overwhelmed.......

I made a stack of these cards for some sweet stampers that sent supplies for a ladies' craft I'm planning for an upcoming workers' conference. I know there are packages that still arrived after my parents left the States...but what they did bring amounted to about a 6-inch stack of patterned paper, 140+ different rolls of ribbon, not to mention stamps, stickers, brads, and other embellishments! I'm so amazed...my husband questions why believers are amazed when God answers prayer, but I think in this case it's because He provided sooooooooo much more than my expectations (girls, God cares about crafts! Whodathunk?) Anyway, if you were a part....thanks for being such a blessing to so many people. (What's left after the conference will be used for stamping times at my house with the students (we serve at an training center and the ladies like to come over and stamp) and to encourage our coworkers on the field.)

Card details! Of course, the mouse is from House Mouse - he's colored with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits. Sweet little guy has sooooooo many jellybeans he can't hold them all - just how I feel! Fence and Grass - Art Impressions clear stamps. The little flowers were made using the fern stamp from SU's Watercolor Minis set. The word "warm" is half a TAC stamp, and "fuzzies" was stamped with Snap Stamps (love those little guys!). Paper - KI Memories Funky Paper Pad. Circles cut with Coluzzle and scalloped circle - Marvy giga punch. Sakura glaze pen on the jellybeans. I like the accent of the brad - but on these ones the posts are so thick - I didn't want it to show inside and it was hard to attach the layer with such bulk behind.

Thanks for stopping in!

Mini Blog Cannoli...........

I'm always plugging My Heart Stamps for You when I get a chance...

...how would you like this lighthouse stamp for your very own? I'll even send it with a sample card...which I haven't made yet, but I'm sure will be lovely...! Remember I have new Twinkling H2Os to play with....

Just wanted to send a stack o' RAKs home with my parents, and thought it would be fun to do a little giveaway too. Here's a card you'll eventually find in MHS4U's gallery using the stamp, just for fun. And what other better reason to have a giveaway than...Chicken Tickling Day?!!

All ya gotta do.....is leave a comment on this post - I'll draw a name at noon on Saturday May 5th my time - that would be approximately midnight May 4th somewhere in the States.

In case you haven't voted yet.....

I keep forgetting to post the link again for the Art Impressions contest. Go on over if you haven't voted yet. Winners will be announced May 1.

http://www.artimpressions.com/Contest.asp

island thanks......

I volunteered (imagine!) to make thank you cards for those who are coming as volunteers for our upcoming conference - this is sort of the prototype, though there's some variation in the paper I'm using as I dig through my scraps. I have 12 to make. For the inside I'm going to use a saying from Eureka Stamps - "Your service to the Lord is appreciated more than you may know - may God bless you as you bless."

The palm tree is from Bad Axe Trading Company - an image I acquired at a stamp convention in MO - they were selling partial full sheets (just a few images cut out of each) for a ridiculously low price and I couldn't resist. The rest of the scene is watercolored with my new Twinkling H2Os - oooooh, are they fun! They're basically shimmery watercolor paints. I'm sad that the shimmer doesn't pick up in the picture, because it's sooooooooo pretty! Uh oh...mama's new obsession...as if the pencils weren't enough! The 'thank you' stamp is from one of the $1 clear stamp sets from Studo G at Michaels - just right for a circle tag.

Glad you all can see me now...! Bless your hearts for continuing to check my blog even when it was messed up! Thank you, and hope you enjoy it even more now........................!

Just one more quick warm fuzzy...

...because when I popped on the computer this morning, my counter said

12345!!

can ya hear me now...?

Those that couldn't see the right hand column before...I changed to one of the preset templates. Now can you see me?

day trip

We took a day trip today up to a mountain village called Pulutan, where pottery is their cottage industry. It was a really interesting trip, and I got a few good shots in that I thought I'd share with y'all. Enjoy!

7 tidbits about me.......

1. When I eat, everything has to come out even...comes from watching my Dad eat - he came from a large, poor family during the depression era, and if they didn't eat this way (ending up with one bite left of everything to eat at the end of their meal) they were punished - kept them from wasting food...somehow I picked it up growing up, and it stuck....not because of a consequence, but because it just seemed more orderly that way.

2. I was born in Indonesia on New Year's Day - the doctor was annoyed because he had been called in from horseback riding in the jungle, so he gave my mom something to speed her labor!

