Christmas Tag #5

And here is the final tag:

I used some background cardstock I had, then stamped the tall trees, and embossed with clear embossing powder.  They weren't very vivid, so I colored them with permanent markers.  I added some sheer silver ribbon, the JOY letters, some holly and some snowflakes.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the tags I've made for my loved ones for Christmas, and maybe gotten a little inspiration along the way.

I hope you have a very merry Christmas.

Christmas Tag #4

Day 4:

I cut the Christmas trees from some paper I had, then added dimensional glaze.  I used the same music stamp I used in some of the other tags, and the Martha Stewart snowflake punch.  The JOY letters are from TAC stamps.  I embellished the snowflakes with jewels and glitter glue, and smeared some gold metallic acrylic paint on the side of the tag to give it some texture.

Hope you enjoyed this tag.  Tomorrow I will share the last tag.

Christmas Tag #3

Day 3 of the Christmas tags:

This tag is for Emilie, who is 8.  I used the Christmas Ornaments embossing folder, then layered the different elements. It created a fun tag that she'll like.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Tag #4.

Christmas Tag #2

Here is tag #2:

Rachel is in chorus in high school, so I chose a musical theme for her tag.  I used the music notes embossing folder, embossed the background with gold and sanded off the notes so they retained their natural color.  I stamped the JOY using TAC stamps, colored with copics, cut out and added dimensional glaze.  I stamped the music score, cut out, distressed the edges and added a paper flower that was colored with copics.  The name I used some EK Success stamps, colored with markers, punched out and added dimensional glaze.  Hope you like this one, too.

Christmas Tag #1

Good morning. As promised, here is my first Christmas tag:

I was inspired by Tim Holtz to make some tags this year.  I used his embossing folder technique for this tag.  The background is then embossed with white embossing powder and then the raised part was sanded off, allowing the background color to show through. 

The large snowflake is a cuttlebug punch, and I embellished it with glitter glue and jewels.  "J" "O" "Y" was punched out and colored with copics, then I added dimensional glaze to them.  The smaller snowflake is a Martha Stewart punch and it also was embellished with glitter glue.  I added a stamped piece of music and some trimming and I was done.

Hope you enjoyed it.  I'll have another tag tomorrow.

Christmas Card 2011

Wow, I've been gone awhile, and while I've been gone, Google changed how I blog.  It will be a new learning curve for me for sure.

How have you been?  I've got this stupid cold that is going around, and it stinks!  I don't know if I will ever kick it.  However, being sick is not all bad. I got a chance to get into my studio and create.  First I will give you a preview of some of my Christmas cards this year.  I mailed most of them out before I realized that I hadn't scanned them, so I apologize for only giving you a preview of one of them.

Some of the reindeer I added "ornaments" to the antlers with glitter glue. Because I get bored making the same card over and over. The cards have different background papers, just to keep it fresh.

I also made tags for Christmas presents.  So stay tuned, and tomorrow I will share the first tag.

Hope you are doing something crafty today...

Another Halloween Card

Good morning!  Halloween is fast approaching.  Are you dressing up?  Do you have any parties to go to? I usually dress up to give out candy.  I'd better hurry up and decide what I'm going to be this year.

My friend Lorian reminded me that I should have used Uncle Jumpy on one of my Halloween cards. So I did just that.

What do you think?  I think he adds a  little "terror" to the card. Or mystery.  Anyway, thanks for the idea, Lorian.

Hope you have a spookfully delightful Halloween...

Halloween Card

It's been awhile.  I've had computer problems (I smoked a brand new computer that wasn't even a week old), both here and at work.  Add to that that I am learning a new graphics program, and it's easy to see why I haven't been involved with the blog.  However, that is neither here nor there.

I do want to share some Halloween cards with you.  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Maybe it's because I can dress up and be anybody I want to be.  I do love to dress up for Halloween, as does my hubby, and we've become quite good at it.  We've been doctor and nurse, queen and court jester,  the American Gothic couple.  You get the idea.

I cased the card idea from Michelle Zindorf, but I changed up the stamps.  I made some with pumpkins and some with cats.  I'll show you both cards.

I couldn't decide which color moon I really liked, but now that I see them online, I'm thinking the white moon gives a much better contrast.  Different sentiments on the inside, too.  I think my granddaughters will enjoy them

I hope you have a safe and happy Halloween....

I'm here again...

