"Open Your Heart" Gatefold* Tutorial

I am so excited to share this original design with you today. Please stick with me through the many pictures, there is a bit of a "wow factor" at the end! It is not that hard or time-consuming to put together (once I figured out exactly how I wanted it!) You'll need the heart Nestabilities, Scor-Pal, embossing folder of your choice and some oval punches (SU!) for this project. (I was also inspired by a couple of my favorite new papers from Paper Temptress to create this special card. ) You'll need two large die cut hearts the same size and slightly larger scalloped mats to layer each. Here I used Poison Ivory Iridescent and Wild Cherry Pop Tone CS.

Then you need to score both hearts and mats down the middle, lining up the "v" at the top going down through the point at the heart bottom.

Create a gate fold card with the Poison Ivory base with 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece, scored at 2 1/8" and 6 3/8". When folded, the sides meet in the middle. Next I embossed each side with the Leafy Branch Cuttle bug folder. You have to do each flap separately, so emboss your left flap with the left side of the folder(shown below), then repeat with the right, so when they are folded together you will have a continuous pattern across the two flaps.

Now emboss both of the ivory hearts with the same pattern. Place in the spot in the folder where you'll be adhering them on the card (middle, and slightly closer to the top than the bottom), this way the pattern will be continuous when mounted. Adhere each heart to your red scalloped mats.

Put adhesive on only one half of the back of each scalloped heart, one with adhesive on the left side, one on the right. (I used Dot nRoller, but Scor-Tape or Mono Multi will work too)

Fold your scores and adhere your hearts so they wrap around the folds with the adhesive half on the inside. (so you place the heart with adhesive on right back half onto the left panel, and the one with it on the left back half to the right side) When the card is closed, it looks like one heart.

I stamped my greeting "forever" from "Say it with Flowers" and framed it up in 2 SU! large and small oval punch outs (did the same with "friends" from this set for the inside, you'll see in a minute). Then I placed a dimensional on the edge of the left flap in the middle to attach the left half of my oval punched greeting so it will overlap the opening. I did the same thing on the right heart INSIDE, so as it pulls apart, the two ovals kind of "mirror" each other shown below.

If you've ever made a gatefold card, you know it doesn't want to stay closed(and can be really hard to photograph!) To keep it together, I attached a Basic Gay magnet to the right half of the front oval punch, and the other magnet behind the heart on my right flap so that's hidden between the heart and front of the card. The nice things about magnets, you don't have to see exactly where to attach it on the back of the heart, just peel off the adhesive and hold it behind the heart without touching the paper, then move the magnet on the oval towards it, it will jump right into place and snap shut!

I wanted to repeat the red in a few other places and add some embellishments so I punched out a few fancy corners for each flap at the bottom and adorned then with vanilla sateen flowers and a halfback pearl (all attached with glue dots). Don't the flower and the punch look made for each other? I love this flower with the embossing!! And hopefully you can see from this pic why I adore the Poison Ivory so much, it is the exact sheen and shade as these flowers, the sateen flowers add such elegance to a project and the Poison Ivory is like having whole sheet of it!

I added my pearls to each of the framed sentiments as well. Below you can see how the card is holding together with that magnet, ready to spring open at your touch!

And here is how the hearts unfold from each other, revealing the lined inside, this is the Red Pepper Classic Columns CS from Paper Temptress. Beautiful embossed stripes (without having to emboss!), in 8 1/2 x 11 size! This piece is trimmed down to 4" by 5 1/4". (All papers in today's card are in the Paper Temptress Valentines Day Package but can also be purchased separately.) I just love how you still get to see that gorgeous leafy embossing from the front of the card on both the hearts and the flaps on this inside with this design!

I intend to put a picture of my husband and I inside with another framed caption, but still deciding on just the right pic, back with that later! Not just for Valentine's Day, wouldn't this design make the perfect wedding invitation, announcement or anniversary card? And as for symbolism, I'm just over the moon about the whole "two hearts coming together to make one" theme this has going on, you know?? (as well as how they still can be separate, and how in a relationship you need to have open hearts, blah blah blah!! **LOL!) It is such a thrill to come up with a design that not only pleases me aesthetically but also echoes the occasion I am trying to capture, for me it is one of the very best part of the card- making experience!

I hope you'll give this design a try, if so please let me know, and link your creation here! Have a beautiful day!

*which title is better for this? that or "Sweethearts Gatefold"? hmmmm...

** "opposites attract"?? hee hee!!!

"And then I said...

