Some bunny loves you!

 You know what stinks? Having your card returned to you for insufficient postage which means it didn't get there in time, 😞 I knew better, but carelessly put the wrong stamp on the envelope. Meanwhile, to make this less of a downer, watch the very short video of what I put inside the envelope which prompted the necessity for extra postage. Hope you laugh along with me!

well, sorry the video won't show up but you can go here to see it.



Linking my card up to Paint Party Friday!

And if you are feeling particularly generous and just want to make my day then you could go leave me a comment over on the StencilGirl blog because I posted this dreamcatcher art journal page over there. Comments sure are nice here on my blog but it makes me smile to get comments over on a manufacturers page, lol Insecurity strikes us all doesn't it?

Let There Be Peace On Earth, And Let It Begin With Me

With all the trouble we are going through right now in our world, it was easy to pick my theme for my Christmas cards this year. This is also my first post up on the ColourArte blog today so I would really love you for going over and visiting me and leaving me a comment <3

Thank you!

Let there be peace on earth And let it begin with me;

 Let there be peace on earth, The peace that was meant to be.

 With God as our Father Brothers all are we,

 Let me walk with my brother In perfect harmony. 

Let peace begin with me, Let this be the moment now; 

With every step I take, Let this be my solemn vow 

To take each moment and live each moment In peace eternally.

 Let there be peace on earth And let it begin with me.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

I love stamping to pieces!

I love this Grumplings stamped image, I think her expression looks like mine when placed in a bathing suit, although she is too cute to be so grumpy! Everything but the base card is made from my stash of handmade paper that I made using my Arnold Grummer hand mold, I love the texture and feel of it. 

I'm entering this little darling in

Simon Says: STAMPtember® Stamp It

It's never failure if you learn something

With all the new technology of today, the golden age of handwritten letters may be past.  But receiving a card is still a treat, and whether it's handwritten, printed, or typed, it's still the best thing to get in your mailbox at the end of the day.

Now there is a lot going on here ( in a behind the scenes sort of way )...I used hot colors to depict the sun and heat and cool colors for the effect the ice cream has. So the sun, sun spots and ground...all in hot colors. Even the ground is melting like ice cream would be doing on a hot day.

The little cow is all in cool colors due to his eating the ice cream and it's chilling him out and that is melting down to the ground and cooling off the area around him too. Just love the way that the H20's blend together and even mixed together to create the green.

I don't think we ever intend to make mistakes in order to learn something new...it just happens...to the best of us! I failed miserably at a new technique I was trying which was stamping with my ColourArte H20's. I watched this video made by Leslie and thought I would give it a try but I set myself up for failure by using the wrong kind of stamp. However I did learn that by dipping a needle into the H20's I could draw the small lines that I needed to define and reline.

 And of course I had to create a little envelope art to go along with my card.

  Entering in ColourArte's monthly challenge - Sherbert

Revamping

re·vamp

verb

gerund or present participle: revamping

rēˈvamp/

1. give new and improved form, structure, or appearance to.

I am currently pulling out my old Halloween cards from last year and revamping them a little before making any new ones. Sometimes I see mistakes that I missed and maybe that's why they didn't sell? Maybe the people saw what I missed, in this case there was a little tiny glue shine around the edge of the moon, so I took out my gelato and PITT pen and made some intentional moon glow instead!

I also made some envelope art...using my awesome 5x7" Gel Press® plate and some distress paints. Seriously cannot get enough of this combination!

I love sprays, I really do but sometimes it's so darn hard to control the amount or the direction of the spray blast. In this case it was spray drips, 2 of them as you can see in the photo on the left....and maybe that's why it didn't sell....maybe it looks unintentionally messy which is never a good thing...sooooo...I made them into 2 tiny little jack-o'lanterns instead, PITT pen to the rescue again!

and..some envelope art to go with this one too! A little Jack doodle using my PITT pen and a little stamping and I have an adorable spooktackular envelope!

