Tons of Love

This card is for Lydia's "Pink Critters" challenge for Hope You Can Cling To...The elephant is from Eureka Stamps and the sentiment is from an elephant set from Firecracker Designs (sadly, they're no longer in business). The image is colored with Touch Twin Markers (colors are shown below), and the background paper is from some Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps packaging. Those toenails are super glitterified! (I noticed after I colored it up that the actual name of the image is "Daddy Elephant".... oops...!).

These are the markers I used:

Quick card

Here's a quickie I forgot to blog... it was for a challenge Firecracker Designs by Pamela had over on Facebook. Random drawing, didn't win, but I finally got to ink up these elephants. I love the artwork in this set! My father-in-law loves elephants, so that has endeared them to me too. You can see the full set by clicking here.

The scene is all done with inks and a prismacolor pencil for shading. The mountain line was sponged, using a torn strip of paper as a mask. My background is a modified scrap-strip background, just with larger chunks of scraps, and sponged and scored edges. That's a button from my hoard, and the woven mat was a local find. The dark brown layer was embossed with a Fiskars texture plate.

Heavy sigh...DH is gone for most of the week, and of course his first day away I was down with an all-day allergy attack. Today I feel a bit like I got hit by a truck... achy all over, headache (I think I clenched my teeth last night), knots in my back. Nice! Still, life goes on - this is a busy week. So thankful to live in a team-community with people checking on me and willing to help. Thankful for strength beyond my own, made perfect in my weakness - 2 Cor. 12:9.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Not Forgotten

I get a little more sentimental when we're away from home on patriotic holidays. I wanted to pull out this set that I designed to pay tribute to those who have fought to keep my country - and other countries - free. Thank you - you are not forgotten.

The set is available from Firecracker Designs by Pamela, and is one of my own designs. Click here for the story behind the main image. I'd like to give this card and a copy of this stamp set away in honor of Memorial Day - leave a comment on this post if you'd like a chance to win! I'll draw a random name Thursday at noon my time - that's Wednesday (5/27) midnight EST.

Challenges and challenges.

This has been a challenging and emotional week...have had some issues for some time with my house helper, and today was her last day - since she is from a tribal area and several of our students are from her same village, many of them involved themselves in the situation, trying to help her change, but she's choosing not to...it is really a long story...and the whole situation has gotten much more complex and heavy than it needed to...needless to say I'm exhausted and I'm just ready to have it over with, learn from it, and move on. *sigh...*

Also, a bit of a crisis in our extended family - if any of you are from Texas you may have heard about an Eagle Pass woman who was in the midst of a messy divorce and has been missing since Jan. 21 - her brother is my sister-in-law's husband, so while she's not a direct relative of mine, this is a really hard time for my in-laws, who have gone to TX to see what they can do to help. You can read more about the situation here ...sad and very scary.

OK - enough heavy stuff. Challenges! I played a couple this week, just for fun. Need some fun in my life, no?! Here's my entry for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge, sketch 53. I picked up this cupcake wreath from Eureka Stamps - cute, huh? The image is watercolored with lots of glitter pen on the confetti. Saying is from Heart & Soul Rubber Stamp Co.

I played the House Mouse challenge too - that's one of my favorites - love those mice and bunnies!! The challenge (#22) was to do some piercing on our cards. That barely shows up in the picture...but there is piercing around the edge, and a little on the little pail, where the handle attaches. The pail and shovel are stamps from Firecracker Designs by Pamela, and the flip-flop border is from Art Impressions. The saying is one of my favorites, from Heart & Soul Rubber Stamp Co. The scene is watercolored with reinkers and watercolor pencils.

Thanks for checking in on me!

Be Still, Be Still.

Be sure to get your black/white/splash of colored cards linked today to the original Day 3 post if you'd like a chance at winning the Swan Song set from Firecracker Designs! I used the poem from the Swan Song set on this card - the other stamp is from a set called Just Breathe, which has got to be my favorite from FCD (in case you were wondering!). I thought it would be cool to have the girl watching a rising moon. The shading is all done with a black Prismacolor pencil blended with OMS, and I colored in her jacket with a red marker. This one got a "WOW" from DH...! Always affirming. ;)

We're planning a quick trip to Singapore next week for some doctor appointments bn(leave Sunday 1/11 and return Friday the 16th) - the planning part has been the quick part of it - somehow it seems like this week only had 6 days in it...not sure how that happened! Anyway - I have some posts scheduled that you won't want to miss...and should have internet access once we get settled there. We get to go through Kuala Lumpur this time, so that will be a new experience (fly to KL and take a bus to Singapore - but we hear the bus is really nice!).