3. 6 days after I was born I had to have a complete blood exchange because of Rh incompatibility. I was declared a stateless alien (my husband says this explains a lot....) because of being an expat and had to be flown to Singapore for the procedure.

4. I have a scar under my chin from falling from monkey bars onto a metal toy baby carriage when I was 3.

5. I almost drowned when I was 5 in a friends' swimming pool, and to this day I hate to have water on my face, even in the shower.

(Mercy, I have led a sheltered but somewhat accident-prone existence - so many times, God keeps proving that He still has plans for me!)

6. I've eaten fruit bat meat, dog meat, jungle rat meat, and goat meat.

7. I've lived in 6 different US States, and set foot in 10 other countries (Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, PNG, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Canada)


8. *BONUS!* We have a new great-nephew (that makes me sound old, doesn't it...?) - Trey David Hilton. Congrats Nigel and Carly!

Enough tagging for me - I'm taking my jumprope and stickers and calling it a day. :) Thanks for playing, everyone, and thanks to Jovita and Shannan for the tags!

Just curious......

I keep hearing that people can't see the first few character columns in my posts and can't see the entire right column (picture of me, email, links, etc)...DH says you need to change (increase) the resolution on your monitor...I don't know how you do that...anyway, how many of you are missing all that good stuff? Or do you see it all? LMK...............

I've been tagged twice now to share 7 juicy tidbits about myself....all I can think of right now is ......tired.....must.....go......to......bed......so - tomorrow, ok?

See ya!

Oooh, I love the bunnies...

I've hesitated posting this card because it was one of those cards - you know what I mean - that seem like a rescue effort rather than a creative process....but so you have something to read today...here are the Happy Hoppers! Jovita sent me a ton of images to play with, and this was the first one I used. Aren't they soooooo cute? I must have them...sigh...

Their little sky background is chalked with a cotton ball - I've discovered that chalk is very forgiving, and you can be a little messy to start and then clean up with a white eraser. Niiiiiice. Prismacolors and mineral spirits to color the bunnies, and then you probably can't see it (maybe up close?) but the wings are filled in with a Sakura glaze pen, and the wings outlined with the stardust glitter pen. I trimmed around the front-ish ears and put a little piece of mounting tape behind so they'd pop out a little. The grass is a Biblical Impressions stamp. Black glitter pen on their little antenna balls. Faux stitching. Black brads to mimic the antennas on the bunny bees. :)

TAC (the Angel Company) made that daisy stamp - I had it laying up on the shelf from another project it never got used on, so it worked in here. God forbid we should throw anything usable away...the B stamp is from EKSuccess (I think), and the Happy is half a Happy Birthday stamp from Stampabilities. The B is really cool IRL - I put diamond glaze over it so it's raised like a button. I'm not really happy with the sentiment part of it all...I had wanted it to say "BEE" of course...appropriate...but I tried it with the 1/4" snap stamps and didn't like it, and after the flower it didn't fit anywhere, so...oh well. The diagonal paper strip (oscraps.com) is a little distracting to me too. The whole card feels out of balance. Ugh! Oh well...

I'm a little stressed out this morning, because my house girl never came home yesterday...we allowed her to go with her relatives to a lunch, which we should never done as she's not been very responsible lately to return when she says she will...she said she thought she'd be able to be back by 4:00 yesterday afternoon and this morning still no sign of her. I don't want to fire her, as her relatives are our co-workers and it would be very embarrassing to them, I really do like her, she's a good worker and easy to live with, and I don't know the situation, blah blah blah.....but I'm really worried and really not too happy about it all. My parents are here and that's becoming a little tensious (did I make that word up too?) too...not to mention the 9 other projects I am trying to work on that are all crammed in my head at once. Yep, sounds like I need some stamping therapy... (Please, can I lock the door?)

tagged again.......

Thanks Jacki and Monica! And also a shout out (a quack out?) to Angie - hey girl! - we were both going to tag each other but saw others already had! (Oh hey, she has blog candy, too...)

Sooooo...should I just bask in the warm fuzzies? Or share 5 more faves?

Paper lantern card

In case you've been waiting to see the end result of my paper lantern inspiration, here it is! (see my previous post for the picture, and my color choices in my sketch book.....) Michelle Giraud challenged her readers to use a magazine ad for inspiration this week, so this fit right in with that theme. Niiiiiiiiiice!

