Crop Getaway Information

I received some information today that may be of interest to my local audience, so I thought I'd pass it along.

Plans are being made for a crop getaway, which will be held in Port St. Lucie, Florida from 11:00am Friday, June 20, 2008 through 3:00pm Sunday, June 22, 2008. It's a package deal, and accomodations will be at the Hilton Garden Inn at PGA Village. For more information, please contact EscapeToCreate@comcast.net.

Talk to you soon.....

Free Shipping and the Bathing Beauty

This week I'm offering Free Shipping on domestic orders at My Paper Moon in honor of it being a Leap Year. To get free shipping, just visit http://www.mypapermoon.com/, place your order and at check-out enter Free Shipping for the coupon code.

All stamps used are by My Paper Moon, artwork by Shelly H.

This card was made by my good friend, Shelly, and since it's so cold and snowy in parts of the United States, I felt it would be good to remind you that summer will surely come sooner or later, and this is what you have to look forward to. Of course, in Florida it's already very, very warm and we aren't looking forward to it being warmer for summer.

Notice that the bathing beauty is paper sculpted? This is a great technique for giving something texture and dimension. I got the following instructions from Shelly. She's a GREAT teacher.

• Stamp your image on watercolor paper with permanent ink.
• Water color the image and let dry.
• Cut out image.
• Moisten the back of the image with water on your fingers.
• Place image on a piece of fun foam.
• On the back of the image use a bone folder or spoon to gently curve the areas of the image that should pop out.
• Use a stylus to crease areas to emphasize details on the front of the image.
• Let dry.
• Blacken edges of image w/ a permanent black marker.
• When you attach the image to your artwork, use pieces of double stick foam tape under the rounded areas & adhesive around the edges of the image.

It's easy to do and gives such a nice effect. Give it a try. This technique would also look great with flowers.

Talk to you soon...

Sympathy Card

The mother-in-law of one of my husband's co-workers passed away this week, and I was tasked to make a sympathy card. For these cards I always am of the opinion that less is more. Here is what I came up with.

Very simple card, using an image from My Paper Moon (http://www.mypapermoon.com). The inside of the card also is a verse from My Paper Moon, which says "Our thoughts are with you during this difficult time." The background of the dove was done with a wet paintbrush and mocha brown markers. The color variations gives it a very textured look. A few dark brown brads and it was completed.

Have a great weekend...

Animals with Hats

I told you I joined a swap called Animals with Hats. Here is my ATC depicting my animal with a hat. I call it Missy's New Hat. I wanted to put price tags on the hats (like Minnie Pearl - oh, dear, am I telling my age), but my tag dies were way too large. Even the tiny Quickutz tags. (If you don't know who Minnie Pearl is, email me and I'll tell ya.)

The manatee is a Stampsations! stamp, which is available from http://mypapermoon.com/, the hat is handmade, the bubbles are from a set of Dream Impressions stamps, and the sea grass if from a TAC (The Angel Company) set. The background I made by squishing some light blue re-inker around on glossy cardstock. I let that dry. Then I blotted some darker blue re-inker over it, and the lighter part became the darker part. I don't know how that happened. Some of the bubbles have glitter, as does the grass, to give it texture.

Did you get to stamp today? What did you make? I hope you have a happy weekend, and get to stamp.

Talk to you soon...

More Cuttlebug...

As promised in an earlier post, here are more cuttlebug cards. You can't tell it from the scan, but the center piece is embossed with the Cuttlebug. I believe it's the embossing folder set Fancy Corners. I embossed it on the green cardstock, then sponged over the raised parts with complementary colors of ink. The background papers are from K & Company. and another....

This one is done the same way. I used a coral brilliance ink to complement this card.

I love the look of these little embossed "medallions". And the only thing stamped on the card is the verse on the inside. Again, the background papers are from K & Company.

Did you see the lunar eclipse last night? I sat in my backyard from 10:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. and watched the moon getting more reddish brown. Good stuff. If you missed it, that's the last total lunal eclipse for 2008. There will be a total solar eclipse in August, but it will have a very narrow window of visibility, which will not include the U. S. Parts of the U. S. may be able to view a partial eclipse, though, so stay tuned...

