet wondering if he can hit this or that or if he will break it. He just uses the tool.

We as creatives need to just use our tools. Don't make them too precious. Don't worry about breaking them. Don't worry about a right way and a wrong way - JUST TRY STUFF. Some of it will work, some of it won't, and you might ruin some stuff. None of that is a problem. There are always more things to try and nothing you do at your desk brings about the end times, I can assure you.

So for today's guest spot over at Gel Press, I decided just to try it. Try a softer surface than the traditional one for this technique. And no one died. AMAZING!

So what dendritic means is basically forms that branch sort of like a tree. This effect is achieved by squishing paint between two hard surfaces, then pulling them apart and using each side to pull a monoprint.

So I thought what if I sandwiched paint between two flexible gel plates?

It was so much fun. Here's the result of that which is very similar to the classic dendritic printing technique. (All supplies listed below the second card.) Doesn't it look like he's swimming past undersea plants?

Then I decided to try something with Distress Oxide reinkers and an acrylic medium just for grins. It gives a softer look but still has the motion created by the technique.

And finally - here's one I did for her challenge sample -  with a more spooky feel. I used orange and white paints on black cardstock. I stamped the gate in white and shaded with colored pencils, and then stamped the raven and the gravestone in black and shaded with a white pencil. The moon is fingerpainted. I love the teeny dendritic texture on this background. Looks like miasma, which is a word I've always wanted to be able to work into everyday conversation.

This was such a fun printing session. Well all printing sessions are fun - but I really enjoyed trying something totally new - exactly what I needed this week.

So speaking of things I needed - with the help of one of my team members - I have created a database of Stampin' Up! sentiment stamps and dies. Sometimes when I am designing projects for in person or online classes I sit down and I think - do I have a stamp that just says "hi"? And there's not a good way for me to get the answer to that without taking tons of time to flip through catalogs or look at all my stamps, and I just don't have time for that.

So I have a searchable Google Sheets Database available that has the current catalog and the holiday catalog, and this database will be updated with each new catalog from here forward. It has the page # in the catalog, a column for whether it is a stamp or die, the name of the stamp set, the actual sentiment, and what catalog it's in. You can use ctrl+f to search for whatever sentiment you're looking for.

If you purchase access to this, you will have access to all future catalogs added to the file - for as long as I'm maintaining the database. I've already saved so much time using this I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am about it.

To purchase access, you can use the button below. The email address on your PayPal payment will be the one granted access to the google document. Enjoy!

So now - enjoy my very laid back experimental video on this fun process. I love being surprised every time I lift the cardstock. It's just magic.

Oh - and you can win my Arkon giveaway for October one of two ways. Simply place an order in my store using host code M2U9DE6V - and you will be automatically entered once.

Then fill out this form below and you will receive one entry - or a second entry if you placed an order. Entries close October 31st at 11:59 PM.

Loveyameanitbye.

A Snowman Gang

I was playing with this design over the weekend and showed a sneak peek of it on Instagram and Facebook and made it look like the snowmen were sneaking up on this cardinal, like those creepy angels in Doctor Who.

It's funny how you can completely change the mood of something with creative photography.

However, now that it's out there, I have a confession to make.

Snowmen creep me out.

Not cute stampy snowmen - those are adorable. But real snowmen. They're right up there with scarecrows to me. Why have a fake "person" if it's sole intention is not to come to life and kill you in some wintery version of Children of the Corn?? The clown vibe is strong in those charcoal eyes - I'm telling you.

Thankfully I did not have to grow up with snowmen - they couldn't get to us to eat us when it was 90 degrees at Christmas. But you northern people - watch your backs!!!

But like many things that are scary in real life - spiders, bears, scarecrows and snowmen - they are ADORABLE as stamps.

So for today's card, I used Bev's masking challenge for Falliday Fest to make myself a little snowman community, with an ADORABLE cardinal in the foreground, just peeking in from the edge of the frame.

I also wanted to make my friend Debby Hughes a card, so I did this on a YUGE watercolor card - I have never made a UK sized card before - they like their cards big over there - and so I wanted to try it for Debbie. The cards are Strathmore Watercolor Cards with envelopes that I bought in Santa Fe.

I kept the color palette limited because a winter palette is limited - especially by snow. But snow also picks up beautiful environmental tints, so I used blues and purples on the snow - colors listed below.

This was fun, and I'm not even a little bit scared. This set - Merry & Bright - is part of the new Simon Says Stamp Holiday Release, which starts today. So fun. The sentiment is from Forever Friends.