All stamps are by My Heart Stamps For You. It was fun using the 'inspired' panel as an accent rather than a focal or background piece - something new for me. I studied Inge's layouts for a while, and she inspired this one, though I don't think it was taken from any one card. (check out her blog, seriously - she's amazing!)

The Carnation image is colored with Prismacolor colored pencils (blended with their colorless blender) and Derwent watercolor pencils (blended with a Dove blender pen) - just because of slight variations in the colors that I liked. I used Adirondack Denim ink to stamp the carnation on the card panel and to sponge the edges. The navy tab on the left is a corner of a scalloped square punchie. Sort of a serendipitous aferthought, actually...I had another text piece layered on a tab with that punch done on both ends, and I decided to have just one end that way...and cut it off...and then thought...hm! So you'll probably see that little feature again in the future. I like the look of it.

No stamping today as my desk is literally covered with ribbon that YOU sent me for my craft projects at our upcoming conference...literally hundreds of yards of ribbon...and that is not EVEN to mention all the stickers, brads, paper, stamps, etc................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm completely floored every time I look at this "stuff" - and soooooooooo thankful and excited to see how much fun we ladies will have creating with such a wonderful variety...and after that how much fun our students will have creating projects at our table, how many people will be encouraged by making or receiving a handmade card or gift......thanks so much for being such a blessing to so many people by your giving. *mwah!*

A work in progress.......

Here's another peek into my sketch book. I found this paper lantern in a magazine and loved the pattern and colors in it. Into the sketch book for future inspiration...! I have this stamp from My Heart Stamps for You - it's from their "Early American" collection, and there are a couple more flowers that go with it that are a bit more paisley looking (they're coming!). I thought it matched the motif in the lantern pretty well. You can see my scribbles there as I matched the colors as best I could with my Prismacolor pencils and a couple Derwent watercolor pencils.

My stamped piece is there on the desk, with some cardstock to match...that's as far as I got last night and this morning (I have 4 kids and homeschool the oldest, we are in full time ministry, and my parents are coming from the States - today!...needless to say sometimes a card may take several days to get together...).......anyway, stay tuned to see how things turn out...not sure when that will be, but I soooooooooo want to use one of Inge's layouts!

Time for breakfast!

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Donna (Mrs. C of Gingerwood fame)! The idea is to list 5 favorite bloggers, then tag one of them to do the same...just for fun, and to share some inspiration we've been finding with others who might not have linked to them before.

Confession time. I subscribe to over 40 blogs via www.bloglines.com and feedblitz! Here are a few of my favorites that may be off your beaten path.....

http://stampowl.blogspot.com/index.html - she's a relatively new blogger from 'down under' and she's already been tagged, but I really enjoy her stuff! She's a talented photographer too!
http://hopartstudios.typepad.com/hop_art_studios/ - Asela is a talented stamper, artist, and designer. Tons of creative stuff here! Look for her new line of stamps coming to Cornish Heritage Farms soon...
http://lovetocreate.blogspot.com/index.html - I just found Loretta's blog through SCS and her work is beautiful!
http://nuttnhoney.blogspot.com/ - Kim's work and her photography are wonderful - lots of attention to detail, tons of color.
http://papercreative.blogspot.com/index.html - Inge's blog always amazes me - she has wonderful layouts, great colors, and the cutest stamps!

Trish bestowed a "Thinking Blogger Award" on me, which is the same idea - list/tag 5 blogs that inspire you or make you think. Thanks, girl!

Must be PMS.........

Quick post...but had to share this little bit o' inspiration from last night. There's been a thread on SCS, started by someone searching for chocolate chip cookie stamps, and it reminded me of these by Yvonne Albritton Designs. I picked them up at a stamp convention I attended a few times in MO (sigh...). Yvonne's stamps are so fresh and really fun to work with. I loooooove the cookie set!

Snoopy stamp is from Stampabilities. I could relate yesterday...I was searching out every bit of chocolate I could find in the house...even resorted to some chocolate chips in the freezer (precious Toll House ones). Very sad. Definitely PMS. The big choco chip is from Biblical Impressions. Their StraightForward Stamps line is full of all kinds of unique and fun images, and I don't think you could fit another stamp on the full sheets. The "Slice of Cake" sheet is my favorite...love the ladybugs and the cake and those trees! I highlighted the chocolate chips with a white gel pen...then just couldn't resist taking a chomp out of the corner of the card with my scalloped circle punch. HA!

