Art Inspired!

I found a challenge on SplitcoastStampers that I was inspired by. We were supposed to go to a website called Art.Com and choose a piece of art for inspiration. Then make a card based on that piece of art. So...I chose this piece of art by Jon Bertelli as my starting point.



And this is the card I made using the art as my inspiration...



The stamp is from a company called Biblical Impressions. I have a set of animals from the company...and this is the first time this particular stamp has seen ink. Up until now it's been a virgin! LOL. The saying is from a clear set of stamps from Stampendous. The rest should be pretty self explanatory! Simple card but I REALLY like it.

Enjoy!

Jane

Case-A-Sister-Challenge

Good morning every one! As many of you know, I belong to a group of stampers called the Sisterhood of Blogging Stampers 4 (or SBS4 for short). I haven't met any of these ladies in person - but we are committed to visiting each others' blogs and encouraging each other along the stamping way. One of the things we do...is challenges. This month we have a challenge going on called the "Case a sister challenge". We are supposed to visit the other SBS4 blogs and choose a card that one of them made within the last month and we are supposed to copy it in a way that is recognizable. It doesn't have to be exactly the same but it does need to be similar enough. We don't say WHO we are casing...but instead the other sisters make guesses and there are prizes involved.

Anyways, that's the story behind this card. If you'd like to "play" along and make a guess of your own...the SBS4 sisters' blogs are all listed to the right of my blog. You can go check them out and guess who I am CASEing.



Have a great day everyone!

Jane

Favorite card of the weekend!

Ok...I have to share this here NOW. I can't post it to Splitcoast until tomorrow (no upload Sundays) but I wanted to share it somewhere...so here it is! :-)

Yesterday was World Card Making Day (yes, there IS such a day!) As part of that event, they hosted several challenges on Splitcoaststampers. My card actually combines a few of the challenges. It is the sketch challenge, the inspiration challenge, and the ways to use it challenge.

Here is the sketch I followed:



The inspiration was this Coldwater Creek catalog cover...I followed the leaves and the yellowish color through into my sample...



And lastly the Ways to Use it Challenge was this:
"Doesn’t fall always make you think of trees, of warm rich colors and cool fresh breezes? Trees are such wonderful images, inspiring us with strength, hope, renewal and constancy. Think of the imagery we get from trees – sheltering us, growing roots, reaching to the sky. Well, if you can’t tell, I’ve been on a major tree kick this year (going green and all, I guess!). So, my challenge to you is simple. Show me your trees!

Whether it’s a spring tree ready to bloom, a naked tree in winter, a happy Christmas tree or fall foliage; whether you want to show the tiniest bit of a leaf or a huge forest; make them crazy, make them fun, make them elegant. If you can’t find a tree you want to use, don’t despair. We’re all flexible here so you can also use anything that is related to trees – leaves, acorns, even small woodland creatures! Get creative and let’s pay tribute to our arboreal friends."

Are you ready to see what I came up with? I really love this card. It looks SO much better in real life. It was hard to get a picture with the transparency and the black card base (and my photobox is black) but hopefully this photo does it a LITTLE bit of justice!



Supplies:
Stamps -
Close To My Heart (Skeleton Leaves)
Stampin' Up (Weathered Background and Small Sayings)
Cardstock -
Close To My Heart
Other -
Mini brads (Joann's brand)
Transparency
Alcohol Inks
Techniques -
Distressing (sanding and dragging edges with scissors)
Alcohol Transparency over the main stamped image

Enjoy!

Jane

Have to Keep it Short and Simple today...

I'm running late (hitting the snooze alarm 3 times will do that to you! ;-)) That would go back to my posting earlier this week that said "Not a morning person doesn't being to cover it!" LOL. I'm a night owl. And as such I stay up way too late and then 5:30 comes around in the morning and I REALLY don't want to get out of that bed. Sigh.

Anyways, I did want to say how well received my nugget boxes were from yesterday. My boss loved his (he seems to get a kick out of my creativity more than the two gals I work with). He asked me where I bought the box and when I told him I made it he was amazed. I could hear him telling people all day long that I MADE that box. So funny. Then I came home and I had an email from the owner of Clear Dollar Stamps telling me how much she loved my boxes and could she post them on her website! Of course I said "yes". I feel like a celebrity!

On my way home last night I stopped and bought a full set of the prismacolor pencils with the gift card I got for Christmas. Used a 50% off coupon so was able to get the set of 48 for $30. Yay!

Anyways - here's my artwork for today. It was a Limited Supply Challenge from SCS. You could use ONLY white cardstock but could use 2-3 patterned papers, no specialty tools, no brads or other embellishments...the only embellishment you could use was one piece of ribbon. This is what I came up with.