...I'd rather be eating chocolate!" (That always makes ME feel better!) Here is my newest creation with BCDzyns "And Then I Said" and two of my own stamp sets: "Say it with Flowers" and "Little Tees" (you can swap out "Just So Sporty" or "Tee Talk" for her jammies top here though with the word you like best!)
For awhile I'd been thinking this image leaning forward kind of looked like she needed to be lounging in some fabulous bed, so after coloring and cutting her out, I placed her on a piece of this Black Market Lucky 'n Love DP to create my sheet and pillow, and sketched a very simple silhouette as if she's half laying on her side, propped up ( nice and "hippy"! LOL!) and a few lines to the left to look like a pillow. Once you're happy with the shape, adhere to the DP and cut this out. (If you look up at the finished card, I trimmed a little more off than I originally drew under her arm, just keep playing with the shape til you get it the way you want. ) I placed another piece of paper from this pack below her to look like the fitted sheet on the mattress and adhered all that to my Pure Luxury 80 lb CS. Another Black Market print, Taken with Teal Base and sateen flower colored with an aqua Copic and rhinestone brad complete the card! (You'll also the in the finished card I added some shadows with a gray copic to the DP under her body and arm, and a nice little "dent" from her head in the pillow) :)

Thought this would make a perfect "get well" or "cheer up" card, or even a (ahem!) "come hither" card for Valentine's day! I'll be back with that one later, (but don't worry, this blog will still be rated "G") ;) I may take some step by step pics of it to show how I color her with the Copics :) Hope you enjoyed this, have a great day!

TIP: If using a pen, err on the side of "bigger" than you want the first time when sketching your shape, you can always come back in smaller with your line. If using a pencil, once you are pleased with the outline, go back over it in a black pen, so you have an outline to match the stamp.

PS ONE more day to enter the Paper Temptress give away! Don't forget to scroll down and check it ut if you have not yet already!

Playing with Purple: Paper, Ink, and Copic Tutorial

I'm trying lots of new purples today, papers and inks. here is a purple color comparison for you with a few Pop Tones shades and a few SU! shades to give you an idea of their true colors. I'll be using these two Paper Temptress purples in today's sample, Grape Jelly and Grapesicle. (I thought the Grapesicle might be similar to Almost Amethyst, but not when I pulled it out, Amethyst looked really BLUE! it's like an icy purple("Grapesicle", get it??)

Some new purple Copics today, too (all labeled with V for Violet, I found some nice shades to go with the Pop Tone purple papers (say that five times fast LOL!)

Today I stamped my flower from "A Year of Flowers" in , drumroll please, a PURPLE ink, Elegant Eggplant! I know, waterbased, such a rebel!!) But I don't worry about bleeding if I'm coloring with similar shades, and this will soften the look for my card. We'll see! ;) I quickly traced the lines in my petals with VO4, starting at the middle. working outwards. I left the tips white. Oh and BTW, I'm not blending everything today (I know, there I go again!!! it works with this image)

Here I colored in the middle with Y08. TIP: I added a little BV00 outside for a shadow(and over the V04), now that I have all these different pale Copic shades, it's really pretty to pick he very lightest shade you have of a color you are already working with for your shadow, here a very pale violet, instead of always using gray. (If using blues, pick a blue shadow, etc) In real life, in certain lights shadows really do take on a bit of the object's color, very cool...

Now I added my stems and leaf. I colored these in with one coat of YG23 and then went over the area I wanted to be darker with that same color, under the blossoms and the bottom of the leaf. You'll notice there is a deeper purple and yellow in the flowers, sorry I forgot to get that pic! I used Vo6, concentrating on the middle and worked only about half way out on the petals this time. I used YR23 on the underside of the flowers middle to keep the yellow center from looking so"flat".

Last I added G94 to those darker green areas and my BV00 around the stem and leaves. I liked it before, but adding the darker green just gives it more POP!

The base is embossed with CB Floral Fantasy and the mats use Labels One Nesties. I wrapped some SU! moss grosgrain around it and added a little tag using "love" from the "A Year of Flowers" set on an oval punched tag with a brad I colored to match with my YR23 Yellow Copic. The markers are looking a lot pinker here than IRL, does approximate the paper colors nicely. While I love my SU! coordinating cardstocks, I am really enjoying these new Paper Temptress colors, especially now that I have so many shades of Copics I want to play with that are quite different from SU!'s 48.

I enjoyed "breaking the rules" a little bit today! Hope it inspires you to try different things... if you like the way it looks in the end,... why not?? ;)

Tempting Sentiments & Paper! (AND a CHALLENGE!)

