Show Time!

A few of my Hope You Can Cling To cards reflect a red-black-white color rut I found myself in one day.......... but it was a fun rut, and the cards match, so I want to share!

The first card was for a music challenge, posed to us by Tenia, who is a professional jazz pianist. I had a card similar to this sketched in a notebook I always carry with me when we're out... I thought this would be a fitting time to try it! I used the smallest Flags die from Impression Obsession to cut out the keys, and freehanded the curve of the piano with scissors. The sentiment is from Flourishes' Tag Lines set.

The stamps for my second card are from Hambo Stamps, one of the sponsors of our card drive this month! Hambo Stamps are brilliantly 'punny,' and perfectly appropriate for a challenge entitled "You Have Me In Stitches!"

I actually used my crimper on this card - I can't remember the last time I pulled that out! The tag and scalloped edge are both dies from Impression Obsession as well (Border Duo 2, Mini Rectangle Tags 1). 

I used an oval diecut for the spotlight 'spot,' and cut a vellum triangle to show the rays. Tied it all off with some twine from the Twinery! Fun stuff. The main image is watercolored with Inktense pencils.

Hope you're having a great weekend!



P.S. I'm also entering this in this month's DIE-CUTS challenge over at Oozak!

Surprise!

Hambo Stamps has a special little funny place in my heart, as you may know... well, Monica is the owner of Hambo Stamps and tomorrow is her birthday!! A few of us got together and decided to throw a little surprise party for her, and we would like you to join us..... it's a birthday blog hop! The party starts at Jenn's blog - you'll want to start there so you don't miss anything.

If you arrived here from Libby's blog, you're doing great.

Every birthday has to have presents, and this one has one for you! One random hopper that completes the hop will receive a Hambo Birthday surprise! The winner will be announced at the Hambo Hoedown on Wednesday, August 17.
I absolutely cracked up when Tim presented this little Amish man as a digital stamp... had to have him... so he is making his blog debut here today. I created sentiments of my own, for a belated birthday card (even though it's early here... it just fit so well... I would probably even send it late on purpose!). The font I used is called Mountains of Christmas. I colored the image with Touch Twin Markers... did a little experimenting with applying the marker ink with a brush, scribbling it on a palette then using rubbing alcohol on my brush to lift the color... it was worth trying again! Just takes a little practice, since the alcohol evaporates very quickly!

And the inside:

Now you're off to Karin's blog! Thanks for stopping by!

A mime is a terrible thing to waste.

Time for another Hambo post... sooooo fun guest designing for them this month - thanks, Tim and Monica! My first card is a hybrid card... the storefront is a digital background (which is really handy and easy to resize for different formats), and the sentiment is stamped (you can find the Mime stamps at this link (I almost typed 'oink', which was unintentional, but... oddly appropriate!) - scroll down to the "Triples" section).
All coloring is done with Prismacolor pencils. (Normally I'd have a list of colors that I used... it's lost somewhere on my desk! When I find that list, I'll add the colors in.) Oh, I did add the black border around the focal panel with a Touch marker... just needed 'something' to separate the colored panel from the pattern of the background paper but didn't want to add another layer. On the street area, I did a rubbing on the textured metal sheeting we have on the back of our bathroom door. I made a simple pop-up card, and in keeping with the mime theme, the card is otherwise blank inside. Hehe...!! I added a message panel on the back of the card just for fun.

Here's a close-up on the mime...
I made a quick one-layer card, too, while I had my stamps out. The image is colored with Touch Twin Markers. I masked off a circle and stippled around it with some yellow ink to create a little spotlight.

Cute little sentiment, too. Thanks for visiting!

Hambo Stamps - an uplifting post.

This month I'm excited to be doing a couple guest posts for Hambo Stamps! Their stamps range from cute to incredibly punny, the creative genius of Tim and Monica Hunter.

I chose this elevator digi set to work with first - because it cracked me up. My Dad's family members are all hopeless punsters, and it passed on to my brother and me as well. So the elevator set, with its sentiments, "Feeling down?" and "Thought you could use a lift!" really hit the right button with me. (ba-dum-pum.)
Coming up (*groan*), some of the steps I took (sorry, I can't help it).......... I printed the elevator image several times on patterned paper and pieced the scene together, then die cut all the layers at once. I added height (sorry) with foam tape, and also by embossing and scoring. There is Crystal Laquer on the dial and the buttons. I carried a couple of elevator themes to the card front too - the 2 buttons.... and the music!
The inside sentiment was cut out with a Spellbinders tag die, which also holds open the easel card (oh man, that one was unintentional!).

Thanks for visiting today! (and forgive me for sinking to this level......oh, there I go again!)