The Bella image is one I received as part of a PIF (pay it forward) on Splitcoaststampers. I love the Bellas but don't own any of them. So far I have resisted the urge! LOL.

Have a great day!

Jane

Artwork...as promised!

A couple weeks ago I placed my first order at Hambo Stamps. They have some adorable stuff and I love their humor. They were having a sale so I HAD to finally take the plunge and buy a few stamps. The customer service there was awesome and I'd highly recommend them. (Especially if you have a slightly ill sense of humor! ;-) ) Well, yesterday my stamps arrived and I was in the mood to create.

So I went onto SCS and looked for a challenge. I didn't like the sketch challenge for the week so checked out the limited supply challenge. This week the challenge is to use a white card base and limited layers and limited embellishments. Umm...ok, I could do that. (Let me just say now...that sometimes it's the simple things that are the most difficult!)

My first envisionment was a plain white card with a rectangle dry embossed in the center and that was where I'd stamp my penguins. Well, I did that...but the embossing just didn't "pop" on the card the way I wanted it to. I wanted the whole center section to be up and really the only raised part was the four lines around the edge of the rectangle. And it looked too plain. So I masked off the center section and stamped snowflakes (SU) around the rectangle and sponged the edges. Better but still boring. So I finally opted to add the tiny "frame" around the rectangle, the ribbon, the brads, and glitter glue to the ice cubes.



I finally like it well enough to call it done...but still don't love it. I do love the images though. They are so cute!



One thing to note, their unmounted stamps come with the sticky cushion attached (so you can place it on wood). I thought it was EZ Mount (with static cling) and I plopped the first one on my acrylic block and then couldn't get it off! Yikes! So the rest of the stamping I did by holding the stamps with my fingers...guess I need to find a few small wood blocks!

Have a great day all!

Jane

Paper Piecing Card

I found an old techniques challenge on SCS to do paper piecing (something I rarely do) and decided to take the challenge. I love, love, LOVE this card in real life. But I can't get a good picture of it to save my life. So forgive the photos and love the card. :-)

To do paper piecing you basically stamp your image on white cardstock...then stamp again on patterned paper. You cut out the patterned paper and adhere over the white stamped image. Usually you see this more with stamps where people are wearing clothing (like a dress they then use patterned paper for). I went outside the box and did a floral image. The image is from TAC and is called Oopsie Daisy. I stamped my image four times total (once on white, once on blue patterned, once on green patterned and once on yellow patterned). I cut out all the colored pieces and adhered to the white one. I also added a black brad to the center of my flower. The blue flowered paper is SU paper (a gift from a friend...thanks Concetta!). Other papers are from a DCWV stack.



And here are a couple close ups of the flower image...




Enjoy. I'm off to get ready for work.

Jane

Sketch & Limited Supply Challenge

I seem to have gone straight from Halloween cards to Christmas cards this weekend. The card I'm sharing today is one that meets SC144 (Sketch Challenge 144) on SCS and also meets LSC136 (Limited Supply Challenge 136). The limited supply challenge stated you could only use a sentiment stamp (no backgrounds, no images).

Combining the two...this is what I came up with...



The saying is an older wood mounted one from Close To My Heart. It was perfect for this sketch. Most of my greetings are smaller - but this one worked well for the sketch. Everything else is just paper - and three mini brads from Queen & Co.

This morning I woke up to the sound of a helicopter. Not that unusual around here (there is a airbase just a bit away from us so sometimes they fly over) but then in my muddled brain I realized that the sound wasn't going away. Opened my eyes and saw red lights flashing through our blinds. Got up and looked out at the medical helicopter which was landed in our cul-de-sac. Two things happened...first off I wondered who it was for and secondly I flashed back 10+ years ago when they were all there to get my husband who'd been bleeding internally and lost 7 units of blood. I got dressed and went outside to see what I could find out. There is an older couple that lives in our cul-de-sac. They've lived here since slightly before us. So we've been neighbors for about 11 years. They took the male away to the nearest hospital - but told us he had no heartbeat and wasn't breathing on his own. His wife will be lost without him. Typical older couple - he always dominated, she always waited on him. I think she's stronger than we give her credit for. At least I hope so because it wasn't looking good when they took him away this morning.

On a more cheerful note, I applied for another Design Team on Friday. It's for an online company called Prickley Pear Stamps. I've bought a few of their unmounted stamps in the past. I was able to submit one item using their stamps and a couple other items. So wish me luck.

