Snowflakes in November

 One of the best things about being a Stampin'Up! demonstrator is getting a sneak peak of the products that are coming around the corner.  I got to preorder this snowflake set and I'm having a lot of fun with it.   But, this set and other products become available on November 1 and are only available for the month.

Yesterday I used the ghosting technique (above) using all the individual snowflake available in the Snow is Glistening stamp set and topped it off with a wonderful flourish of snowflakes cut from the (scrumptious) velvet paper.

 

 Today I splashed some blue Brusho Crystal Color onto a piece of shimmery cardstock and topped it with the largest thinlit snowflake; again cut from the velvet paper.

If you love snowflakes be sure to contact me in November to get your supplies.

That's it for today,

Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

Watercolour Easter

Yesterday's Friday Mashup was to use Daffodil Delight, Perfect Plum and Wild Wasabi with a Blender Pen or Aqua Painter to create a watercolour effect.  I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches this week also.

I have given the directions below - but I wanted to note that for the Cotton Ribbon, I used the Aquapainter and reinker, just like I did for the flower background.  I was able to deepen the colour a bit more and I found that it "soaked" into the fabric better than applying colour with a marker.

Hope you have a fabulous Saturday - I've got a workshop this afternoon and then I'm going to start    re-painting some baseboards - gotta love Spring Break!

Thanks for stopping in!

Joan

Geometric Hooray

I played along with Freshly Made Sketches and Create with Connie and Mary this afternoon.  I don't have the little triangle punch yet, so I just cut out the triangles from the "Geometrical" set I got at Leadership.

I also did a little water colouring - love the idea from Brian Pilling at Leadership!  This will be one of the cards we do at next months' technique class!

Triple Thanks So Much

Bonjour-Hello.......Happy Sunday Stamps.  You've got to excuse me today - I'm currently in Ottawa, and you hear just about as much French here as English.  

Hayley has a great sketch for us this week - I love the little string of banners.....and I love how our design team members have interpreted the sketch in a variety of ways....so be sure you check out the blog for inspiration.

I created this card before I left home for holidays - I used a piece that I had thought of using for another card, but set aside.  Ya gotta keep those little "bloopers" - because they end up being useful in the end.  I used watercolour paper for the base of the focal piece - which is how I created the aged/distressed edge.

I've been having a fantastic holiday - and one memorable highlight will be the evening I met two members of Design Teams while in Ottawa.  Hayley (from Sunday Stamps) and Tara (from MDS Monday) met me for dinner at the Baton Rouge and it was like we were getting together as old friends instead of meeting as cyber friends for the first time.  Good food, good laughs, good memories, new friends.  I had a outstanding time and I look forward to getting together with these ladies again in the future!!!

I hope you are having some memorable times this summer.

Thanks for stopping by here for a wee visit.

Joan

Celebrate Easter & Spring

Happy Easter Everyone!  Blessings to you and your family!

It's a sketch day at Sunday Stamps this week and I love the one that Hayley has provided for us.  You could interpret the different sections in so many ways: varied DSP, varied embossing folders, varied colours, and as I chose, varied stamps.  I've been laid flat in bed, sick, for seven of the last ten days of spring break.....so I picked bright colours and a happy spring theme to perk me up!

I used a strip of our watercolour paper to create the rainbow along the side with an aquapainter and re-inker.  Then, just to bling things up a bit, I coloured our rhinestones with Sharpie to fall through the rainbow.  I'm figuring if Brian Pilling can colour rhinestones with Sharpie, so can I - and why not - it's awesome!

Check out the Sunday Stamps Challenge Blog if you're looking for some wonderful inspiration from the Design Team - and then let us see what you create!  Link your creation back to the blog by April 5 at 6pm EST.

Have fun creating, and enjoy the day celebrating the blessings of Easter.

Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

Rainbow Butterfly

I played around with my markers, re-inkers and watercolour paper the other night.  Oh I could make a ton of these.  The butterfly didn't come out a dark as I'd like because of the watercolour paper - it's got a lot of texture - I'll try this again with embossing powder.

I didn't want to clutter up the front with a greeting - but it certainly could be used for any occasion.

It's Friday - woo hoo -

I'm preparing for "Chicks and Chocolates" tomorrow afternoon

Hope you have a fabulous day - don't forget

ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT OF SALE-A-BRATION

(sorry - the rainbow was calling to me)

Thanks for stopping by

Joan

Swallowtail Clear-Mount Stamp	129216
Price: $16.95 Swallowtail Wood-Mount Stamp 129213 Price: $21.95 6 X 9 Watercolor Paper 122959 Price: $5.95

Merry Monday Chickadee

I haven't used this chickadee for along time - I don't even think he came out to play during this past holiday season - so he's gearing up for 2013!  The sketch from Merry Monday was clean and simple and once I decided on the chickadee it really didn't take me long to decide on the rest - which is a good thing on a busy evening.  I used watercolour paper for the base of the chickadee using the aquapainter to colour him in.

