April 20th Weekly Post

 Happy Easter Monday to you!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Yes, I'm a day late. 

We had bad weather yesterday (and today), and our internet went out, just as I was finishing my SPA art.

It just came back on, so I am hoping to get this posted in case it goes out again.

Michele is hosting this week at Sunday Postcard Art and she wants us to Add A Hat.

I want to apologize to Dr. Suess right up front, lol.

My background was created on my 4X6 card by pressing a few small square ink cubes onto it, which weren't giving me an opaque enough impression. So, I looked in my stamps and found a Leave Memories silhouette square stamp, and I used that with several different dye inks to fill the space with color. Next, I stamped 3 of Tim's Snarky Cats, colored them with Promarkers and fussy cut them to add to the card. I got out my Lawn Fawn hat stamps and dies and chose 3, coloring them with Promarkers and adding to the cats' heads. I stamped the bottom Snarky Cat sentiment and created the top title with stickers from my stash. Then I ran a black marker all around the card edge to finish.

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I wasn't that enthused this year to make multiple Easter cards, due to so much going on.

But I did make my 95 y.o. Mother-in-law this card.

Awhile ago she had sent me a card with the prettiest envelope and I kept it.

I've used that envelope as my base paper on this card, cutting it down with a Carnations Crafts die and edging the cut lines with some gold border scrap from my stash.

I cut the Amazon cross die and Lawn Fawn sentiment die out of gold mirror card. I cut the cross again out white card and colored the robe inset purple with a marker. I placed the cross on some white card cut with a Carnation Craft oval die. All is adhered onto gold mirror card and a white card base. I thought it turned out beautifully and so did she.

 

And here's the sketch I used, stretched to a landscape format.

The second I saw the sketch, I knew it was perfect for what I had in mind.

LOVE when that happens!

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Last Monday was Honey's birthday and I made him this card.

I've had Spellbinders' Sunday Drive dies for a while, but all of those teeny tiny pieces scared me into not using. Well, I needed something he had not seen before so I bit the bullet.

It really wasn't that bad after all. In fact, the hardest part of this card front was getting the threads holding the balloons to look just right and tying them to the card windshield.

I used stash scraps for everything on the card front. I stenciled the dotted highway line using a Dylusions stencil and white paint and carefully freehanded a glitter gel pen border on the green base layer. The 2 hearts were punched.

It's a nice looking convertible and Honey loved it.

And the sketch I used. 

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Today is my friend Carol's birthday and this is the card I made and mailed her.

I used a dark purple SU card base and cut a base layer out of white card using a Carnations Crafts die. I colored the edges of it with a gold glitter gel pen. On the white card layer, I used Versamark to stamp the Spellbinders balloons twice, then heat embossed with gold powder. I colored them with Promarkers. I stamped the Avery Elle balloon animal and sentiments with Fantasia Versafine ink. I cut the balloon animal with the corresponding die and I cut the sentiments with an SU label punch. I also cut a Lawn Fawn die sentiment from the card base's leftovers and adhered to the bottom of the card.

And the sketch I used.

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Well, that's all I have this time.

I thank you for visiting and hope you have a great week.

We've got rain in the forecast most of the week, so I'll have my hands full trying to remain upbeat. Honey goes stir crazy and gets in such a bad mood when it rains for days, not that I blame him. I get the melancholies myself.

April 13th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday, everyone!

Hope we all survived the week.

I had a pretty busy one. Lots to do right now and not enough time to do it.

Sue B. is hosting at Sunday Postcard Art this week and she has chosen The Roaring 20's as the theme.
Even though I do have some nice Artistic Outpost Stamps flapper images, I did not have time to stamp something. So I went digital this week. I have a collection of Vogue and Vanity Fair cover images from that time period, so I chose this February 1, 1925 Vogue cover of a high-brow flapper, illustrated by Georges LePape.

I like the snotty snooty look on her face as she "strikes a pose". 

"The rich are different from you and me."

Well, F. Scott, you were not wrong. 

But then, 1929 came along

and The Grapes of Wrath was the new song.