Now on to revamp some more cards!

penguin love

Oh my beachy stars, this stamp set; Summer Grumplings ( even the name is adorable! ) is sooooo cute!!

Simon Says: Photo Inspiration

 To get a truly flat card, but with loads of dimension; I made masks of the sun, penguin stamps and an umbrella which I drew. I laid them down on my 3x5" Gel Press® plate in reverse and then applied my distress paint on the plate and "stamped" it onto the front of the card. Then it was super easy to go back in with my DMC PITT pens and color everything.

Totally crushing on this size plate for my card making! It rocks!

Wait until you see the envelope art I made to go with this card.

Come back tomorrow!

Published!

I love being published, I really do. There is nothing better than seeing your name and what you created being deemed worthy enough to print. I began back in 2010 and have been published 31 times. I have saved each issue too, and when I am old and grey...wait, I'm already old and grey....OK, when I am put away in a nursing home I will bring all the magazines with me...they might as well plan on burying them with me too!

I also love making paper and pressing leaves and flowers. This card uses paper I made from my Arnold Grummer Papermill kit and a Maple leaf I dried in my Arnold Grummer Microfluer press.

If you get the Cardmaker magazine I hope you check out my card on p. 87, but you can always find me on the Arnold Grummer Facebook page along with the other members of our creative design team.

Sundays with Sandee and Daisy Mae

Last week over at Simon Stamps they asked to see your pet, and this is the picture I took of little Miss Daisy Mae, I thought it was cute enough that it inspired me to paint her for my weekly Sundays with Sandee video.

You will see in the video that she added her own distressed look to the watercolor paper by chewing on the edge during taping.

And this is my final result, between chasing her around the desk, trying to keep the barricade I created from falling over on her (because she was trying to get around it!) and defending my art supplies, I think it turned out pretty well!! lol

You can watch all the chaos here.

I also got THE CUTEST STAMP SET...can you tell I really, really like it?

It's called If cows could talk, and if they could, they would tell you how cute they are! Plus you get a coordinating die which I love! I used a scrap of monoprint to cut him out. The background is made from my Gel Press® plate and Distress paints, looks like I'll be doing this technique like forever! 

 This is my card I made to enter in 

Simon Says: Anything Goes

And for fun, I created a matching envelope for him. I used the same technique for the background ( and if you're interested in it, you can watch a short video tutorial here ) and, then I painted a barn. The barn is where you would write the address to the person it is going to which is why it's a white barn. :)

or should I say I write barn? lol

Don't they look cute together?

Oh no Toto!

Being one that 

a. that doesn't like to waste anything 

and 

b. is all things inspired by The Wizard of Oz 

and

c. is a tiny bit sarcastic 

(OK, maybe a bit more than tiny lol)

I couldn't help but re-use the wand mask that I utilized in my "There's no place like home" print I created using my Gel Press® plate for this Dorothy inspired birthday card.

The star is really sparkly, take my word for it and don't you just love these distress painted backgrounds? I am so hooked on this technique! Which you can find here in this video.

entering this in

The Mixed Media Monthly challenge

#26 Reach for the Stars

The gnome and Edgar Degas

I really enjoy creating my own sentiments on the computer, if you haven't tried this yet I would recommend doing so. It's a great way to really express your own personality. Plus there are so many different fonts out there it can become addicting to collect them as well.

And yes, I do love puns, I find them to be quirky :), kinda like me.

And there is no better appeal than the background made from a Gel Press® print. It creates depth and interest in a snap, plus they are just so much fun to make. I like to keep lots of prints on hand just to have a stock of papers to choose from when I make cards.

I dressed up this little gnome from the What's Up Gnomey? stamp set with some tiny pom pom ribbon. 

Altering stamps is another thing I like to do. I used a mask to block out the flower he was holding, made my own little paint brush and cut it out and then stuck it in his hand. This really helps tie in the image to the wording.

Here's to great things in your future!