Part of the process.......

I seriously notice color everywhere. Just another one of my little neuroses....! Three shirts together in the laundry basket, some foam sheets my kids threw on the floor and no one bothered to pick up, magazine advertising, books together on the bookshelf...the other day while I was playing soccer three ladies ran together and there was a combo of orange, yellow and sky blue that I noted and you better know it ended up on a card! Color, color, everywhere! (I can't think of any other inspiration that could possibly come from laundry, can you? Seriously.)

I saw this picture in a magazine I was flipping through and was really drawn by the colors in it. How cheery are the combos there?! I matched them as best as I could in my sketchbook, using Prismacolor Pencils and my Derwent Watercolor pencils. Fun to be able to go back and pick out a color combo from the sketchbook to play with when I'm low on inspiration.

I love this little book - it's full of card sketches, wish lists, coloring samples (like how to realistically color a Nuthatch or a Toucan or a Humpback Whale...), font samples, stamping info, and some other stuff too. Maybe someday I'll share another page!

Still not sure about this one.........

OK, girls, honest opinions...how about this card? do you like it? or would your 90 year old grandma like it? I'm so not a 'pink' person, but somehow that is the direction this card went...I loved how the watercolored piece turned out. Surely there was a better way to showcase it...sigh...guess I will have to recreate it...am I the only one that hates to make the same card more than once?

All stamps are by My Heart Stamps for You. (I'm bouncing in my seat...they're sending me mo' rubbah to play with soooooon....but with international postage it will take about a month to get here...! sigh......) I used 2 stamps - the meadowlark and oriental branch...the bird was stamped first and then masked, then I stamped the branch several times around him. I'm pretty sure I stamped it upside-down, but I kinda had to the way he is positioned and facing on the card. I stitched all the layers together with my sewing machine. Dogwoods were part of my care package...I miss the dogwoods after 6 years in the Ozarks...sigh...send me some Spring, please!

splash........!

Here's a card I made a couple of weeks ago to send to a friend on another island. Sorry the picture's not all that great...!

I'd just gotten a great care package from some sweet friends on the Eureka Stamps BB, so there are a few elements of this card that they provided...the photo corners (thanks Jacki!), the Rhonna Farrer stamps (thanks Trish!) and the textured paper (thanks Sarah!).

OK, quick process of this one...the stamp is House Mouse, now carried by Stampabilities (I prefer the originals from Stampa Rosa, but I don't know why, since the images are the same........maybe just the fun of having something that's no longer available as is.........). It's stamped on watercolor paper and colored with Derwent WC pencils/waterbrush. I then masked and drew a horizontal line for the edge of the countertop, then drew some lines from there for tile. The wallpaper is stamped with Rhonna Farrer Flower stamps (by Autumn Leaves). {blah blah blah}...layers, photo corners, ribbon (from Singapore). The saying is done with Karen Foster Snap Stamps (1/8", Casual), and the end of the tab was done based on Asela's fabulous "corner-of-the-scalloped-square-punch" technique...except I had the strip cut before I punched it instead of punching it and cutting after.

There ya go!

Sunflowers, sales, and showers of blessing!

Biblical Impressions has a monthly challenge called "What would you create?". They choose a few of their designs and the challenge is to feature those images on your cards, which they collect in a gallery. There is a little incentive for submitting, too! This month's challenge is to use the sunflower stamps. I only have one of them...so I pulled it out to play this week.

I've done the first card design before, but I used a TAC woodgrain stamp on the fence, so I redid it again with only BI stamps. I used a cloud stencil on the sky before assembling the scene... The flowers were stamped on scrap paper and cut out. The shading is done with Prismacolor pencils. Center flower is 'popped' a little with mounting tape. I used 6 tag punchies for the fence, and how could we have a garden scene without the brad ladybugs? Hmmm?

Card #2 went a completely different direction! Hello! The background paper is a single sheet (2 patterns on it) from the Fruity Fusion paper set from TAC. Woo, bright! I'm not sure where this card came from...though sometimes I do make bright cards to cheer myself up. :) I cut the sunflower image around the front petals this time, and watercolored the bright pink with my Derwents and a waterbrush. I stamped the center on another piece with Citrus Yellow chalk ink, shaded it a little with pencils, cut it out and mounted it on the flower. The stem is one of BI's plaid lines (which - did you know - I designed!). I stamped Celebrate on a scrap piece, and trimmed the ends using my scalloped square punch. Couple eyelets, little ribbon, done!