😁😎😁

But until then, the Roaring 20's were a colorful time indeed.

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This is another card made with my Katy Sue 3D Decoupage Flowers. I combined them with ribbon and enamel dots from my stash and DCWV Collage Art Stack designer papers.

And the sketch I used.
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My across-the-street neighbor and I went to high school together, so I made this for his 70th birthday. The lavender card base and mats are cut from Bazzill shimmer card stock. The silver star paper is DCWV and the base designer paper is very old Marah Johnson for Creative Imaginations. I also used black card scraps. The Divinity Designs sentiment, Clear Dollar numbers and Inkadinkado skull with wings were all stamped with Versamark and heat-embossed with white powder on the black card. I also used stitched star and triangle dies, as well as torn-edge oval dies.

And the sketch I used.

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Another guy friend's birthday card.

I stamped the Creative Expressions Harvest stamp with brown Versafine Clair ink on white card, clear heat-embossed and ink-blended with DI's. There's a scrap of Junkitz plaid underneath the SU gold card stock base. The Posh Impressions side sentiment was also stamped on the SU card and cut with an LDRS stitched postage frame die. The Lawn Fawn sentiment was cut with white card. And I added a yellow die cut Avery Elle sun from my stash.

 

I rotated the sketch I used and then stretched it to slimline size.

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Well, that's it for me.

Back to the temporary grind of non-art life, ugh.

I can't wait to get back to my boring retired life, heehee.

Hope your week goes well.

Seeya next time!

XOX

April 6th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday, everybody.

Hope the week went well.

We had our first warmer and humid week, and our front yard oak that loses its leaves has exploded in buds. The pecan tree in back of us though still has not. Its budding signals for sure that Spring has arrived down here. Everything's greener and some buttercups have come up but only on the hurricane fence line this year. We're waiting to see if we get the little backyard cluster of them like we usually do. I think that good January snow may have changed things up. Our bluebonnets didn't bloom but our ground plants in the front yard have bounced back beautifully from being frozen. So multiple change-ups to go with the weather patterns. I also see and hear birds like usual but don't see them preparing for nesting mode yet.

My dad always said we get our last cool/cold front at Easter. Tonight one has settled in, having blown in yesterday. And Easter is 2 weeks away, so now the question is, will this be the last one? 

 Ann is our host this week at Sunday Postcard Art and she has chosen Dolphins as her theme.

I have this Stampendous stamp of 2 dolphins included with Issue 97 of Creative Stamping Magazine to use, and the added benefit was, first time inked (which you regular readers know is a little challenge of mine to use all my stamps at least once). So I stamped with Versafine Clair and colored with alcohol markers. Then I used various ink and alcohol and paint markers, gel pens and glitter brush pens to create the surrounding scene. I added the title in PSE when I was editing it.

The title came to mind because the only time I have seen dolphins up close jumping like that in person was at the San Antonio Sea World. So, I went with it!

😁

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Before it get too far into Spring, I wanted to share my Spring banner.

This time I used a different die set for the banners. I did more of the large white alpha stickers. I am determined to use them up. lol. 

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This is the card that I made for my twin grand-nieces last month.

I was short on time and mojo, so I found a colored digi sentiment in my Beccy files and the colored cake and girls in my Dearie Dolls files. Since the littles keep being born in my family, I decided not to put too much work into their cards until they get older. So this turned out perfectly for what I had in mind.

 

And the sketch used. I rotated it counter-clockwise and then stretched it to a 6x6.

Why I love Splitcoaststampers sketches: no deadlines and we can adjust them to fit our needs.

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This card for a girlfriend was made using Katy Sue Designs 3D Decoupage flowers, DCWV designer papers and ribbon from my stash. The base and mat for the flowers is Kraft card and the mat was cut using a Spellbinders Classic Oval die.

And the sketch used, as is.

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Well, another week, another blog post.

Come back next Sunday if you can!

Until then, thanks so much for this visit and

have a great week!

XOXO

March 30th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday, Everyone!