Stamp Set - Beautiful Season

Paper - Very Vanilla,  Be of Good Cheer DSP, Watercolour Paper

Ink - Black Staz-On, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, So Saffron, Basic Gray

Tools - Decorative Label Punch, Aqua Painter

Embellishments - Natural Trim, Designer Vintage Faceted Buttons, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, Dimensionals

Here's one of my favorite mandalas in my altered book.  I sponged the entire page with Tempting Turquoise before drawing the mandala and I coloured in the spots with our white gel pen.  Let me say - I think our gel pens really are the best.  I have the most success with them!

I'm off to do more arting and crafting.  I'm almost ready to create the cover for this little book.  I'm a bit scared about it - but ya gotta jump in.

Hope your week is off to a great start.  Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

More Altered Journal Pages

I've been working in my altered book almost everyday - experimenting with different things.  I drew in these flowers first and then I covered the page with our Watercolor Wonder Crayons and used the aqua painter to blend in the colour.  I suppose the crayons would react differently depending on what kind of paper the book was made from...I was happy with this result.

I must admit I used regular sharpies for this page - I stuck my ipad music on shuffle and incorporated the names of the artists within the doodles.  My main objective for this page was to practice my swirls.  They still need work.

I used the brayer and ink pads for the base of this page...going from Summer Starfruit, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango up to Cajun Craze.  Sharpie was used for the Mandala.

Hope you have a creative day - Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

Sunday Stamps Lion

We may have a whole whack of snow on the ground here in Northern Alberta - but it's wonderful autumn colours for our Colour Challenge from Holly today at Sunday Stamps.

Although the colours do make me think of fall I've chosen to take on a more masculine theme with the colours.  I love this lion and felt the colours worked pretty well for him.  I just added a bit of green for the grass.  The glimmer paper seemed to go well to - although it changes the masculine feel.  (I have so many bits and pieces of glimmer paper in my craft room from Christmas projects - it's ridiculous.)

I hope you give these colours a try - my American friends can use them perfectly for Thanksgiving projects.  When you've finished your creation, be sure to connect a link to the Sunday Stamps Blog so we can enjoy it too.  We have some new Design Team Members this week also to help inspire you.  Welcome to Raquelle, Melissa and Steph.

Hope everything is going well your way.

Thanks for taking the time to visit.

Joan

Cards, Scrapbooks and Guest Books...

Look Out....There's lots to look at today!

First - Here is my card for the Merry Monday Challenge - It's straight forward enough that I think I'm going to use as one of the designs for my Christmas in August.  I'm very happy to have happened across this challenge - although I've known Lesley for a while now.  It's helping me plan ahead better!  

I love two step stamping and used watercolour paper with this image.

Now - here are the scrapbook pages that I've created as I follow Lyssa Griffin Zwalonek's "31 Pages in 31 Days...trying to get some paper scrapping done in the midst of all the MDS scrapping. I worked on a number of them yesterday to get caught up - please excuse the cement background - I found the sunlight a lot better to photograph in yesterday than my basement.

Day 2 - Allison groaned when she saw this, but I like this photo.

Day 3 - a double spread.  I copied Lyssa's leaves exactly, but my arrangement of photos is different.  I wanted to use a bunch of the photos my Mother has taken over the years.  I miss the autumn colours of the east!

Day 4 - This sketch centred around the "page element" which was created....the Two Tags with the heading on them.  I created the tags the same way, but changed up the papers for the flower and the page arrangement is different too.  I loved the idea of all the little bits of paper along the edge - great way to use up little pieces - however I did go looking for words that worked with the subject matter.

Day 5 - By the time I started working on this sketch I decided that I needed to go get some more of my pictures copied and enlarged.  The only one I had that I thought I could work with on this sketch was of me in the early 60's.  I've also discovered that my camera now has two little specks on the lens that I can't get off....hmmmm must look into that.

Finally - I'm sharing a book that I was asked to create for a co-worker who is getting married this month and needed a guest book.  I based the cover on her invitation, and actually cut out the names from her invitation so that things co-ordinated.  On the inside I took the "Everything Eleanor" swirl and stamped the top and bottom (alternately) of each page just to add a bit of colour on the inside of the book.

That's it for right now - I'm waiting for some Crystal Effects to dry for today's scrapbook sketch - so I may post that page later this evening....and yes - it may take that long for the Crystal Effects to dry.

Hope you are enjoying your summer day - and the last of the long weekend.  Thanks for stopping by to take a peak.

Joan

Double Stamped Watercolour

I stumbled on something new today - well, new for me.  I was working on two challenges - Freshly Made Sketches and colours from Stampin' Royalty....Pool Party, Island Indigo, Old Olive and More Mustard.