Simon Says: Anything Goes

Lemon Squeezy

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Tic Tac Toe

I used the first row of ingredients, the sequins, color blue and spray.

and

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Add Some Shimmer

The inspiration for my card today came from fellow Gel Press® designer Lea Cioci to use the plate to achieve a watercolor effect. The blue flower was created following her instructions and you can visit her post HERE.

I also sprayed some Lindy's spray ink directly on my 3x5" Gel Press® plate to create a yummy background! It's full of shine and shimmer! Spray directly on to your plate and this way you can really control that spray blast! 

Then flip the plate over and press down on top of the card base.

Look at all that shimmer!

Fun and easy....lemon squeezy!

slang phrase (from an old British detergent commercial) used to express that something was quickly and easily done.

I had no idea that's where that expression came from, lol

Hey Gill-friend!

How ya doing?

( best said line from Joey from Friends! )

I miss that show, I think I need to have a Friends marathon on Netflix, whose bringing the wine...chocolate?

This is my latest installment of the Sundays with Sandee video, enjoy!

Thanks for being there for me

Yesterday's card, the "Make Your Own Fireworks" was the first pull and today's card is the second pull or "ghost print" which are usually my favorites. I am really enjoying mono-printing with my Gel Press® plate directly onto the front of the card base.

I stamped an image on the left side and then re-stamped the butterfly onto a sheet of "run-off paper", you know, the paper where you run your brayer onto after spreading your paint onto the plate. I then covered the butterfly with Faber-Castell Glass Bead Glitter gel to hide the seam, which it did an awesome job doing! 

What seam you ask? Well you can see that the stamp is a "side stamp" and it didn't have a full butterfly, so after stamping the image on my "run-off" paper and cutting it out, I then took a picture of it, reversed the image on my computer and printed it out and voila I had the other side. I then glued them together but you could see the seam so I covered it with the glass bead medium. I don't think you can even tell.

entering my card in:

Simon Says: Add Some Shimmer

Make your own fireworks

Motivation is literally the desire to do things. It's the difference between waking up before dawn to pound the pavement and lazing around the house all day. It's the crucial element in setting and attaining goals—and research shows you can influence your own levels of motivation and self-control. So figure out what you want, power through the pain period, and start being who you want to be.

So go on, make your own fireworks!

I can't get enough of this combination, distress paints on my Gel Press™ plate. The way the Distress paints move around is extremely addicting to watch.

Go on, ohhh and ahhh over this background just like you would if you were outside on the 4th of July watching fireworks. 

So who is the best at making their own light show? Fireflies or if you are from the south, we call them little darlings lightening bugs down here! What’s more magical than a firefly light show on a warm summer night? I used some of my PITT pens to color them in and a Micron to outline my drawing for emphasis. 

They are bioluminescent, meaning that they can produce their own light. So I add some stickles to help their little light shimmer and shine! Then cut it out so I could adhere it to the front of my card.

To help the firefly stand out from the background ( I mean, we all want to stand out, right? ) I outlined him with a white Signo...my favorite go to pen of all time.

An interesting fact I learned about fireflies...only the ones along the east coast light up...now I wonder why that is?

entering my card in

Simon Says: Add Some Shimmer

Huge thanks

I have fallen in love with using Distress Paints on my Gel Press™ plate. ( Thanks Anna for reminding me about this technique! ) There is something so mesmerizing about watching the paint move on it...now who says watching paint dry is boring? Well, not me I say! lol
I also am crushing on this 3x5" size plate, just perfect for printing directly onto my card face.

The most important thing to remember is to not place too much paint on it to get this effect. This is the first pull from the Gel Press™ plate.

Next I stamped my whale and sentiment ( Paper Smooches - Surf and Turf stamp set ) on a separate piece of white cardstock and then cut them out to adhere to the front of the card. I colored them in with my trusty PITT pens.

I will have a video up on my Youtube channel this Sunday under Sunday's with Sandee, hop over and subscribe now so you won't miss it.

Go on now, I'll wait for you right here :)

entering my card in 

Simon Says: Animal Magic