Don't let those little guys sneak up on you!

Loveyameanitbye.

Hey Little Turkeys!!

Hey turkeys!!

I'm bringing you a rare 3D project today! Turkey and pumpkin pie always make me do crazy things, and I cannot resist a good turkey craft.

This project was designed by my friend Jean Cross, who is doing the tutorial today at Splitcoast, and asked if I could do the video for her.

Video the cutest turkey project ever? What kind of a crazy person says no to that? Not I, little turkeys. Not I.

So I decided to make a non-traditionally colored turkey, because that's how this turkey rolls - and I went for an elegant black and Soft Sky combo. You will see the traditional design in my video - but for now - behold my sassy and unique turkey table decoration! The papers I used are listed below. The real WONDER of this project is my amazing cordless glue gun! Wait till you see it in action!

Here's a view of his glorious fluffy tail feathers. Would these not be adorable name tags for your Thanksgiving table?

I made the video with glee for Jean's tutorial, which you can find here or below. It's such a quick and simple and cute project - how can you resist?

Come on over to Falliday Fest and play with us!

Loveyameanitbye.

#goingrogue

I went rogue on my friend Lori's Falliday Fest challenge because I had this adorable stamp sitting on my desk that I could not resist using.

Her challenge is to use a bird or feathers on your card.

Technically I did use feathers, because I'm pretty sure a small flying pig/bug/man creature's wings have feathers on them, but of course I can't be 100% certain, because I can't find one in the wild in order to study it.

These wonderful whimsical Zinis stamps jumped into my cart when I was buying the new colors of Paper Artsy Infusions.

I think the flying pigbugman actually flitted around my studio this weekend, because I can no longer find the Post-It® note that I wrote my Copic colors on for this card, so I am sorry - I don't have them. But it's pink, orange, yellow and green :).

To put this together, it actually took a few steps. I colored him first on marker paper. Then I cut him out - just his body and the little ends of his antennae. But he had all this scratchy detail I didn't want to lose around the edges and I definitely didn't want to fussy cut those antennae. So I cut the white panel with the Stitched Circles dies. I also cut a circle of the black & white paper from Merry Little Christmas. I glued the circle into the opening, making it a little tilted so his antennae would show up on those white squares. Then I put that into my MISTI and stamped him on the panel - hanging off each edge of the circle a bit. Then I glued down the paper pieced colored images on top of the stamp image. The sentiment is from Prairie Cheer from Power Poppy. I love that sentiment - it's so true. People spend too much time on themselves these days. Send a flying pigbugman to someone - I promise it will make them smile!

Thanks for stopping by!

Oh - and you can win my Arkon giveaway for October one of two ways. Simply place an order in my store using host code  - and you will be automatically entered once.

Then fill out this form below and you will receive one entry - or a second entry if you placed an order. Entries close October 31st at 11:59 PM.

Loveyameanitbye.

Happy Little Trees

I'm so glad Bob Ross is still being preserved in everyone's hearts! I LOVED that show when we finally got a TV in the 80s. I thought he was magical. I loved his calm, funny presence and just his perspective on life. I remember when I found out why he used that quiet voice, and I never would have guessed it.

Having held military positions that required him to be, in his own words, "tough" and "mean", "the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work", Ross decided that if he ever left the military, he would never scream again. (source)

How sweet is that? And his little mountain scenes were inspired by his time in the Air Force.

Just a great influence on everyone's life, that guy. I stream his show on Netflix while I paint just to hear his voice and quirky wisdom. It's so encouraging that an art show - and a really good art show is still so popular.

So the other day when my friend Rachel posted about this stamp set on Facebook, I could not click Buy It Now fast enough!

Did you squeal a little?? I hope you did! I DID!!

How cute is that???

This card was for Dina's challenge today - I had to pick a tutorial that started with the first letter of my name - so I chose our Layered Autumn Leaves tutorial because it's beautiful and it could not be more perfect!

I followed her tutorial pretty much to the letter, but I stamped and masked him first, and then when everything else was done, I removed the mask and Copic colored him with the colors above. Sorry - I know it's a lot of colors, but he's BOB ROSS!

Sitting behind me as I type this is this amazing Funko Pop Bob Ross doll,

and on its way to me is the Bob Ross board game - the Art of Chill

So many fun things, so little time.

I knew Dina would love my challenge sample because she loves him too. So I kept it a secret until this morning when her challenge is live. 

I hope you join us at Falliday Fest - Bob Ross would want you to.