Speaking of BI, their monthly special is none other than my alphabet set! Yep, I designed that too (aww, warm fuzzies that it is their favorite!!). It's regularly $17.50 but is on sale this month for only $9.50. Such a deal. :)

Hey, while I am rambling...I got an email from my mom about the supplies that have been sent for her to bring over for my ladies' craft project in June - she has 35 spools of ribbon and a 2-1/2" stack of patterned paper - and there are still 4 or 5 packages en route that I know of! Wow! God is good, and you all are sooooooooooooo generous! Thank you so much - I know the ladies that have signed up for the craft (which is about 40 right now) will be so blessed, and we are gonna have some fun together! Can't wait!

New blog alert!

I decided (OK, everyone was doing it......) to consolidate my watermark designs on a separate blog. So...drumroll...may I present to you........

The link is http://digisigis.blogspot.com.

If you're a happy customer (or if you just really like me) and you'd like to have this button as a link on your blog, let me know and I'll send you the html...I tried to put it here and it just keeps installing the button in my post! Erg.........

Sea turtle birthday

Time to pull out the long-neglected stamps from My Heart Stamps For You. I'm proud to be a designer for their company - if you happen to see them at a stamp convention, I hear they are toting my cards around....! They have a great variety of stamps, from Victorian to nautical to cute to...ok, they have it all. :) I'm slowly compiling a new stack of cards for them that I can send home with my parents (the times I've sent cards from here, it's been like $28 for postage!).

Soooooo.....here is the turtle! I don't think I've use the turtle before (I received several sheets of stamps as a prize for winning their card contest a couple of years ago)! I stamped him on watercolor paper, and did a watercolor wash (lots of water applied to the paper before painting) all around him. After I got the color the way I wanted, I sprinkled rock salt on the paper and let it dry completely. Here's a photo tutorial of the technique - why reinvent the wheel? I watercolored the turtle after the rest of the piece was dry.

Then the fun began. :) I sketched a swirly swim trail behind him and pierced it with a pin. It just wasn't enough. More lines with the stardust pen. Ehhh. So I went back in with my white gel pen. Still. I watercolored a few turquoise lines. Hmm. Broke out the Sakura glue pen, swirled some more and added the glitter. Ahh, yes.

That patterned paper is from www.oscraps.com - the Mint Julep collection - gotta love freebies! And I love the little turquoise gems at the top - they are meant for nail art or something - I got them at my daughter's favorite store (remember, "Naughty" - Indo's answer to Claire's?). They're rounded, not beveled. So cute. And that ribbon I think is my new favorite color...! What color is that, anyway?

sknxxxxx.................

Sweet little man - I am totally relating to this.

Imagine..........

Every time I walk by my desk I start singing the Beatles song...and since I don't agree with premise of the song, it's driving me crazy that it's stuck in my head! Now the card...this I like. :) All stamps are from smARTworks. I could not resist the kitty set - there are 2 cats and then some teeny creepy-crawlers that they seem to be looking at - a butterfly, a caterpillar, and a snail. Very, very cute. :) Many more scenes in my head for them to fill...but not today!

The scene is done on watercolor paper. I colored the cat and butterfly in with watercolor pencils. I used ink from my Adirondack Lettuce ink pad to fill in the field, then stamped over it while it was wet with a stamp of some grass and flowers (partial stamp). The clouds are watercolored. "Imagine" is stamped with Colorbox Fluid Chalk ink (I think it's the pad I reinked with the wrong color). I drew in the fence and blended it in a little. Stripe paper is a free download from www.oscraps.com, and the green is local "buffalo" cardstock.

The butterfly has a pierced swoopy trail. You can see it a little better in the closeup. I sketched it in with a pencil and pierced it with a pin, then carefully erased the line. Fun, huh?

She's got warm fuzzies...........

Do you ever make cards you can't bear to part with? I think this is going to be one of them...as I made this one I just so badly wanted to be that little girl! She is definitely feeling the warm fuzzies of a sweet spring day.