It's been awhile since I posted, but life has a way of intruding at times.  Know what I mean?  Anyway, I haven't been idle, and here is one of the cards I recently made:

 I have had this patterned paper sitting around forever, and I picked up the elephant stamp from My Paper Moon and figured it was a match made in heaven.  The paper looks like elephant skin to me, and looks really textured.  I stained the background panel with distress inks, then stamped the elephant, one at a time.  Colored with Copic markers. I used a "stitch" stamp from TAC.  It was a quick and easy card, but still looks good.

One of my favorite magazines is Rubber Stamp Madness.  Have you seen it lately?  Check out their website or their Facebook page  Tell them Becky from My Paper Moon sent you.  You'll be glad you did.

Hope to see you again soon....till next time.....do something artsy.

A Man's Card

Just stopping by to post a card I recently made for my hubby.

Very easy...I ran an inkpad over a page out of an old book, then tore it into strips and layered it onto dark blue cardstock, which was layered onto the white card.  Then I used alcohol inks on glossy paper to make the background that I stamped the old truck on (TAC stamps).  I layered this onto white cardstock and onto the cut strips.  Three little pearls on the bottom and the card was done.

Hope you enjoy it.  It's very hot here and I've been having migraines, so not so much stamping for me lately.  About this time of year I start whining for cooler weather (which won't get here until late October or early November).

Stay cool...

Thank you

You are probably wondering why I haven't posted in awhile. It's because hubby got a new toy and he's keeping me busy on the weekends, the only real time I have to play.  Here is a pic of his new toy:

Isn't it cute?  It looks much smaller than it is. Inside it has a dining area that converts to a double bed, a sink, refrigerator and 2 burner stove, and a couch that converts to bunk beds.  And it has air conditioning. He likes to cook outside, so he also sets up a camp kitchen under a canopy and we usually eat outdoors on a picnic table when camping. So we have been camping and having a good time, but I've missed stamping.

As most of you know, I live in Florida. I have followed the Casey Anthony case since Caylee was missing and people were looking for her. A couple weekends ago we were camping in our new little travel trailer (pics below), and lo and behold our neighbor was a court judge in that jurisdiction.  He was over on this side of the state to get away from all the hoopla surrounding the case. We talked about it briefly, and I continued to follow the trial on Twitter. We had such a good time playing cards, and fishing so we exchanged addresses so we could camp together again.  After we got home, he called and invited me to go to court to hear some of the Anthony case in person.  How could I turn down an offer to witness history being made?  So last Saturday, my daughter and I made the trip to Orlando, where he gave us passes to attend the trial that day. It was a very educational experience.  

To show my appreciation, I made the card below to send to him. I doubt if he's ever received a Thank You card for sending someone to court  :-)

I also made my hubby a very similar card for Father's Day.  Stamps are Stampscapes and My Paper Moon.

Hope to see you again soon....

Dahlia Fold Fan

Good morning!  Well, it's been awhile since I've posted...again...but I haven't been sitting idly by doing nothing. I've been reading other blogs and getting ideas in inspiration. One of my favorite blogs to read is Juliet A's Ballpoint Bliss.

One of Juliet's posts was a tutorial for a dahlia fold fan. This was something I wanted to try. I'm not totally sure I did it correctly, but I like the results anyway.

In retrospect, I wish I had used a different background paper. I think the red patterned paper is too much, since I used it on the geisha's robe, the fan and the backgound, don't you? The stamp is by Sparkle N Sprinkle.

Ah, well, I will probably make more of these, so I can change the colors then.

Hope you have a great day!

Spring Fever

Yes, I admit it.  I have (and have had) Spring Fever.  My Muse has been gone for a little while and I'm having withdrawals.

So, in the meantime, here is a little something I put together for someone dear to me as a get well card.

My granddaughter got her tonsils out yesterday, and I wanted to cheer her up.

The piece of cardstock behind the imp is a leftover piece that I made with alcohol inks on glossy cardstock. I ran it through the cuttlebug with an embossing folder, then highlighted the raised part with a dark brown inkpad.  The little sparkles don't show it, but they have glitter on them. I used Copic markers to color the image.

Image: Magic Imp stamp by My Paper Moon

Hope you enjoy.

Oh, and if you see my Muse out wandering around, please send her home....

Neutral Shadows - with a twist

Hello, once again.  The weather today is absolutely gorgeous.  In the 70's, blue skies...  If it would only stay like this forever, I would be in heaven.