Loveyameanitbye.

Alcohol, Anyone?

No - not a drink silly heads - an INK!!!

Today is the first day of Falliday Fest over at Splitcoaststampers, and it's our favorite two weeks of the year! We have 30 challenges, starting today and going through the 21st, as well as FOUR card drives, and TEN falliday (fall & holiday) tutorials! So I hope you join us!

My challenge today was to pick one of the alcohol techniques out of the tutorials section (just put the word alcohol in the search box) - and there are so many fun ones. Also, our first tutorial of the fest today is on Alcohol Ink Baubles by Heather Telford. I loved that she cut hers into ornaments and holiday scenes, so I used her tutorial for my own challenge sample.

It's been a long time since I got my alcohol inks out and now I'm kicking myself because they are so beautiful.

I especially love them on synthetics like Yupo and Duralar - I used the latter here. You can also do it with glossy cardstock.

But basically I just played and then die cut my pieces with the dies listed below. The sentiment is from Watercolor Christmas and I triple love it!

I filmed my playtime, and in this short video you'll see some tips about timing your ink drops as well as how to get two very different textures on your finished project.

I hope you enjoy it!

Come join me and my friends for Falliday Fest too - it's a ton of fun - you can find lost mojo and get great holiday recipes and time saving tips, and of course the chance to win tons of prizes.

Loveyameanitbye.

Sassy Modern Deer Alert!

Happy World Cardmaking Day!!

This is such a fun crafty time of the year - WCMD kicks off the OFFICIAL holiday crafting season, after all.

I do get to spend today stamping with my crafty friends too.

Last Sunday, on my team Facebook live, I decided to try something fun with the new Merry Patterns Host promotion.

I LOVE this stamp set - it's so graphic and fun - and I decided to do a mashup of my two favorite colors right now - Flirty Flamingo and Lemon Lime Twist.

I think I actually screamed when I lifted the lid of the MISTI and beheld..... MY SASSY MODERN DEER. BEHOLD THIS AMAZING DEER.

I paired him with the Honey Bee Bless Your Heart Set for a big, bold dose of awesome. I will be using this color combo again.

Falliday Fest at Splitcoast starts tomorrow, so stay tuned for that!

Crafty goodness happening right now:

Our buy three get one free Designer Series Paper sale is on!

15% off notecards & envelopes and select stamp sets from today through the 10th. Details here.

Get the Merry Patterns stamp set free with a qualifying workshop - you can do this online, on Facebook, etc.

Now go out there and be sassy!

LoveyameanitHappyWorldCardmakingDaybye.

Elfmojis and Penguins and Kittens OH MY! My Monthly Hero Release & Giveaway

You know what time it is??? MY MONTHLY HERO TIME! My favorite Monday of EVERY month. So this weekend I put on the audiobooks and did some super fun holiday crafting with this month's kit. Now remember - this is a while supplies last kit, but the add-ons live on, so you will see both today. Here's my first card with the kit - the little scenic images in the kit are so incredibly sweet, I was actually a little paralyzed at first about which ones to focus on. But I love making all-year cards with holiday sets, so I thought the little wistful ice images were calling my name for a friendship card. I used two of the Fancy Dies in the kit - mountains and trees - to die cut the background from watercolor paper. The rest is just stamping and watercoloring. I used Schmincke masking fluid and drew a line across the watercolor paper for the shoreline - and another to indicate a snowbank, and then I did all my water and trees. Then I removed the masking fluid and stamped the little fisherwoman and her friend the penguin, watercolored those and the shadows on the snow. The sky is watercolored with fingerpainted clouds with white acrylic paint. All watercolors listed below. The sentiment is from Egg-Cellent, which you can see below.

Here's a picture of what you get in the kit - LOOK AT ALL THOSE STAMPS!

I love the paper this month too - you'll see more in a minute, but this kit is a $70 value for just $34.99, so don't let it sell out on you!

• 6x8 Clear Stamp Set
• 10 Frame Cuts
• 3 Fancy Dies
• 6 sheets 5x7 decorative paper: 3 assorted styles 2 of each
• 1 Thick Lacquer Pen
• 1 Silver Embossing Powder 0.5 oz
• 1 Unicorn white Ink Cube

Now - on to the add-ons - these are available even after the kit sells out. AND - you can buy them all for one click for a 9% discount here. The first one just cracks me up - they are elfmoji! Hilarious little elf emojis saying naughty things. I could not resist. I wish I had these on my phone! Get on that Tim Cook! The set is actually called Irreverent Elf Messages - I love all their irreverent line of stamps. I stamped these in Memento on Crafter's Companion Cardstock and then colored them with Copic Markers (listed below.) I then cut them out with the second smallest Circle Infinity dies. I lined up all the sentiments at once on my MISTI and so I only had to stamp once to get the background done. Then I just glued their little heads all over. Hilarious.