I selected an image from Serene Silhouettes and pulled out some watercolour paper.  I coloured the stamp using Markers and then wet the watercolour paper before I stamped the image.  I spritzed the paper with water, but I also rubbed it around with my fingers (which miraculously didn't have any ink on them!).  I didn't want water to be pooling on the paper.  I stamped the image and, of course, the colours ran - as they should with watercolour paper.  I decided to ink up the image again, use the Stamp-a-ma-jig, and re-stamp overtop of the blurry image.  

I'm sure this is nothing new - but it allowed the image to look sharper.

It's a beautiful Wednesday evening.  Hope you're enjoying the flora and fauna in your little neck of the woods.  Thanks for visiting mine.

Joan

Watercolour Thoughts

Well, after traveling a total of three hours yesterday in varying degrees of snow and rain - it was nice to sit around and do practically nothing today!  I had a great time stamping with the ladies - but I was a bit warn out after driving.

Today's Paper Players challenge was to use watercolour - I used the AquaPainter with markers on Watercolour paper for the image.  

The colours are courtesy of Create with Connie and Mary - Concord Crush, Marina Mist and Certainly Celery.

Finally - the sketch is from Stamping 411 - I've changed it a bit because of the size of the image.

We had a nice visit with Elliot and his parents this evening - and now my daughter and husband are hunkered down watching the Canucks play.  I do believe I'll go waste a bit of time with a computer game before I head to bed.

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend - thanks for visiting.

Joan

Umbrella Thanks

I'm sorry I haven't used this set more often - I really like the images - this umbrella and the corset.

Today's creation is a blend of Stampin' Royalty for the sketch, Handstamped Sentiments asks for watercolour this week  and Color Throwdown for the colours - Elegant Eggplant, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, and I used Baha Breeze instead of Brocade Blue.

I used ink and aqua painter for the umbrella and for the faces of each of the watches I added a bit of Crystal Effects.  I absolutely love this pleated ribbon; it's so easy to work with.

We've only got one more day of school before spring break.  Wooo Hooo!  

I haven't shared a picture of Elliot since he was born - he's such a precious calm baby! 

Have an enjoyable day!

Thanks for visiting! 

Joan

Thank You Snow Much!

Yipee - 1) It's Friday....2) I have the morning off to play in my stamping room before going to school... 3) it's the last day of school...4) Life is peachy keen....5) - It's Friday Mashup! day.  What more can be said?!

I used today's Friday Mashup! and Splitcoasts Color Challenge for this week to create this card to give to our school secretary from my husband and I.   She took care of our concert programs (for his band concert and my elementary concert) without a blink and created a wonderful display table at the entrance of the gym for the programs to be available.  I'm always appreciative of the people in the world who take initiative to do things while some of us have our heads full of other things at the time.

Today's Mashup! was a sketch and/or the use of watercolours.  The colours from Splitcoast were Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder and Lucky Limeade.  Not really for this particular season - which is what they were trying to move away from for the week - but a snowman can be dressed in anything so it all works out.  I thought this snowman image was perfect two because of the two little birds singing out their thanks!

I'm off to finish some more gift card holders and maybe do a bit of cleaning before heading to school.  Hope your day is fantastic and that someone helps you out in some way today.  Thanks for taking the time to visit.
Joan

Dino Birthday

 I do so love these little dinosaurs - they're just so cute.  I've used the sketch from this past week's Splitcoast Sketch Challenge and the colours - More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy, Cajun Craze and Very Vanilla are from The Paper Players

I stamped the little dinos onto the vertical Vanilla strip with Staz-On Black so that they wouldn't run with the blender pen.  I didn't really pay attention to their placement, so when I was going to put on the square focal piece, I realized that one of the heads would be covered - so I just cut it away so that it would overlap onto the matting.

Here are the next two pages of my anniversary book - I still have to wait two days before giving it to my husband.  I have, however, decided how I am going to package it and "give" it to him.

 The choir pictures range from going on our first Concordia Choir tour,  the Concordia Community Choir, the two church choirs we've sung in and a small church choral group.

 

I know I cased this page - at least parts of it from someone I saw on the MDS website.

Hope your weekend has been wonderful - thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Joan

Lazing the day away...

I must say I have been fairly lazy today - it's all I can do to keep my eyes open.  Ridiculous!!!  I did, however, have a great time at Regionals yesterday.  Lots of see and learn!

After my nap....a waste of time, but necessary....I went to my stamp room to create this card for The Paper Players challenge to include a plant or animal on your project.  I was centering on the lion, but I guess I have a bit of flora happening too.

The two semi-circles are glossy paper which I rubbed with So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, and Marina Mist with the edges accented with Not Quite Navy.