This month the Technique Junkies newsletter had a technique called Neutral Shadows, where you embossed an image with white embossing powder on white cardstock, then added shading with a neutral color.  I fell in love this this technique.

But I wanted to change it up a bit, so I embossed on black cardstock with black embossing powder (or you can use clear).  Here is what I came up with:

After embossing the image, I used Brilliance Moonlight White pigment ink to stipple around the image, giving it an aura or halo.  I matted the image on white cardstock. 

For the background I used white cardstock, then a layer of black, then a piece of black and white patterned cardstock.  I punched a piece of black cardstock with a scalloped border.  I used a white gel pen to make circles and adhered it to the background.  I put my finished layer on top and, viola, I was done.

A pretty simple card.  Please leave a comment here and let me know how you like it.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you are enjoying your day.  My wonderful husband took me out to dinner Saturday night, and gave me the money to get a Kindle E-Reader.  How sweet is that?

Here are a few cards I made for my sweetie and my children/grandchildren.  Hope you enjoy them.

This one was for hubby.  Something a little more masculine than I made for the girls.  The heart that the little boy is cutting out is covered with red glitter.  Very shiny.

 This one doesn't have a black dot on it in real life.  I guess it was on the scanner and I didn't catch it.

And this one has watermarked hearts on the last red layer, which didn't show up in the scan.

I decorated small paper sacks with Valentine's images and punched out hearts and heart doilies to hold the treats I bought my granddaughters.  I didn't get them much candy (except a few Hershey Kisses...what's Valentine's Day without kisses and chocolate?), but I got them some drawing tools, paint by numbers, small notebooks, etc.  

Have a happy day!

Mystic Bar Mix

Good morning.  During the Christmas holidays I told you that I was making some different treats for the holidays, and if any of them were keepers I would share the recipe with you.  Well, one of them as exceeded all expectations of being a keeper.  It is so good, in fact, that I have made 4 batches since Christmas.  I changed up the recipe, so I will share my altered version with you.  It's yummy!

What you will need:

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup butterscotch bits
• 1/4 cup Heath bar toffee bits
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/3 cup butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place butter in 13 x 9 pan and heat in oven until melted. Remove from oven
2. Place dry ingredients in large bowl and mix well.  Add sweetened condensed milk and stir until well blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan.
3. Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.

These bars remind me of bars I used to get at a bake sale when I was in high school (that's going back quite a ways). They were sooooo good, and I had never seen the recipe anywhere.  When I saw this recipe in a magazine, it was very similar but not quite.  The recipe in the magazine called for raisins and no butterscotch or toffee bits.  I'm not a big fan of raisins, so I left them out and reduced the chocolate chips so I could add the butterscotch and toffee bits. The result is fantastic.  Everyone who samples them wants the recipe, so I'm sharing it with you too.  If you give it a whirl, leave a comment and let me know how you like them.  

The Cat's Meow

Hello!  Good to see you again.

It's hump day and we're halfway through another week.  I'm a weekend person and love to spend it with my family, or crafting, so I live for Friday. I just found out there is a Hobby Lobby near me, and I'm cooking up a road trip. I don't have any craft stores really close by, so it's fun to have a girls day and spend it with my daughter and granddaughters going to craft stores. Of course, the times I have to take my hubby instead, he's pretty  good about hanging out while I shop. Usually I've let him shop first at the sporting goods store, so he's a happy chappy.

Anyway, today I wanted to share a special card I made for a special friend.

I love the Lady Catsby stamp, and for a special card she goes well with the Cat's Meow stamp. Another easy card with no lumps and bumps, since I'm mailing this card to my friend.

I stamped the cat onto glossy cardstock and colored with markers.  I cut apart the cat's meow stamp so I could put it on multiple lines, and stamped above and below the cat.  I used a ticket corner punch to trim the corners.  I layered it onto green cardstock and punched those corners as well.  I punched holes along each side of the white cardstock with my needle punch.  I used a pink lightly patterned cardstock for the background, and a scrap piece of floral patterned paper that I tore along one edge.  To give the card a little dimension, I used crystal lacquer on the parasol and the shoes. And I ended up with a stray black mark on the cardstock, so I covered it with a white bow. Pretty clever, don't you think?  I didn't want to throw it away and start all over. When I make a boo boo, I try to salvage the card if at all possible, since my time to craft and play is at a premium.

I'm happy with how the card turned out, and I'm sure my friend will be, too.

Hope you have a happy day...