This giveaway is now closed. Check this post to see if you won! :)

I am thrilled to have Patricia from Paper Temptress involved today, she has generously offered THREE packs of paper, each valued at 19.99, so today we will have three winners, woo hoo!! The Pop Tones 2 cardstock pack is a sampling of all 24 of the Pop Tones colors (you get two of each!) and I'm totally diggin' on the mouthwatering names and shades. Here are some of my faves from this pack! (colors can be purchased individually too!)

I will be back later to show you in a separate post more color comparisons for you to help you get a better feel for these shades, but I will include some for today's sample! (AND, my new Copics arrived today so my Ciao collection is complete! (hip hip hurray!) I would like to do a color match of these with the Paper Temptress shades for you ASAP, I'll let you know when i'm done!)
Berrylicious is a dead ringer for one of my faves, the RETIRED Cool Caribbean!! (no need to hoard your stash anymore!) Snow Cone is a great alternative to the also RETIRED Soft Sky!! How many of you have both matching inks already, LOL!! ;)

The Tangy Orange is such a vivid red-orange. you cna see how much brighter it is than SU!'s rust. I had to throw the Ruby Red in the pic, because the brown of the rust had me thinking it was like ruby, until I put them together.. .nope! so much brighter! love it!

Gumdrop Green is almost a perfect match ot Su!'s retired Wild Wasabi... :) me like!!

Today's sample uses a quote from my "Say it With Flowers" greeting set. When I selected "When words escape, flowers speak", for this set (which I LOVE!!) I honestly was thinking more about those hard to write sympathy/loss cards. But as I wanted to work in some of these colors for today's sample, I realized there are many happy times too that you just can't say enough how much you mean what you're feeling! So I'm using it on a "fun" card for the first time, I love how exuberant it, turned out, says "happy HAPPY!" loud and clear!

All DP is Basic Grey Cupcake, I was able to find three great matches in these prints for my new Pop Tones papers! I also really wanted to use the Basic Grey Cupcake Glazed Brads I love but have been neglecting, so I poked those through a sateen flower and punched two more for flowers using an EK Success punch out of an ivory distressed print in the same Basic Grey pack. I framed up my quote first in a Square Nestabilitie and added the three flowers below with glue dots. Then I alternated scalloped and classic die cut layers of both DP and the Paper Temptress colors: Tangy Orange (love this fiery shade), Snow Cone ( so close to SU!'s retired Soft Sky (if you're having with withdrawal LOL!) and Gum Drop Green. Instead of using a whole 4 1/4" square, I cut it into 4 equal sections and staggered two so I could leave some white showing through (and I can save a little of that beautiful green paper for something else!) :) Gina K Pure Luxury White is my base.

I had some scrap leftovers so I decorated the inside of the card, too, shown here (It is really is such an extra treat for the recipient if you have the time to make the inside a work of heart, too!) but I want to suggest that this could be your simple version for the outside of a card! "forever grateful" is also from the "Say it With Flowers" set, you can cover almost any occasion with the individual words his set includes! This card has SO many more layers than I normally use, but this paper is 65lb, lighter than my colored SU! paper so you really don't feel how much paper you've added, won't add extra postage to my card, which I like! : )

TIP: To get my sentiment just right, I placed the embellishment I knew I wanted on top of my round acrylic block(you've gotta get these!), which was centered on top of my scalloped mat. I added my words above and below, removed the flower and stamped... ta da!! perfect. :) Then I added the inside flower with another gluedot.

This card has inspired today's challenge: create a project that features a sentiment in some way. How would you show it off? It could be fancy or simple, but something that makes "a statement with your statement" LOL! Please upload you project to SCS or PCP with the keyword GKDMB1 (linking it here would be helpful, too if you can!) by Tuesday January 7th, 9 PM CST, I will pick a winning project and the winner will receive a guest designing spot next month and my January release, coming soon (you will LOVE it!!) I would love for you to use one of my stamps if you can, but if not, please play along anyway! (I expect to have hundreds of projects to pick from , you hear?!) ;)

So who will win today's prizes?* Leave a comment here to enter, today I would like you to go through the Gina K Gallery on SCS and or Papercraft Planet(thanks so much for letting me know about all your faves on here, that is very helpful!) , and link a favorite creation you find that uses any of my stamp sets (or one from your very own blog!) so we all can see!! Check back for the winners tomorrow and more fun samples and FREE stuff! EDITED TO ADD: Okay, very few people are following the directions on this so far LOL!! I asked you to link a card using one of MY stamp sets in the comment section, most are not leaving a link or they are linking to a card that uses someone else's set, OR not even Gina K sets! (That's okay if you like it, but that's not the rules! Don't feel bad if you did, I will assume you haven't had your coffee yet;) ) Try this: check out the Pop Tone Colors and tell me which color or colors you like the best in this post!! (either answer will count as an entry, okay?)