Now that I've gotten that little bit of information out of my head, I will tell you that I joined a swap....Animals with Hats. I have mine already thought out and mostly made, and when they are complete, I will post one here before I mail them off. This will be a fun swap and I can't wait to see what I get back.

I'm also trying to come up with an idea so I can give stuff away here...if you have any suggestions, please, please, please let me know. You can email me or just leave a comment.

That's all for today....talk to you again soon....

Christmas cards and cards for the troops

Yes, I know it's only February, but I like to get a head start on my Christmas cards. Every January I challenge myself to make 5 Christmas cards a month. That's all I'm required to make, just 5. If I'm on a roll and having a good time, that's all well and good, I can make as many as I like, but I HAVE to make 5. By the time December rolls around, if I've only made the 5 required per month, I have 60 Christmas cards all ready made and ready to go. Here is one of the cards I made in January.

There are 6 stamps used to make this card. Stamps are from Dream Impressions.

It's a good thing I had all those cards made this past year, because in November I received a request for Christmas cards to send to the troops, and I ended up sending 150 Christmas cards that I had made, and still managed to make about 60 more to send to my friends. I wouldn't have been able to do that if I hadn't already had some cards made, so for me it's a personal thing. I would like to challenge you to make 5 Christmas cards a month, too. Leave me a comment and let me know if you are taking the challenge.

Speaking of cards to send to the troops, I have had a request from a Captain for cards for the troops to use to write home to their loved ones. These would be blank cards for them to write in, not cards that you are writing in for them. If you have cards laying around that need a good home, I would be delighted to send them to the troops. I have done this before, and I can tell you, the cards go very quickly, and there is always a request for more. If you are a demonstrator for Stampin' Up or The Angel Company or Close To My Heart or one of the other companies, and you have sample cards using retired sets, this is a great way to clean them out. And if you would like to put your contact info on them (just in case a stamper ultimately gets the card and wants to see what you have), that's great too. I would request that you send envelopes for the cards, as this gets quite expensive if I have to supply the envelopes and the postage to mail them to Iraq. I am getting together a box right now, so if this is something you think you would like to do, please email me at mypapermoon512@aol.com and let me know to wait for your cards. I can assure you they are greatly appreciated.

Hope you have a wonderful evening. Talk to you soon.

Good morning...

Good morning and Happy President's Day. Hope you are getting to do something fun today. I am unfortunately at work. Or it could be fortunately...because so many people are either out of work or it's very slow. So, I'm fortunate to have a job, but I don't have to like it. :-)

Holy Hammerhead, it's my mother-in-law! This was a fun-fun-fun page. I took my mother-in-laws face from a picture taken when she was young and put it on a different body. She didn't even recognize herself when she looked at the page.

I alter my pictures with Paint Shop Pro by Jasc Software. I've taken some online classes and there are so many things you can do with the software. I do recommend doing some tutorials to see just what you can do with it.

Here is a card made by Shelly, who designs wonderful cards:

Isn't this a cute card? It looks like me when I find a good sale. Any shopping day is a happy day.

Take some time for yourself today and do some stamping. I'll talk to you soon...

Here kitty, kitty

This is a whimsical scrapbook page I did with my 2 kitties, Boots and Shadow. It was lots of fun to manipulate the pictures in Paint Shop Pro. I love that program, although most people I know use Photo Shop. I am just comfortable with Paint Shop Pro, having taken several online classes, and can get it to do just about anything I want it to do. It may not be as automated as Photo Shop, but that's half the fun.

Will share more layouts later...

Cuttlebug

Woohoo! I got a little bit of time to play today with my new "bug". Here are some cards I made with the Stylized Flowers embossing folder.

The blue and green card was embossed on glossy white cardstock, then I added starburst stains in blue and green (Lindy's Stamp Gang). I stamped the saying on white cardstock and rounded the corners. I tried stamping it on white cardstock and then using the starburst stains to color it and then attach it with green ribbon, but the colors blended in with the background and it was almost invisible. So I think the white was the best choice.

The card on the top right was embossed on regular cardstock and colored with Colorbox cats eye chalk pads. It's really much prettier in real life. The colors are more vibrant, I think.