Another Silhouette Lady

Good morning.  Hope all is well with you and yours.  Did you do anything fun this weekend?  We were invited to a bonfire at one of hubby's friends.  I made mystical bars and he made a huge pot of chili to add to the potluck fare.  We had a really great time.

For today's card I chose another Silhouette Lady.  This time it's Silhouette Lady #9.

Another easy card, but not so quick. Let's take a look:

The scan doesn't show it, but after I stamped the image of the lady on the white cardstock, I stamped it again, cut it out and layered it with pop dots. It took a little time to cut it out, with all the little nooks and crannies, but I'm glad I did. It looks really nice in person. I used a nestability die to cut the image into an oval, and a nestability die to cut the scalloped oval. I used my needle punch to punch holes in the scallops. I used a piece of the scrap paper from the scalloped oval to make a "ribbon", and used the needle punch to punch holes.

Happy with the results

Quick and Easy Thank You

Good morning!  Hope you are well this morning.  How is the weather where you live?  

I needed a thank you card for someone I don't know very well.  Gushy was out, and this little guy just begged to be used.  How could I resist?  

So, here is another quick and easy card, with no lumpy embellishments. Just perfect for mailing.

I used patterned paper for the background.  I stamped the little guy (Thanks) and colored using copic markers.  I punched out the oval using a nestability die, and did the same for the scalloped oval.  I punched holes around the perimeter using a needle punch tool.  I used an Angel Company stamp to stamp Thank You on scrap red paper and used a black marker to make the dots between.  For some bling I added glitter glue to the flowers.

I was quite pleased with the outcome.

Hope you have a creative week!

Silhouette Lady

Good morning!  I hope you had a restful weekend.  I had some obligations to take care of, then I got some time to play.

I recently released some Silhouette Ladies, and today I would like to introduce you to one of them.  I had a lot of fun making this card, even though it's a very simple card.  I like simple, easy to mail cards, without a lot of lumpy, bumpy embellishments.  I save that for cards I can hand deliver.

Anyway, here we go...

I chose Silhouette Lady #13 for this card.  She's very lovely and I thought she would look pretty in pink. The scalloped rectangles were cut using Nestability dies.  I added a little glitter to the flower to give them some bling. The background cardstock is textured.

For this card you can use any sentiment you would like on the inside.

Head on over to My Paper Moon to see the rest of the Silhouette Ladies.

Have a great week!

New Issue of Rubber Stamp Madness

New issue due out soon.

Start a subscription to RubberStampMadness, the original stamping magazine. The Spring 2011 issue has stories on tags, tips on coloring photostamps, using watercolor crayons with alcohol inks, combining iris folding with stamping, domino jewelry and more. Check out the artwork on two themes: Bunnies and She Loves. . . . If you love to stamp, check out RubberStampMadness. http://www.rsmadness.com

I can't wait to get my issue....Happy Stamping.

Winter Tag and New Images

Good evening. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year celebration. We spent Christmas at my daughter's, and we spent New Years there playing with the grandkid's Wii.  I think my hubby may be contemplating getting one.

I loved seeing Tim Holtz's Christmas tags. Alas, I don't have access to all his stamps and supplies, but using what I already have, I made this:

I stippled the tag with a couple different colors of blue.  I stamped the trees with black ink but didn't like how it turned out, so I overstamped them with green ink.  I think they turned out okay.  I used a swirl stamp to put a few swirls on the tag just to take up the open space.  I have a stamp that I love that is very similar to one of Tim's that is soooo versatile.  It's the Spatter Background Stamp and it looks like this:

You can use it for snow (like I did), or to add texture to a background. I've used it for rain and sand, and you are only limited by your imagination.

I punched some snowflakes and added glitter glue to give them sparkle.  I love snowflakes and love to make winter cards using them.  We don't have real snowflakes in Florida...lol.

And for the bottom I ran a piece of blue cardstock through the cuttlebug with an embossing folder, then ran my dark blue inkpad over the piece to darken the raised pieces.  I tore the bottom for added interest.

I stamped the "dream" stamp onto cream cardstock, tore it out and aged the edges with a dark brown ink.

I enjoyed making the tag, and I was pleased with the way it turned out.

And now, since we are in a new year, I wanted to introduce some new stamps.

There are 16 individual silhouette stamps. These stamps are approximately 1-1/2 x 2 inches each and are $3.50 each. You can see them by going to My Paper Moon and click on What's New. To celebrate this new release, I will be selling them for 10% off for a short time.

Hope you have a great week!