Sunday, December 30, 2007

Cards On Drugs

Apparently, my creativity isn't stifled by the use of Hydrocodone! My surgery went well on Friday and I'm at home recuperating now. The pain is tolerable as long as I'm taking the pain medication. I haven't stopped taking it long enough to find out just how painful it really could be and don't plan to do so. Since I can't get out and drive or operate heavy machinery, I've been making some cards. This first card was made using one of the new hostess stamp sets called "Infinite Goodness". All images are stamped in Jet Black StazOn and then watercolored using Mellow Moss and Brocade Blue. The dragonfly is mounted on Stampin' Dimensionals and was covered in Dazzling Diamonds using a glue pen.


This card is made using the "A Little Birdie Told Me" stamp set from the Spring/Summer Preview 2008 catalog. All images are stamped using Jet Black StazOn and are colored with SU markers. The ribbon was some plain yellow ribbon that I purchased at Hobby Lobby and then stamped with an image from the "A Beautiful Thing" stamp set using Jet Black StazOn.



This card uses the new "Happy Heart Day" stamp set. These images were also stamped using Jet Black StazOn and then colored with SU markers. I used the Petals & Paisley DSP and some pink ribbon that was purchased at Hobby Lobby.



...And last, but not least... this card uses the "Embrace Life" stamp set. I masked the floral image and stamped it using Jet Black StazOn ink. The flowers were then watercolored using Ruby Red and Cameo Coral Classic inks and a watercolor pen. The stamped image is mounted on a piece of Ruby Red CS and then a piece of Basic Black CS. The card base is a piece of Basic Black CS with a slightly smaller piece of River Rock CS with the "Weathered" background image stamped on it. Ribbon is from Hobby Lobby. I think this is my favorite of all four cards that I've made under the influence of pain killers. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep this creative streak when they're no longer needed! TTFN!!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

A Lot Of Catching Up To Do...

...And I don't know that I'll get it all done tonight. I have, finally, got all my pictures from Christmas downloaded to my PC, but don't have them uploaded to my Kodak Gallery for public viewing yet. I'll be working on that over the next several days while I'm home recuperating from my tonsillectomy. That's scheduled for tomorrow morning, by the way, and I'm getting more nervous as the time gets closer. Anyway, I have several photos to share of some of the projects I made just before Christmas. This is part of the reason I couldn't find time to post to my blog!


Here are the rest of my Christmas cards for this year. I think we counted about 85 of them that went out in the mail. I had a nice assortment from these three cards and all the Christmas cards you see in previous posts. The first two cards were made using the 'Holiday Tag Team' stamp set and the third card used the 'Perfect Presentation' and 'Many Merry Messages' sets. I'll try to post more details, later, about all the colors and accessories used on these cards.









The next four photos are gifts that I made for co-workers. The first two are made by using 5 X 7 acrylic photo frames and each one accomodates a calendar and a small Post-It note pad. The ink pens were purchased at the dollar store and I just rolled a pieced of DSP and placed inside each one.


The Post-It note holders in these photos use 4 X 6 acrylic photo frames. The calendars are made from chipboard coasters and the clip boards were purchased at CVS Pharmacy. The first set uses the Fall Flowers DSP and the second uses the Outlaw DSP.


If you'd like to view any of these pictures a little more closely, you should be able to see an enlarged version by clicking on the pictures. The next three photos are the dry erase/cork boards that I made for the kids in our family this year. There were a total of six of them, but the girls' boards were all the same as were the boys'. These are made using the old wooden window frames that we had taken out of our house earlier this year. The frames were painted with a base coat of magnetic paint, so the kids can use magnets around the outside of the board. I put dry erase board (purchased in a 4' X 8' sheet at Lowe's) in the top pane and corkboard in the bottom. I stamped each of their names, using the Big Deal alphabet, on white tissue paper. The girls' names were heat embossed using Irridescent Ice embossing powder. I adhered the names to the boards using Crystal Effects. I used the 'Bold Butterfly' (retired) stamp set to stamp images around the frame in Jet Black StazOn. I then colored the images with acrylic paints. I found some cute drawer pulls at Target that I attached to the bottom of the frame. A wire mesh pencil cup, with a ribbon handle, hangs from one of the drawer pulls to hold an eraser, markers, and spare magnets. The boards for the boys were stamped using the sports themed stamp sets from SU.












The next two images are the handbags I sewed for Curt's Mom and his sister. Curt's parents spent 28 years in Taiwan as Baptist missionaries, hence the reason for the Oriental themed gifts. His sister spent her entire childhood there, so I thought they'd enjoy these.



The next set of photos is a gift box and a blank set of notecards made using the Symbols of Solicitude stamp set and some stamps I picked up at Hobby Lobby. It is near impossible to find any oriental themed designer paper, so I had to make my own. The gift box contained 12 cards, 4 each of the designs below.




I have more pictures to share of our celebrations with family this Christmas, but won't be able to get them all uploaded this evening. I'll get that done soon, though, because I know we have family members who are very anxious to see those. TTFN!

Monday, December 17, 2007

I'm coming back... I promise!!

I have been SO busy working on projects for Christmas gifts and I'm still not finished. I'm going to be taking an extra day off work this week to, HOPEFULLY, finish up. Once everything is finished and I have some pictures, I'll be sure to post them. I also have pictures from our little snowfall this last weekend. We got close to an inch and it was BEAUTIFUL!! I'm sorry, again, for the lack of posts, but I PROMISE I'll be back soon!!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

I'm stumped...

All weekend I've been on a creative roll and haven't stopped making things. This afternoon, I decided to switch to making cards for a while. Most of my projects, this weekend, have involved sitting at the sewing machine for hours on end or out in the garage running a table saw, electric sander, or a paintbrush. It's just like Santa's workshop... except for one thing... I'm the ENTIRE assembly line! Anyway, I decided to work on my Christmas cards again this afternoon, but wanted to do some different designs. The first attempt wasn't awful, but I don't really like it well enough to share it with you. It will go into "don't try this again" file. My next attempt was BEE-YOU-TEE-FUL... and I never saw it coming! The base of this card is Purely Pomegranate card stock with a layer of Very Vanilla over that one. I layered a piece of gold "mirror paper" (purchased at JoAnn's) which I embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and layered that on the bottom half of the card. I stamped the angel from the Holy Triptych set on Very Vanilla card stock in Encore gold ink and heat embossed it using gold embossing tinsel that was purchased at Hobby Lobby. I watercolored the image using my Purely Pomegranate ink refill. I used a glue pen on her wing and sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds over it. I then mounted the stamped image on a piece of Purely Pomegranate card stock to mat it. After adding the image to my card base, I tied a piece of the Pure Pomegranate wide satin ribbon on the left-hand side of the card. ABSOLUTELY SMASHING!!! (If I do say so, myself!) There's just one problem. That ribbon? Well, it makes a pretty fat bow and I do mean pretty! I'm pretty sure the postage would be double on these little beauties. You won't mind if I just turn it into an e-card and e-mail the picture to you, will you? Just kidding!! I really won't be sending many of these out, however, due to the extra postage requirement. I hope you like it and thanks for looking!! TTFN!


P.S. About those other artsy-fartsy things I'm working on... you probably won't see those until after Christmas! Sorry!