I hope we all had good weeks.

We did, although I ate too much. The meals we had were too good not to indulge, lol.

And we had great weather for our home renovation crew until Wednesday when it began raining.

So this phase won't finish up until next week now.

The same crew will be doing the next phase, so that's good, but we probably won't have a little break now. Or I guess we had one during the rain, lol.

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The theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art is Ephemera and is hosted by Cindy.

Now I was going to do a nice safe Tim Holtz-style collage using his ephemera.

But I found these very old green and blue paper ephemera pieces that I've had forever and I think they were originally in an A.T.C. Collection pad.

So, I was like, these need to get used up now.

And I made 2 for my 4X6 art journal album:

This one I collaged the ephemera onto my 4x6 base, highlighted with a green Promarker and added a TH Small Talk phrase sticker.

For this one, I collaged the ephemera, scribbled over it with Shaded Lilac and Chipped Sapphire Distress Crayons and then rubbed them in with a baby wipe. I edged the card with a black Promarker and added another TH Small Talk phrase sticker.

And done.

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And since this is the last Sunday of the month

(a fourth of this year is gone already!),

it's time for me to share the Christmas cards I've made since February 2nd when I shared the 4 cards I had made. I'm happy to say I now have 16 made.

Grouped above are the 7 cards that I made using those 4x6 pieces that I'd made for SPA over the last 6 months. 3 of these are for March's Donner (reindeer) theme at SCS.

(My Besties image)

(LOTV image)

(Gecko Galz image)

(Bugaboo image)

These are the 4 cards I made using February's 12 Drummers Drumming theme at SCS.

(Gecko Galz image)

And here is another reindeer card using March's Donner theme at SCS.

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Well, I know I'm being lazy and not providing my usual materials details, but between my bloated tummy and it almost being my bedtime, I'm going to end this now.

I sure hope you have a great week ahead and thanks so much for your visit today.

Hope to see you here again next Sunday.

XOX

March 23rd Weekly Post

 Happy First Sunday of Spring, everyone!

We continue to have awesome weather here, which is a blessing when you are having your home remodeled. One more week and then we will get a little break before the next round of renovations. 

The theme at Sunday Postcard Art this week is hosted by Marion and she has chosen Bicycle.

I used an Impression Obsession bicycle stamp and die on separate white card and colored it with markers and silver colored pencil. For the background scenery on my 4x6 card, I stamped a Nellie Snellen Idyllic scene that's supposed to be Winter but I thought it worked fine for Spring, too. The scene was also heat-embossed with clear powder and colored with watercolors.

The sentiment is from Artistic Outpost's A Lovely Day stamp set.

While I have used the bicycle before, the other stamps were first time use.

Now, wouldn't that be a nice place to take a little ride?

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I used my Katy Sue Designs Flowers 3D Decoupage kit hydrangea image, Prima Pretty Pale designer papers and some navy, periwinkle and brown card stock scraps to make this. The card base is Bazzill.

 

And the sketch I used, stretched to 6x6.

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No, you aren't seeing double, lol. I had found another sketch very similar to the first hydrangea card sketch, so I decided to make another hydrangea card using the second sketch while I had the papers and decoupage images out. On this second card, I tried stamping some Rubbernecker hydrangeas on the brown horizontal strip and heat embossing with white powder. I do like the effect peeking out, adds texture. Everything else used is same as first card.

 

And the sketch I used, stretched to 6x6.

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A new boy baby card for a nephew and his wife.

I ordered the onesie die from Amazon. It came with the cute bib, snaps, bowtie and Sweet Baby words.

I used designer papers by Foof-a-la Peekaboo Collection and SU baby blue card stock. The baby alligator is a Frantic Stamper die I won last year and had not yet used. The blessings sentiment is by Cottage Cutz and the blue and white heart die is by Sizzix. I cut the blue oval behind the onesie using a Spellbinders die.

And the sketch I used.
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Thanks for the visit today!

I hope your week goes well and you get some time to be crafty!

Hope to see ya here again next Sunday

XOX