Day 3: Splashes of Color!

Today’s prize package comes from Firecracker Designs by Pamela! When I think of firecrackers, splashes of color in a dark night sky come to mind (reminds me of New Year's Eve here actually - we heard fireworks for at least 5 hours, nonstop!).

For this challenge, use any stamps you want to make a black & white card, with a splash of color.

Come back to this post and leave a link to your card creation in the comment section below. Your card and link must be posted by January 10th at midnight EST.

Prize: Our favorite entry will win the set pictured above! It's called Swan Song.
Bonus Prize: Head over to Firecracker Designs by Pamela and browse, browse, browse...come back and leave a comment here to tell us what your favorite set was. You'll be entered in drawing for a free 2"x3" set of your choice!

Since swans are pretty much...well...black and white with a splash of color, this was my obvious choice to work with...not to mention that this set is bea-u-ti-ful! I found a perfect photo to study for the coloring, and this is the card that resulted.
My scene is watercolored - I stamped the swan first, masked it, then stamped another image on a piece of fun foam and used that to stamp the reverse image below. The saying is from another recent FCD release, and reads, "Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart." I cut the large oval with my Coluzzle template, and trimmed off the left side to make it fit. (Finished card is 4-1/4" by 6".)

Like a Mighty Warrior

FINALLY I get to share this card! This is a set I designed back in July when we were in the States...you can read more of the back story of the set at this post here... <----- Anyway, the set was released by Firecracker Designs by Pamela back in September, but the stamps went to my parents' house in the States, where they sat with some other "to be mailed" stuff until there was enough to fill a package to ship overseas.

Here's my first piece with the set - I decided to go monochromatic on the image, but IRL there's more depth to it. The cardstock I used has a little bit of copper flecking in it - really cool. The shading is done with Prismacolor pencils, blended with OMS. The verse panel was simple to do - I used just a strip of cardstock, stamped, then punched the ends in the corners of my scalloped square punch. The flourish stamp is from Stamp Camp - just needed something there in that panel!

Here is the actual stamp - just wanted you to see how really really deep these stamps are etched! Super high quality. And, BTW - this set is on sale right now, just $7.99! Click here to see the full set.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Maybe roses would make me feel better...

So there were the parasites, and I started taking the meds on Saturday - started to feel better, just weak and medicine-head-y... then Tuesday someone's burning trash triggered my allergies, and knocked me down again...Tuesday night my sinuses rebelled and Wednesday I had a full-blown cold, plus felt dizzy and headache-y (oh, forgot to mention that my 4YO was up Tuesday night puking, and I didn't get any sleep)...and my period started! *whimper* Today...I've got to go in to town with the other ladies to go grocery shopping...I haven't gone shopping since before DH went into the hospital, so it's been 4 weeks, and that was for bare basics. Shelves are getting empty, and I can't send my FULL grocery list with friends...a couple times I've had them pick up basic stuff for me, but we're beyond that now. Sigh........................

So...some roses to make me feel better...and I hope you like them too! All stamps are from Firecracker Designs by Pamela's Paper Roses set...which is on SALE right now (reg. 8.99, now 7.99) This rose is watercolored, but I used a white glaze pen before painting to create some highlights. The glaze ink resists the watercoloring.
One of my best friends bought me that background paper when she was traveling on another island - isn't that sweet? I love those gifts where someone sees something and thinks of me. The text says: "Forever for you...life is a flower of which love is the honey." (Typical Asian English product that doesn't make sense....but it's pretty!) This rose is colored with Prismacolor pencils. It's a challenge to color a white rose!!
Watercolored again. I masked the roses first using the masking fluid Grumbacher's Miskit Frisket. (Please say that out loud for me a couple times - it so makes me smile.......LOL) This allowed me to do the color wash right over the roses instead of having to be so careful painting around them. Nice stuff, and it rubs off just like rubber cement. It's basically liquid latex.

OK - need to get off the "pooter" (as my 2YO calls it) and get my starving son some breakfast (he says the funniest things...he just told me, "MOM, if you're sick and your stomach is empty, you will die!")