After leaving your comment for the paper, here's today's blog hop (still can't believe how many of your favorite designers turned out for this (happy dance!!!)

Carolyn, Donna, Jessica, Lee, Michelle, Theresa, Carolina, Joanne , Jessie, and Gina K!! (check out THAT prize!!wow! My biggie (Copics!!)is coming up soon!!!) :)

*If you don't... guess what? Patricia has the PopTones on sale the entire month of January 25% off! :-O

PS There is another clue in this post for an upcoming sponsor...

PPS How do you like this "au naturale" backdrop for my cards? The way I've chosen to rearrange all my tools in my stamping space, I don't really have room to do my low-tech mock up of a photo tent(2 sheets of 12x12 white!) I'm kinda diggin it, you?

Where Are They Now? Donna Baker

If there's one thing I've learned this past year (don't worry, I learned a lot more than that LOL!) it's to believe that anything that can happen. A neighbor recently reminded me on Christmas Day about my discovering at stamping my first SU! workshop ever 5 years ago, and calling her afterwards saying "THIS is what I'm supposed to do!" I meant just sit down and make cards, not make my own stamps, who'dve thunk it? LOL!

But more than that, I've found how the destinies of others can become entwined with our own in unexpected ways. Donna Baker (who later won my "Just So Hoppy" contest AND the tied with Bee for the fan favorite contest the next month with my tins!!) was the first friend I shared my secret I would be leaving SU! to design for Gina K. At that time she was demonstrating for SU! but not on any design teams (i wasn't either!) It was fun to share that new beginning with someone who loved stamping as I did, and as we both began testing the waters outside of SU! into "the big stamping world beyond" LOL! (Little did I know that just one year later, Donna and I would both be on Gina K's Design team together!) She really threw herself 110% into working with my stamps over the next year, and that really got her noticed by "the Big Lady"*, hee hee! Her story is one of passion and persistance, and I hope it inspires you today...make your dreams come true!

Here's a little more about Donna:
favorite:
Technique - Coloring (line art images)
Colors/color combo - Pinks, Chocolate brown
Type of project to make that’s not a card? Altered items & jewelry
Gina K set by Melanie: All of them! HA – All the Hip Hops
Gina K sets (from any illustrator) Take Flight (new one free with 3 by Gina K)
(I won’t put you on the spot and ask favorite stamp company, hee hee!) ;) I don’t mind answering this question at all; it is hard to say just one because I like to share my stamping LOVE with Gina K, Stamp a Sweet Impression, Starving Artistamps, My Favorite Things & Cornish Heritage Farms. SU! was my first stamping love but has taken a back seat to all these others – still hanging on by a thread!
Craft supplies I can’t live without: coloring mediums, Basic Grey paper pads & matching embellishments, cute stamps!

I've been stamping for about 6 years

I get my inspiration from a LOT of blogs I read (over 150), SCS & Melanie *wink*

The most important things I’ve learned about stamping/cardmaking/scrapbooking are to have fun & no matter what mistakes you make, they are usually fixable & a personal quote, “If it looks perfect it won’t look handmade”

Some of my stamping/crafting goals are to learn to solder & get published.

Some of my stamping/crafting accomplishments began in March 2008. After winning Melanie’s Just so Hoppy contest in March, Gina K asked me to be guest designer for October and in September she asked me to be one of her Senior Designers. In June, Jessie Rone asked me to be guest prettie girl for Paper Pretties for 3 months, and during July, Tracey Berkey of Starving Artistamps welcomed me on her design team and Taylor VanBruggen asked me to be on her first rotating design team for her new stamps Stamp a Sweet Impression. I have grown so much during this year & I am grateful for the many friendships stamping has played a role in bringing into my life. It’s been such a blast & I know the meaning of the phrase “When it rains it pours” but in a good way!!

Donna has offered to send this beautiful handmade 2 year planner made with "A Year of Flowers" and "Say it With flowers" to one of you! Leave a comment here letting me know about one of your own crafting accomplishments or goals, we wanna hear (and then you have to go make it happen!) and I will announce the winner tomorrow :)! (Don't forget to leave scroll down and leave a comment on this mornings post for a chance to win "And Then I Said', winner announced tomorrow for that tomrrow as well! )

* Gina K , although no one would ever refer to her as "big" LOL!!