This little sweetie is from Art Impressions. She's part of a front-back set - so yes...I have a stamp of her full backside, too, top to little bare toes. Ooohhh...ideas are flowing for a tri-fold card...but not tonight. Anyway, her front view is just from the waist up, so she's meant to be behind a fence or in a window, etc. The fence is also from Art Impressions...I can't remember but I think it is from the Watercolor stamps. The girl (ooh, she needs a name - OK, let's call her Penny, since that was the last girl name choice when we had a boy...) and the fence are colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with OMS. Oh, that green vine is also from AI. The flower stamp is one from a set of clear 'pressed flower' stamps I got on Ebay - I don't know what company or what seller, sorry! The grass is from Biblical Impressions (StraightForward line) and the butterfly is a piece of a smARTworks stamp.

The paper is a free download from www.scrapbookbytes.com, from a collection by Keely Simpson called Mommy Dearest. I covered most of it up but this piece has big dotty paisleys on it. Fun stuff. I was surprised the ribbon matched it so well - when I got that ribbon I thought it was a kind of weird orange, but hey...it works! The sticker came in a care package, and I thought it was fitting.

My parents are coming to visit in a couple of weeks, and Mom was telling me about the packages that have come for me that she's bringing over...several have arrived containing donations of paper, ribbon, embellishments, etc. for the craft projects for our upcoming conference, and there are also several things that I've ordered that are mixed in.....a sheet of stamps and Twinkling H20s from Merry Stamper, my prize package from smARTworks, a few unmounted stamps from CowTown Stamps (I was ordering stickers for a kids' craft, and the stamps were only a dollar each...as if I could resist...), and some other stuff I can't remember now because it's past my bedtime! Fun, fun, fun! (except for the voice of my Mom in my head laying a guilt trip on me....tell me I'm not the only one....)

Happy Easter! He Is Risen Indeed!

**more** Spring!

OK, time to show off some Art Impressions stamps. I had to have this bird when I placed my Art Impressions order - she just makes me smile with her sassy little hat. Tooooooo cute. She's colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with mineral spirits. There is a little bling on her hat, too.

On to the watering can. I decided to try out Art Impressions' new clear stamps. The watering can and the flowers and leaves are all from their Watercolor line. I've eyed that line for some time and resisted so far...because I could tell that if I started buying them and *loved* them, I would just have to keep getting more. Well...they are that fun. The stamps are designed to use with waterbased markers, but I've been using my inkpads and they work that way too - just ink, stamp, and blend a little with a waterbrush or blender pen. So cool. I actually just colored the watering can in with pencils on this one, but I did one for practice with a waterbrush, and it looked really cool. So...oops! Oh, if you haven't watched the clips from the video on Art Impressions' site - you've got to see how easy they make it look to use the watercolor stamps!

The background paper is a free download from Scrap Artist called Sanded Florals. You can download it here (sorry, not sure if you have to be a member to see that or not...but you can register for free). There's another brad ladybug, too. I remembered the spots this time!

I've since added a buckle closure and a saying to this card, but I thought I'd post it like this - I liked it plain, too, and I'm not sure that I like it better embellished...but it is what it is. :) Thanks for looking!

Spring!

Tell you what, I miss seasons here...here we have "rainy season" and "hot season". Nothing at all like the change from winter to spring...though during "hot season" my books and clothes don't smell as moldy! Here are my first creations with my newly aquired stamps...guess this is how I'm dealing with missing Spring in the Ozarks. :)

I'll share 2 cards tonight and then I'm going to bed...save the rest for another day! These 2 cards were made using some of my new stamps from smARTworks - these were really fun to work with! I love doing these little close-up wildflower scenes, and there are several sets in the catalog that are perfect. *Lots* of possibilities. I started by stamping the grass stamp multiple times till I got the effect I wanted. That ink is ... Versacolor? It's dark in here now and my 3YO is sleeping on the floor, so I don't want to turn on the light and look. The name of the color is Bamboo, I do remember that. I sponged along the bottom to fill in a bit. The flowers are inked using Colorbox Fluid Chalk inks - Pastel Olive, Pastel Pink and Citrus Yellow. I did cut the yellow flower off from the stem so I could angle it differently. I have a terrible habit of cutting my stamps up...one of the benefits of an unmounted stamp system...