I hope you have had time to relax a bit this weekend to prepare for the upcoming week.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by for a visit.
Joan

Fall Birthday Wishes

 We're having beautiful weather this weekend, but you can still feel the fall season moving into place with the crisp air in the early morning.  I just love that crisp fall air!  I also love shuffling my feet through the leaves once they've hit the ground.  Thankfully we aren't that far into the season yet.

Today's card is a combination of The Paper Players request for a Birthday card (it's amazing how many people I know who are born in September, so this is a very timely challenge!) and the sketch is from Stampin' 411.

Hope you are enjoying your long weekend - Thanks for visiting!
Joan

Watercolour Pear

Well, I spent the morning cleaning cupboards in the kitchen (wanted to do only one and ended up doing three - that whole migration of work thing happening again - yikes!)  Then I spent time designing a tin to put a series of Christmas tags in for a class - I am pleased as punch with the way it turned out and will share it with you another day.  Finally I nestled into a couple of challenges for the day -

Hand Stamped Sentiments is looking for either real or faux stitching on this weeks project.  I knew I was going to use this pear image because the SUOnly Challenge is  to use one of your new favorite stamp sets (or your favorite one in general if you haven't gotten any new ones lately).  As soon as I saw this Faith in Nature Hostess set I knew I wanted to have it; so I picked it as one of my Pre-Orders in June (Just one of those perks about being a SU demonstrator).

I used Staz-On ink and then the Aquapainter with So Saffron and Old Olive to paint the pear.  The mat pack, paper piercing tool and Soft Suede fine tip marker helped me to create the faux stitching along the edge.  For the River Rock "matt" I used the new "Stripes" embossing folder and put the paper through in two directions giving the paper a cool woven effect.  Finally the DSP is from the Well Worn package.

Remember that Stampin'Up! has a fantastic special on Designer Series Paper until the end of the month - Buy 3 packages and get one FREE.  Let me know if you'd like me to set you up with some (you can truly never have too much DSP!), or visit the Designer Series Paper "department" of my on-line store at my website. Your order will sent directly to you!

Well, I'm now going to focus on working on some more pages for the Anniversary book I'm making for my husband and I  on My Digital Studio.  I'm going to have it printed into a book by SU so I'm on a bit of a time-line.

Deadlines are good for us - hope you have some goals your aiming for too - thanks for taking the time to stop by for a visit.
Joan

Smudged Cherry Friends

Lesson Learned:  Don't start putting your card pieces together if your hands are a bit sweaty from the heat!!! You'll notice the Cherry Cobbler smudges on the homemade DSP - I made one smudge accidentally and decided just to make marks over the whole thing to make it look like I did it on purpose.  Our inks dry pretty fast - so I obviously inked the image a bit too much - on top of the moist fingers.

Upon returning from Banff I had a box of stuff from Stampin'Up! waiting for me...which included the new Simply Scored Scoring Tool.  I have been waiting for SU to come out with their equivalent of the Scor-Pal for quite a while and am so excited it's finally here!  I didn't use it a lot on this piece - but did create the small "embossed" squares along the right side of the card.

Today's sketch is from The Sweet Stop,  I've used the SCS Colour Challenge from this past week - Crumb Cake, a yellow (Daffodil Delight) a red (Cherry Cobbler) and a green (Lucky Limeade).  I've also used the challenge from Our Creative Corner to include fruit.

I'll have to remember to go out to our garden this afternoon to pick the raspberries which ripened while I was gone.  Mus'n't be wasted!

We're enjoying a wonderfully sunny day today - hope things are sunny and bright in your neck of the woods too.  Thanks for dropping by!
Joan

ps - Just checked my e-mail and found out I was picked by The Paper Players:

  for my school card which I posted HERE.  Thank you so much ladies - it's an honour and I'm tickled pink!  I love playing along with your challenges and I'm so happy to have found your site.

Thanks Giraffe

Happy Thursday - Today's sketch is from Splitcoast Stampers and the colors come from Create Ink. ( Pool Party,  Not Quite Navy, So Saffron)  You should go over to their blog to see what the DT has created this week - they're spectacular.

I've stayed on the edge of plain today again..... I had all the layers put together, except for the giraffe - and I just couldn't help putting the whole thing through the Big Shot with the Polka Dot embossing folder - I just couldn't take the flat paper today.  I did have to deviate a bit from the Create Ink colours in order to darken up the giraffe's spots - I touched them a bit with Soft Suede.  The grass is a combination of the Not Quite Navy and the So Saffron.

I hoping to get some workshop planning done today and some pictures copied.  However, I can be so easily distracted these days that we'll just have to see what the day holds!

If you have a list of jobs to do for today, I hope you get most of them done!  Thanks for taking time to stop by for a visit.
Joan