The card on the bottom left was embossed on a pearl cardstock then touches of color were added with the cats eye chalk pads by Colorbox.

The card on the bottom right was embossed on pearl cardstock, then colored with Brilliance Lightning Black. While it was still wet, I wiped it off with a paper towel, leaving color in the creases. It, too, is much more striking in real life.

So, that was what I made while I was playing with the Cuttlebug. I think it's going to be my new favorite toy for awhile.

Just a word or two about the starburst stains. These are great! I only have 3 colors, but I love them and plan on getting more in the future.

Talk to you soon....

Another scrapbook layout...

As promised, here is another scrapbook page:

I like this layout....it's clean looking and simple enough that my pictures are the focal point. I like to look at other's elaborate layouts, but that's not my style. I like my photos to be the center of attention. After all, that's the reason I scrapped them in the first place.

Woohoo! My cuttlebug, which I have nicknamed "Bug" has finally arrived. I only got a few of the embossing folders, but I can already see that I'll be saving my money to buy more. I only got to play with it a little bit, but it's sooooo much fun. I'll be using my Quickutz dies much more frequently now.

And I like the fact that I can use the Sizzix dies, also.

I got my beeswax, too, but haven't had time to play with it yet. I am hoping to get to play some tomorrow, but my day is going to be pretty busy. We'll have to wait and see. I'll post pictures if I get to play.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Digital Scrapbooking

Emilie Jade, my birthday angel, was born on my birthday.

This is my first attempt at digital scrapbooking. I don't have all the bells and whistles down yet, but I'm working on it. This is actually a challenge to use the word "special". I think it turned out pretty well for my first attempt at going digital. I liked the fact that I can do digital as a kind of test run, and if I like the layout, I can make an actual one by replicating it. Or just printing out my digital layout. I have digital "eyelets" and other embellishments, but I haven't used them yet. I figured I'd save them for another day.

I'll post other layouts as time permits.

Exciting news! Several of you wrote to tell me that I "needed" a cuttlebug, and I would like to thank you for enabling me. :-) I ordered one at a good price (with free shipping, too), and it should be here Friday. This was a treat to myself for not smoking for a month. Actually, I've gotten myself several "treats" this month, so I will have to skip next month's treat. I ordered a couple of the embossing plates, also. I mainly wanted it so I would be able to use all my dies in one machine. It's my understanding that Quickutz as well as sizzix will work, and I'm tired of the Quickutz handle. When I've had time to play, I'll post the "sandwiches" for the various dies. I'm hoping hubby will go fishing Saturday so I can play all day...lol.

Talk to you again soon.

Great Freebie Site and Free Templates

Here is a great site for freebies: http://www.tentwostudios.com/countdown/index.html from Lisa Vollrath at TenTwo Studios. I have used these free downloads many, many times. Enjoy!

From time to time I like to use templates. The following have given me permission to post links to their templates here. Check them out!

• Victorine Originals: http://www.victorineoriginals.com/html/patterns.html
• Mirkwood Designs: http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/mirkwooddesigns/templates.htm
• Chia's House of Stir Fry: http://www.houseofstirfry.com/chia/templates/tempI.html
• Stamper's Mall: http://www.stampersmall.com/templates/
  

Great for making a "different" card.

Becky

My ATC's

As promised (although late) here are a couple of ATC's I recently made. I like ATC's, the canvas is small and the possibilities are endless.


For this ATC, I had clipart of the hand with all the designs already drawn on it, so it was just a matter of coloring in the image. When I use clipart that's printed on regular printer paper, I like to laminate it. That way, it's almost like a photo, and you can stamp on the shiny surface with a waterproof permanent ink.

For this ATC, the image of the eyes are actually from the same stamp, I just stamped half on each side of the paper, and colored the eyes differently, and it looks like 2 different images. The key looks black, but it's really copper colored.

I purchased a couple of new stamp sets and I'll be working with those this weekend, so I'll post next week once I decide on a design.

Also, SUPER BOWL XLII is tomorrow! Woohoo! The anticipation is driving me crazy! Go Patriots! (I have to laugh here...until this year I never really liked football, but it has become my new sports interest...but only NFL football).

Talk to you soon...