Did a little shading with Prismacolor pencils. Is that ladybug too cute? There is a set of 3 different sizes, and he is the smallest. Perfect - life size! Who doesn't love ladybugs? I used my glaze pen on him so he's a little bit shiny. Cloud stencil for the sky, and the saying is stamped in Stazon Jet Black, only because I could reach it and it gives such a good crisp image.

The 2nd card is a 3" square. That is a fun little size to work with! The main scene was done at the same time as the other one...this card actually intended to look the same as the 1st one, but the sentiment stamped terrible, and crooked too, so I had to improvise, and trim a bit. :) The sentiment and the flower are popped using mounting tape.

That ladybug is one of my favorite ways to use a brad. Draw the little head and antennae first, then poke that little booger through, draw a couple dots with a permanent pen (oops - this one didn't get any dots!) and you have yourself a cute little ladybug. I needed some pink gingham ribbon, but I don't have any (RAK, anyone?!)...it needs something off to the right from the "grow". Oh, on both the cards I flipped the main panel over and scored 1/8" from the edge. For some reason when I'm not doing a lot of layering that makes up for it. Maybe it's just me.

That is a new watermark too - I haven't had a chance to post it yet, but it is available. I like the delicate, subtle flourish. That would be #20 if you want to request it. $3.00! How can you resist?

Thanks for checking in on me!

rollin', rollin', rollin'...............

Check out the counter - it's over 10,000 hits! How fun is that?

happy mail day!

Look what was in my mailbox today! This is 2 prize packages from Art Impressions, and also my order from smARTworks...lots of *new rubbah* to play with!!! Can't wait to sit down and trim it all. It's been a rough day for some reason...one of those days I really needed a lift. I also got a fat stack of Happy Hopper images from my blogging friend Jovita (thanks, girl!)! Better get busy trimming!

Love your neighbor..........

Well, today our neighbor cut down our papaya tree!

I'm still a little puzzled by it...we have 2 papaya trees (now 1-1/2) in our back yard, by our side wall. If you don't know how papayas grow, the trees basically grow straight up, they have a tuft of leaves at the top and then the fruit grows underneath the leaves. The taller the tree, the higher the fruit.

We are not huge papaya fans, and one of the trees had gotten too high to reach from the top of our rickety ladder, so fruit from that tree was probably frequently falling to the other side of the wall. I guess the neighbors got fed up with it. If they had come over and said something, we would have gladly taken care of it, no problem. Instead...this morning my helper told me while I was homeschooling my son..."Ibu, the neighbors cut down your papaya tree..." I laughed unbelievingly, and went on...when I went to look at it, it was true - they had cut the tree off right at the level of the wall. Below the tree on the ground was the top portion of the tree, which had previously had quite a bit of unripe fruit - they had apparently cut that portion first and cut off all the fruit. They had taken and kept the fruit that was ripe enough to be edible, then threw the rest in the corner of our yard, with the lower portion of the trunk, which I'm guessing was cut separately. They have not yet said a word to us.

The friends that we've talked to said that our neighbors' actions are not culturally appropriate, and they were surprised too - that made us feel better...at least we hadn't totally missed something! Not sure what our reaction should be...but we are feeling more motivated to continue to understand this culture we are living in!

voting is open.......

Art Impressions' contest theme this month is "Everything Java". Some cute entries this month - vote for the one you think is best!

Just to enable you a little.........

Ribbons and Bows Oh My has all their grosgrain ribbon 20% off until April 7th...they have a ton of colors to choose from, great quality and service, and the price is reallllllllllly good. Be sure to check out their other stuff too...but here is the link to the sale.

I won!

I got the news today that I won first prize in the first ever card contest at smARTworks! How fun is that? Here's my entry - be sure to see the other winners here - I really like the coloring on the 2nd place card. It looks like a velvet painting. Jacki and I (back in the day, sigh...) designed some card kits for Biblical Impressions using that technique with their solid flower and fruit stamps...the kits were never marketed after all (too many problems getting the supplies), but the owners of BI were very generous in providing us the cardstock and pencils and inks to play with as we created! Anyway - thanks Susan! I'm looking forward to having some new rubber and pretty acrylic blocks to play with and show off here soon - if you haven't checked out smARTworks and ordered their catalog, you are missing out! Stay tuned for more samples in the near future! (Here was the original post on the card in case you missed it and need more creative details..........)