Happy, Happy Flowers

Isn't this a happy card? I started stamping Gina K's flowers in Ruby Red and Old Olive and then chose a paper from Basic Grey Cupcake to match, I loved these thin earthy stripes and pulled out that pumpkin color from the print with these SU! buttons. It was just looking so fresh and cheerful I decided to draw on two little smiles under the "eyeholes" before attaching them with glue dots, hee! I see Joanne doing a ribbon treatment like this a lot off the side of the card with the ends tied off with hemp or thread instead of knotting the ribbon, and I love how perfect it looks here with those beautiful stamped leaves. I adhered my mat at an angle to give it more energy and stamped "friends" from "Say it with Flowers" to go with this this sweet little pair. (The "Tropical Flowers" set has no greetings in it, "Say it with Flowers" is a perfect set to complement it with it's all occasion greetings and floral quotes!) All done, yeah!! I love how fast this one came together.

Are you as busy as I am right now?? Eek!!! Have a great day! My tip sheet comes out tomorrow along with a little card peek, you're gonna love it!

Chicken Soup for your Soul

I've always* wanted a little bowl of soup stamp for "get well" cards...would you believe this is actually the bottom of a coffee pot?

Omitting part of an image to get more mileage from my rubber is one of my favorite things to do, it's a little "game" I play with myself (Find the Shape!) I used my Memento dew drop to carefully ink up just the bottom of the pot from Rupas' adorable new coffee set "My Cuppa Joe". I can honestly say it it the cutest coffee set I have ever seen! "Get well soon" is from "Say it with Flowers" (I love the italic soon, it's like you blowing on your hot soup to cool it: "sooooooooon...........") ;)

I thought it'd be fun to have some hearts rising out of the bowl somehow, so I went flipping through my paper packs and the perfect sheet was in Basic Grey's Sugared pack! (and the heart strip was in the perfect spot, too LOL! and the right colors!! That's "Stamping Serendipity", ladies...) The shadows are created with Copics, but I didn't have the right shade for my golden broth so I colored that with a So Saffron marker. I stopped there, didn't feel a ribbon or other embellishments were needed. (I'm trying to "edit" lately...it's a Project Runway/Top Design thing...:)

*well, at least, as long as I've been stamping!

Buds & Branches Tutorial

Wendy's PCP sketch and her sample with those beautiful punched leaves up the sides like a vine really inspired me to try it with my "A Year of Flowers", but I didn't have a punch like hers, so I had to work with what I have. You all know I HEART my Leafy Branch Cuttlebug Folder, so I decided I should try a little trimming. Is that gorgeous, or what?? (I am NOT taking credit for how pretty that branch is BTW! LOL!!)
It may look like some very tedious cutting, but it wasn't! Imagine if this was a line art image: you would really see every little place that I didn't cut exactly up to the line. But here with embossing on this colored cardstock, I could cut near it, on the edge, or even inside and it looks just fine, so this is a very forgiving process, I cut the whole branch in about 2 minutes. Next I snipped it into three different pieces so I could layer them onto my card in the places I needed. (It actually looked really nice as just one piece but a lot of it was covered by my quote that way, so I decided to separate a few leaves to spread it out a bit more.)

My rose is colored with Peerless watercolors and popped up on dimensionals. As I made this card I was also thinking of another quote in my "Say it with Flowers": "There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom". I don't have any rosebuds in my "Year of Flowers" set, but I realized I could make some for this vine to go with my full blown image.

I embossed my Leafy Branch again on white CS and then went over a few of the larger leaves with the Peerless Watercolors to match my orange yellow rose, then trimmed. TIP: Instead of drawing an outline, I held the chisel tip of my black Copic against the edge of trimmed bud and pulled to make a perfect outline (This is what I did on my yellow layers and greeting too, faster and easier than adding a skinny layer of black CS and doesn't add bulk to my card. Again, just pull the marker around the edge of each side. Really makes your layers pop!)

Last I adhered them on top of each of the green embossed leaves. Oooh, I just LOVE how this turned out. Tip: Extend leaves and flowers beyond the edges of your card, they will look truly alive! (a ramblin' rose...) :)

PS That vertical layer in the sketch had me kind of perplexed as to what to do, so I decided to keep it tone on tone and emboss the branches a third time, this time on a piece of Summer Sun. I like the texture it adds and repetition of the pattern it reinforces (and that is doesn't detract attention from the leaves) So...Have you played the sketch challenge yet?? ;) Don't forget, Monday is the last day to upload a project for the Mixology challenge, you could win a free set of stamps, so go stamp something!!

Flowers by Omission

Here's the same trick I shared the other day with only inking up the middle and underside of the bloom to change up "A Year of Flowers", this time I used a different image from the set, these look a little like Brown-Eyed Susans to me now!