I was hoping that more places would have sales yesterday (National Card Making Day) but didn't find any. I did break down and went to Gina K's site and ordered this, and this, and this, and this. I LOVE her crab designs...they are so personable. I guess you can see why my fantasy includes going on her cruise next year...anyone win the lottery lately and want to pay my way??? ;-)

Jane

Another Halloween Card

I can't seem to quit making halloween cards this year.

This uses two new stamps that I picked up (from the $1 section at Michael's). I created the card for the Limited Supply Challenge on Splitcoaststampers. The LSC80 states that you can use one main image stamp and one greeting stamp....but NO background stamps or any other stamps.

I did a little creative matting on this by cutting out areas of the image so the black mat shows through. I think it added just the little bit that it needed. I love the "The Witch Is In" stamp. I'm thinking I could be silly and use this all year round when I'm feeling witchy. Or you could cross out the W and replace with another letter just to be a smartie. ;-)

Without further ado...here's the card!



Have a great Sunday.

Jane

Basic Masking Tutorial

The limited supply challenge for this week on Splitcoaststampers is to use a non-halloween animal stamp to make a halloween tent card. I figured it was a prime time to do a tutorial on simple masking.

I will be using a hippo stamp and adding a witches hat. The easiest way to do masking is to use post-it notes (at least that's the easiest way I've found. So here are the two stamps I'll be using and the post-it notes.



The first thing I'm going to do is make my mask. So I'm going to stamp the witches hat on the sticky portion of the post-it note. After stamping you are going to cut out the mask just inside (or on) the line.



Now...take the same image and stamp it onto your cardstock. Here I've stamped it onto white cardstock.



NOW, you are going to use your mask. Take the post-it image and place it directly on top of the stamped image on the cardstock.



Once your mask is in place you are ready to stamp the next image (in my case the hippo).





Now remove the mask and your image is finished!



I could have stamped a single hat on white cardstock and cut it out and then just glued it on top of the hippo's head. Sounds easier right? But if you are doing multiples (or if you don't want the cut/paste look) then masking is the way to go. If you're using clear stamps then masking becomes even easier.

Masking can be used in many ways and can be used for more indepth techniques. With masking you can place items inside other items (like placing items "inside" a basket), you can make things sit on top of other things (like a dog sitting on a chair) or you can build scenes with items in the front and then build backwards...masking as you go. It may seem daunting but hopefully the step by step pics makes it easier to understand! You can also do "reverse masking". For example you can make your mask, place it on the image and then sponge blue ink around it to make it look like blue sky. Or...I also use a variation of masking to do my coloring at times. I will stamp my image on glossy cardstock and then cut portions of it out (say all the flower parts I want to be red), then stamp the same image again and cut out different portions (say all the flower parts I want to be yellow)...repeat for each color you plan to use. Then you basically use it template. You lay it over the areas you want to color (so only those areas are exposed and sponge on ink), then use the next template. Sometime I'll show that technique. For now...here is the finished card I made with the basic masking!





Hope you enjoyed!

Jane

Ahoy Matey!

At this rate my blog is going to be a million pages long...but I'm bored...therefore I stamp! ;-)

I bought this stamp at the expo last weekend and then I saw THIS challenge to use a pirate stamp and the sketch. Couldn't ask for a more perfect fit! The stamp is by After Midnight. The AHOY on the ribbon and the AHOY MATEY greeting are made using Karen Foster snap stamps. LOVE my snap stamps!





Don't get too comfortable...I'm sure I'll be adding more artwork later (unless I decide just to crawl in bed with my Robin Cook book instead)!

Jane

Happy Sunday!

Good morning all! First off...let me share another card! This one was created using Beate's Sketch Challenge #15.

The stamps are from a cheapo set I got at Michael's last year. It doesn't have a company name...just stays "distributed by Michael's" on the box. The background stamp (circles) is from Cornish Heritage Farms. It was one that was/is being retired so I got it for half off. Gotta love that! LOL!



And now that the fun stuff is over...I thought I'd share some more about the work situation and update you. I did have an interview on Friday which I felt went REALLY well. At least this time they are only interviewing 4 people...not 40 like one of the other jobs I interviewed for. If nothing else, I feel honored to have even been 1 of the 4 chosen. My main qualm about this one is that two of the interviewees are internal applicants and I know usually that gives them priority. A good thing is that the two ladies I'd be working with used to work at one of the companies I did and knows a lot of the same people (good people who will give me references).

Last night I was wide awake WAY too late and found a personality test to take which is supposed to tell you which type of personality you have and which sort of careers would be best for you. I think this one really nailed me. So I thought I'd share it with you. I am considered an ISFJ personality type...to read a description of what that means you can click HERE. And for the career types they recommended you can click HERE. What's funny is that I'd considered many of these careers but ultimately chose not to do some of them BECAUSE of my personality. I know I could never be in social work or nursing...it'd kill me because I take things too personally and want to help everyone.

