Really.

This little grumpy fairy from CowTown Stamps totally cracks me up... and I know we all have days like this! I watercolored the image, and cut the oval with a Coluzzle template, leaving the wings intact to trim out with scissors. My new favorite thing is this drywall tape that I found at the hardware store - this is a finer and softer mesh than the old drywall tape I had (remember Magic Mesh?!), not sticky, nice and canvas-y. plus it cost me less than a dollar here... it formed a faux bow pretty easily, and works for a shabby chic sort of look. The sentiment is from Heart & Soul Rubber Stamp Co.

Here's a close-up on that pouty little face. Which reminds me to tell you that I used my Derwent Graphitint pencils with a waterbrush in addition to the regular watercolor pencils, and it worked great. (It's the dark eggplant around the edge.) I painted the wings with Shimmerz.Looking at the close-up reminded me, too, that I made that striped panel using the Thick and Thin Cover-a-Card from Impression Obsession - stamped it once in the lilac ink then scooched it over to the edge of the first stripe and stamped in sand ink.

Sooooooo thankful for the weekend... this was a busy week, with new student orientation (we have 23 new students!) and getting lesson plans and books ready for a new home school year! Finally got our school books last Saturday after a 3 week ordeal with Fedex/customs, and realized............. I forgot to order math books. Thankfully that small order seems to be sailing through, so hopefully we'll be ready to go on time this Monday. Still kind of finding my feet, and leaning HARD on the Lord..but moving forward!!

Have a great weekend..................

Spring Things

Busy days and weeks make me long for a quiet hour or two, and a chance to unwind by coloring at my stamping desk. I've been waiting to work with this beautiful line-art stamp from CowTown Stamps... Laurel frequently updates her Dollar Sale page (overstocked stamps - there are over 500 designs in there right now~!) , and since I found a few 'needs' in there, I thought I'd look around for a few other images as well, you know... to justify the postage. Heh heh...


This stamp image is called "Spring Stuff" - I chose a buttercream cardstock to stamp it on, then colored it in with Prismacolor pencils, blending with odorless mineral spirits. The colors I used are charted below. I like the idea of coloring on a colored or patterned cardstock - I'll have to play with that some more. Hopefully next week I'll have some time to 'find myself' again...! Here's some more of my Mom's stash of trim, and a tiny scrap of grosgrain ribbon from my ribbon jar. I cut the scalloped edge with decorative scissors (gasp!).

I'm halfway through my week - DH has been helping with the health class these last few days, since he has lots of first aid and first response training. That's been good. Glad to have him help me, as my first response is normally to freeze and cry...!

Speaking of DH, we got encouraging news yesterday, and a plan to move forward with his language study in preparation for team-teaching in the Fall. Teaching is his love and his heart, and he had been asked to step out of the classroom for some time to improve his language, so it's exciting to see that the plan is in place for him to begin teaching again next semester. I'm so proud of him!!!!

P.S. On the pencil codes below - PC are Prismacolor, LF are also Prismacolor but their Lightfast line. Pablo is a line put out by Caran d'Ache.

Shabby Chic...giraffe?

Hm. Not so sure that shabby chic is me. Also not sure that "giraffe" says shabby chic to me. But...a couple ideas collided - one was a card I saw with a zebra head coming out of a circle window, and the second was Julee's card layout and contest here. I've had this poor sweet giraffe from smARTworks hiding out in a priority envelope on my desk for weeks...so he finally got to come out to play. :)

Stamp credits, first of all:
Giraffe, saying, and leaf in circle background - smARTworks
Flourishes - Rhonda Farrer Flower set
Leaf - CowTown Stamps

I was given some Versamagic dewdrop pads, and I finally broke those out. I remembered a technique that was demo'd at a stamp convention where white chalk ink (Colorbox fluid chalk though) was used in a resist technique on glossy paper. Stamp image in white chalk ink, let dry, then DTP darker chalk ink over the top, and buff off the chalk finish with a cotton cloth. Well...it didn't work with the Versamagic ink. I used a cotton ball to buff off the finish, and ended up buffing off the ink...though some ink did stick to the white ink - that was sort of interesting. I couldn't throw it away of course...so the vertical strip across is my "eek" piece. I did find that the Versamagic white ink did well with Colorbox fluid chalk inks rubbed over the top. Beautiful. you can see the results in the left panel. But...maybe a tutorial for another day, k?

The Versamagic pads, by the way, are gorgeous colors, and the ink is really rich. I just got a little frustrated trying to open the darn things - the lids are so airtight that they create little vacuums, and they're hard to get a hold of and pull off. I'd end up half flinging them across the desk pulling so hard, then stick my fingers in the pad trying to rescue them. It was a messy night, let me tell you.

Thanks for visiting! Don't forget the blog cannoli...............!

Why in the world did I make a valentine?

Seriously I have no idea. It just happened. It's not really my husband's style and my kids are too little to appreciate it (to my satisfaction, anyway!), and I can't afford $2 each time I want to send a card to the States...BUT ANYWAY...I made this totally cute valentine and here it is! Maybe I'll send it to myself, like I did my birthday card...LOL!

The circle and half circle are cut with my coluzzle, and I also used my Marvy giga scalloped punch. That little frog is from www.cowtownstamps.com, and he originally was holding an envelope, but I cut through it and put the little heart in his paw instead (Biblical Impressions). The grass stamp is also BI, and I used a cloud stencil and chalks for the background. On the red panel - the heart swirly stamp was a gift-with-purchase from TAC (last year? year before?). The saying was from a SU set called Have a Heart, which I only have part of (thanks Jacki!) and that is only half the stamp...the other half has a cutie little frog with a heart in his mouth, and I may just have to make another valentine with him...!

Thanks for checking in on me!