Instead of coloring the petals in with orange, I inked up the petals directly on my stamp with my Pumpkin Pie marker(Chocolate chip for the center), stamped, then dragged my waterbrush over the orange lines to bleed the color (which then became a shade of apricot, so I added an Apricot Appeal layer (CB Stylized Flowers) to my Always Artichoke base. Large flourishes, some matching ribbon, sponging to my mat with the same color and a vintage brad in on the tag trios die cuts finishes the card.

Have a great weekend, I'll be out of town til Monday, back in time for our new release sneak peeks to start on Tuesday!! I have sooo many projects ready I'm doing to show you with ALL the new sets, can't wait!!

Progressive Pink Poinsettia*

This card looks much prettier in real life, the ribbon and background is Regal Rose (not Pepto Bismol LOL!) This is one of the cards that evolved from a little scrap I was playing around on and wanted to see how the poinsettia would look stamped in red, then dragging my waterbrush through to bleed the color, turned very pink!! Since some poinsettias are pinkish that was okay with me, but I started adding back in more red from the lid of my pad to get soem deeper shades. I also traced along the underside just with water to create a shadow.

Next I doodled a border around the edge of my scrap to frame it, (I did it slightly shaky on purpose to match the edge of my leaves in the image (and then it wouldn't matter if I messed it up a little! LOL) and dragged my brush over the marker lines, again the ink bled so I have a filled-in, matching pink border! I added a greeting from "Say it With Flowers" and a few little self adhesive rhinestones in different sizes to the center, love the sizzle it gives it!! Finally I did a bunch of layering and cuttlebugging with the Snowflake folder (I love the look of the flakes with the burst of poinsettia leaves), attached my little tied ribbon with a glue dot and there you have a PINK holiday card, I'm kinda diggin' it!

I'll be doing a poinsettia card (not this one, I'll post pics later) for a workshop on a cruise this weekend, any of you going on the Manic Mommies Escape 2008 by chance?? LOL! It'll be my first time to really demo in person since I started illustrating(and definitely first time to do on a ship, it's almost my first cruise ever, so a big deal!!), and I wanted to go on the "BIG stamping cruise" so much, that I had to book this 3 day adventure with a friend to the Bahamas with a moms group (and still managed to work a little stamping in!!) It's not a crafting group, but they're working and stay-at-home moms just like many of us, so I'm hoping they'll really dig it (and I'll manage to bring lots of them "over to our side", heh heh!!;) I have two back-to-back workshops 30 minutes each, 30 ladies each, so it should be interesting! Say a prayer for me we all get our cards done LOL!! (I just got done cutting out 60 poinsettias since I can't exactly to tell them all to bring their own scissors, but I wanted their quick cards to be really special, I hope they love what they make!!) I'll be gone Friday through Monday but I do plan to have posts every day while I'm gone. And THEN starting the next day?: RELEASE SNEAK PEEKS, oh my!! I'm actually ready for all that, been busy stamping things I can't show now, but soon, so excited!!

One more day to enter the blog candy!!

* I totally planned to call this post "I'm... Dream-ing of a... PINK ...Christ-masssss!" but since it's been sitting in my drafts for almost 3 weeks, and Melissa already used that!! (eyeroll) LOL! j/k

Happy Happy Hybrid

This is a 4 1/4" square card and Classic and Scalloped Square Nestabilities. I also used two sizes of the Scalloped Circle Nestabilities to cut out my larger Gerbera daisy ( but I snipped out just a few extra pieces around the petals after diecutting, so this large one is not exactly the die shape any more, but very close) and the center of my sunflower, (this one I made no changes to). Layer them together and you have this happy new hybrid! (there are so many varieties of Gerberas and now this looks similar to the kind that have tiny little petals in a layer surrounding the center) Flower is colored with Geranium Pink and Deep Yellow peerless watercolors. I used Shimmery CS for the flower so you can see the sparkle through the color), popped up on dimensionals, stem and leaf are made from SU! Olive grosgrains in 1/4" and 5/8" widths.


This card just makes me happy looking at it, and I hope it makes my friend happy, too :) I've gotten word that Melstampz is posting a gorgeous new flower project involving BEADS, can't you just imagine the awesome beauty already? let's go see it's up!!

Sunny Simplicity

This was a very simple card, but I love how the simplicity of the rest of the card makes the sunflower go "BAM!" I stamped it in Basic Brown in the middle of an "Alli medallion", then colored with my peerless watercolors. Sorry, no step by step pics when I colored this one, (I'll do another) but I went over the whole thing with Brillant Yellow, then dabbed in Orange Yellow to the back row of petal and the top row, close to the center, then pulling out toward the edge to blend. Both browns in the pad were used for the middle, and I concentrated my darker color to the lower left. For a shadow casting off the flower's center, I added just a bit of green around the left side, then outlined the whole flower with my Prismacolor Warm Grey 20% marker. I love that tiny bit of Leafy Branch at the bottom, and the tied olive ribbon just screams big old leafy stem!