So speaking of elves, they also came out with two other elf sets - one is naughty elves, and one is nice elves. Betcha can't guess what I reached for first!!! Yep - Naughty Elves.

She actually does not look remorseful at all, which I guess is what makes her naughty! This is a good card to see the beautiful textured papers that come in the kit. The silver geometric one I cut with the circle infinity dies, and I love the one with the embossed dots - it's beautiful on both sides - the debossed and the embossed.

The companion set is the Nice Elves set - equally adorable and better behaved. Again I used the paper from the kit and the circle infinity dies.

And one more with that sassy paper, because I couldn't stop. The adorable North Pole Sign Stamp & Cut bundle was too cute to resist. Very quick and easy card too. I stamped the pole in Strawberry ink and then coated it with the lacquer that came in the kit - it's really nice and thick and dries fast. Wish you could see the shine!

I like how ultra-modern it looks with that shiny silver paper - also a little frosty! I attached the signs with mini dimensionals.

Now we move into the "aww" section of the add-ons.

First up - PETS. I squee'd a little when I saw these and knew they had to be mine. Matching cat and dog stockings - officially called Fluffy Stockings Stamp & Cut bundle! Yes, I used the kit paper again - and if you look closely - you'll see - what - is that a mini brad??? Heck yeah it is. Just wait for the comeback!

For these two little guys, I switched to hot press paper and my Schmincke watercolor. Oh and yeah I used the paper from the kit again, but it's the last time, I promise! :D They are a Stamp & Cut bundle, so I cut them out and glued them onto the watercolor washes and then added the brads.

Then - I'd cry if they didn't have paper layering dies, and I can't end this blog post with tears, so... first - a yellow ribbon for a soldier. I took the Santa's Door accessories & frame cuts bundle, and stamped the bow in Butter Bar, and then colored it with Copics (listed below). The next part was really super duper fun. I ran the Paper Layering Wooden Door through my Big Shot on Cold Press watercolor paper. Then I masked off the wall behind the door  with Post-It tape. I painted the door with Schmincke watercolor - Naples Yellow and Yellow Ochre. Then I painted more well defined lines where the notches for the boards are on the die cut with Burnt Umber. Then with both Sepia and Burnt Umber and this crazy awesome brush I got in Santa Fe that has some bristles longer than others - it basically looks like it got a bad haircut - I lightly painted in the woodgrain with long, random strokes.

For the background, I painted on a LOT of Burnt Sienna and English Venetian, and then while it was still very wet, I wrapped an empty watercolor half pan in my damp absorber and pressed that into the wet paint to lift color in that subtle brick pattern. Fun, right?

Then after it was dry, I used a stylus to emboss the back to give texture to the boards in the door and glued the frame onto the card base. Since it's a yellow ribbon, the Welcome Home sentiment in the bundle was perfect! Another all-year card from a holiday set - I can imagine lots of things with this door.

 


I love that card!

So finally - this STUNNING Winter Hearth Stamp & Cut bundle. I cut it from watercolor paper, and then painted the whole thing with just two Daniel Smith colors (listed below). Then, while it was still wet, I took my damp absorber and blotted the stone trim and the mantel and footing to lift color and it gives it the look of stone - so fun. And it's impossible to see the dimension here, but I embossed the back of each brick and it's beautifully textured. I keep patting it. :)

So I'm hopping with some friends and the Hero Creative team to celebrate these amazing goodies today, and of course Hero is giving away a kit to one lucky winner (or a refund if you're subscribed or bought it), so be sure and stop by every blog to leave a comment for your chance to win! The deadline to enter is October 8th at 11:59 PM Pacific time and the winner will be announced the following week. So without further ado - please head over to May Park's blog next - and you can see the whole list here!

The Hero Arts Blog

Jennifer McGuire

Nichol Spohr

Yana Smakula

Kelly Latevola

You are here >> Lydia Fiedler << You are here

May Park

Wanda Guess

Amy Tsuruta

Ilina Crouse

Michelle Short

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Clare Prezzia

Libby Hickson

Loveyameanitevenifyourenaughtybye.