Anyways, just thought that was interesting. I think if you know me personally you'll see how closely these two sites hit my personality. It was a series of about 40 questions that I had to answer. I don't think it said the name of the test, or even if it's a standard test. Regardless, interesting nonetheless!

Have a great Sunday all!

Jane

Can we say "OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE"???

Ok...I really do like how this card turned out...but it is SO not my style! ;-)

This morning I went blog hopping looking for some inspiration and found it here in the form of a sketch challenge. Doesn't hurt that there is a potential "prize" for this sketch challenge! But mainly I just chose it because it was different than anything I've ever done.

When I printed the sketch I envisioned a pink/yellow card using my flourishes set. Very soft floral...even thought about making it into a baby card. As you can see...that is SO NOT what it evolved into! :-) I'd called this "grunge"...others call it shabby chic I believe. Here are the pics and I'll tell you what products and such I used after the pics.







Ok...like I said...I started with a pastel idea. I stamped SU's Linen background stamp tone on tone 2nd generation on the pink cardstock. Then I stamped the Happy Birthday (CTMH) in black...but it looked SO black that now the rest of the card looked silly. So I inked all the edges of everything. I stamped the flourish (Autumn Leaves) in 1st generation pink. Still looked unbalanced...so restamped the flourish in black...moving it just a bit to the right. The bottom scallop is made by using SU's slit punch...repeated punch moving down the strip of cardstock. Then I went back and used a regular hole punch in the middle of each scallop so the yellow showed through. And THEN I went back with the 1/16 punch and punched a tiny hole it each of the larger holes. I added the flowers (and inked them as well). The strip of yellow is faux stitched. Used my SU piercing guide and punched every other hole and then connected.

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

Jane

Basket of Blessings and thoughts on perfectionism

Good morning all! Last night I decided to do the Limited Supply Challenge on SCS. The challenge was to use 1)ONE main image stamp 2)For the background you could use a stamp, a flourish, or patterned paper 3)ONE sentiment stamp 4)Any color ink & solid cardstock 5)ONE of these embellishments: ribbon, brads, buttons, eyelets 6)ONE speciality tool: piercer, crimper, cuttlebug, or punch.

I combined that with my personal "I Can See Clearly Now" challenge to use stamps from cdstamps.com and this is what I came up with.



I did a few things that I'm not sure were ok for the Limited Supply Challenge (but they weren't excluded so I assume they were ok). I used two patterned papers for my background, I used brown kraft CS to make my own "ribbon", I used a pen to make faux stitching, and I used pop-dot adhesive on the main image so it pops up. I colored in the apples using chalks (and the blender I got at the expo). And technically my "main image" is 2 stamps...because the stamp set has a couple different baskets and different fillers for the baskets so you can mix/match. OTHER than that...it's totally legit! LOL!

Ok...let's swing another direction here and let me ask a question. Do you think perfectionism is a learned trait or an innate trait? I'm a perfectionist about most things (not about being neat and tidy in the house but in other areas). I always thought this was because of how I grew up. I have three older brothers and my Dad always showed a preference for them. My Mom told me once that he loved me in his own way, but that he'd wanted me to be a boy. So I thought that's where it started for me. Always trying to do what my brothers did to earn his love.

But now I'm a parent and I have two children. My youngest is a total perfectionist (and was since at least kindergarten). I'm a very laid back parent. I don't sit there and make them do things over and over again. I don't berate them for less than stellar grades as long as they are trying their best. So I don't know where this perfectionism comes from. And it breaks my heart to see it in him so young. This morning he forgot his backpack. No big deal, right? I show up to the school with the backpack and everyone is talking about it. He was sobbing and upset and noone could console him. NOONE got after him at all. It should have been a simple, "I forgot my backpack call" and I would have dropped it and no big deal. But he was beside himself and the more anyone tried to talk to him the more upset he became. They finally just waited for me to get there. I hugged him and told him it wasn't a big deal. That his older brother forgot things some times, etc. He was still snuffling when I left.

I was talking to the special ed teacher on my way out and I guess she'd talked to him too. I told her that I'm a perfectionist for myself but I've never been that way with the kids. She agreed and she said she thought it was just innate in some people. OTOH, I've had this discussion with a counselor who thinks that he sees me being a perfectionist towards myself and copies. SO....what are you and your kids like? Do you think some people are just born that way? Do you think it's learned? Maybe a little of both?

Talk to me people! ;-)