Happy Halloween! (yesterday was crazy and I did NOT get our Halloween favors photographed; that's okay, we had fun making them , but they weren't going to win any prizes!) Be safe tonight!

Think PINK

Well, I am really sorry I missed out on 30 days of promoting Breast Cancer Awareness with project samples this month, but it's a cause to support year-round so here goes! I made these for a Little Tees Swap on SCS, should be getting my swaps in the mail some time next week, I'll be sure to take pics of what I receive!
It's a very simple design, but with this classic white tee as the focal point I liked this design better than any of the other more complicated layouts or added colors I was trying out before deciding on this (and I'm very happy with it!) The tee outline and cause ribbon from the "Little Tees" set were stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black on white CS, colored with Blush and Peach Copics (finally bought a WHOLE box, A, expect a post later about how I decided on this one!) and outlined with my Prismacolor Warm Gray 20% marker to give it a nice curvy shape (and "support the girls"!)

I mounted it on a Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilitie die cut in different prints from the SU! Designer Series pack and made my own little ribbon with a loop of SU! 1/4"grosgrain, glue dots and a self adhesive rhinestone. "Get well soon"(I love this greeting and font, it goes with everything!) is from "Say it with Flowers". I hope the swappers like it!!

Don't forget to scroll down and read the guest designer post! Have a great day! Only one more day til Halloween, are you ready?! (I'm not!)

Reflecting...

This is a simple reflection technique that you don't need a reversing stamp or brayer for!
Simply stamp the flower (here in Basic Gray) at the top half of your mat.

Now mask it with a trimmed bloom, and without reinking your stamp, turn it upside down, overlap it just a bit with flower above it and stamp.

Remove the mask to reveal the reflection! This one will be lighter since you didn't reink, perfect for a reflection. If you look carefully it is not an exact reflection of the same petals above, but it's symmetrical enough that no one will (should) notice. :) (It is missing a few lines in the lower image because I took my hand off the stamps to photograph it, these step by step pics are staged, did them after the first card)

Now, to color! I wanted the blooms to look very similar, but the top one to be more vivid. I used only three Copics on this card. I started with the "real" flower coloring one layer of Red Cadmium Copic, the reflection with one layer of Coral Copic. Next I went back with my Red Cadmium and really got into those areas that need shadows on the real flower, and then just did a few strokes on each petal on the reflection in the same areas. I blended these in on the reflection by going over them with the Coral Copic. Last I used my my Colorless blender on both images at just the tips to highlight. NOW: to add water! I was stuck here for a moment deciding how I wanted to approach it. I really wanted to keep the focus on the flowers instead of the colors of the water, and when you see a reflection like this, you're really not seeing water colors, but sky or sometimes even "black" depending on if you're surrounded by trees, KWIM? In the end, I chose to add a few small ripples with my gray pencil, kind of disconnected ovals to create the illusion, similar to looking at pure water in a vase. I just LOVE how it turned out (not to mention how easy it was, once I made up my mind!) "always" from "Say it With Flowers" is Basic Gray ink, but I stamped off first before adding it to match my reflection. Doesn't it give the word such a "quiet" feel? I embossed a simple rectangle onto my textrued DCWV CS base.

I'll be changing up this design again and again with colors and layouts because I'm just crazy about the look! If you try this out, please let me know by linking your creation here, I'd love to see what you'd do!

On a personal note: I started out making this card for Cammie's Land Cruise Water Challenge, but as I worked, decided I would be sending it to the Russell family. (Thank you again everyone who has been sending their RAKS and prayers!) I got a little philosophical and thinking about what I wanted the finished artwork to convey, and remembered reading on Karen's blog Marcus talking about work he had to do on "the other side", which made me "reflect" on this reflection. I thought about how perfect and close God's love and presence is to us, and how close our loved ones are (in our hearts and memories, perfectly preserved in time) even after they've passed over... It's not a perfect metaphor, of course (since a reflection disappears if you have no light, and God is always present), but anyway, for what's it worth...

Here is an excerpt from his mother Karen's blog a few days ago:

"He is slurring more, but still has his sense of humor. His vision is so bad, all he sees in double vision. He has talked a little about going on his "Mission" to help others on the other side. He is on a lot of steroids so his face is swelling more and more, plus they give him other side effects like irritability and joint pain. But he doesn't complain much. He listens to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir a lot and quoted to me the words from "Come Come Ye Saints" last night. He is a pillar of strength to me and those around us. He is my Marcus, even in that swollen face, I see those eyes that stare right through to my soul."

...and from yesterday:

"He really is deteriorating fast. We are pretty sure that he could "go" at anytime now. He is so week, unable to see or even speak much. His breathing is getting more and more erratic and his pulse is fast and unstable. He has been in more pain, so we are adjusting his meds to keep him more comfortable. He mostly sleeps, he doesn't eat and only has very few fluids since he can't swallow much. We are just praying that he goes quickly so he doesn't suffer. Thanks to all those who are getting Marcus's name out there for good thoughts and prayers. Thanks for all the well wishes, comments and prayers you have left here and on his carepage. It is so wonderful to see how many love and care for us and especially Marcus."

I wanted to post their address again and let you know the names of the rest of his family, as they need prayers, RAKS and support, too: John-his father, brothers- Aaron, age 14, Noah, age 9 and Jackson, age 6, all pictured above in a family portrait taken last month. (I watched my own boys today sharing a moment of brotherly love and almost burst into tears thinking about what Marcus's brothers are going through!)

The Russell Family

100 W. 500 S

Providence, UT 84332

Karen's sister Nancy will be unable to attend the funeral because her daughter Jessica is having serious medical problems. I am praying for them too as they grieve for their family and deal with being away and with Jessica's injury.

Thank you for reading, have a blessed Sunday, hug your loved ones tight!

Tole Rose Tutorial

White and Ivory are just so chic together, aren't they? Instead of coloring, I was thinking how soft and beautiful the rose stamped on vanilla paper would be on a pure white background....

A few other things I did differently from my previous rose samples (hee hee!): stamped the rose in Basic Gray ink instead of black, which really softens the look. (You can also do this to make your drawing look more like a pencil sketch on your cards.) Also, instead of shading with color, I pulled out my Versamarker and really got into those areas I needed shading with the brush tip, now I have subtle, creamy shadows! So this is a great way to get fast tone-on-tone shading. Now roses are some of the best flowers for the paper tole technique: here's a pic that shows how I stamped two roses, but made three layers by cutting out the top and the bottom to layer under and over the whole rose instead of having to stamp and cut a third time. They are numbered to show what order to layer them on your mat, sandwiching dimensionals in between to really make it 3D.
I chose to line them up perfectly with the image below, which you usually do in tole, but I experimented before adhering them all and saw it looks super frothy to place them at angles, not matching up with the image, you get more petals that way, like a double bloom variety! (I'll post one like that another time)
Here's a side view of the card top show the dimension, I curled the leaves (painted with Old Olive and an Aquapainter) out a little with my fingers, just attaching them at the base. I also added a little Leafy Branch Cuttlebugging to the bottom and my new Ivory 5/8" grosgrain (it looks a little yellow in this pic). The mat underneath my Nestabilitie die cut is Basic Gray to match the ink. Quote is from "Say it With Flowers".

(Originally I was going to mount it in the center of a vertical A2 card, but I saw it had a smudge on it, so I just scored a 7 inch scrap I had on my desk in half and made it into a tent topper! I like the unexpectedness of that in the design also, nice proportions, no? (happy accident!)

Go check out some amazingly beautiful creations with these sets by the amazing Melissa McCarthy, I just love that gal and her stuff! Have a beautiful day!

Ladybug, ladybug...

It's been over two weeks since our last release and I've yet to show my ladybugs, how did I let this happen?

Here's a closeup showing all three 'bugs moseyin' along on the Cuttlebog embossed Leafy Branch, stamped in Memento Ink, colored with Red Cadmium Copic and covered with Crystal Lacquer, which makes it somewhat difficult to photograph because of the shine fom the lacquer but they are a bright red underneath). The three different angles of the bugs allow for nice groupings and the ability to place one in your composition wherever it needs a little somethin' ("bug embellishment"? LOL!) As you can see one is crawling on the edge of the leaf, one is plunked in the middle, and one stamped on the bottom looks like it's about to walk right out of the frame! I stamped "just because" from "Say it With Flowers" and decided to center it at an angle under my square Hodgepodge frame. I haven't used the square frames that much because it's harder to find greetings to fit, but I'm liking it slanted this way and it gives me more room! Dotted ribbon is from the Pure Luxury Holiday collection, adhesive rhinestones look like brads this way, also from Gina K Designs. Had to repeat my spot pattern one last time with the Threading Water Punch down the side...

The "land cruise" is just a few days away, you won't want to miss all the good times and goodies going on in our forum Wednesday night, please come!


If you missed my post this morning, please scroll down to read, thank you SO much to everyone who has been sharing the info about Marcus on their blogs and spreading the word/praying!! :)