Wednesday, June 16, 2010

June Creative Images Meeting

Wow! We had full house Monday night and I think everyone brought an exchange card (theme was “Feathered Friends”) and most of us brought ATC’s (“Layered Look”). Rosie did a great project, too! Lots of pics to share and lots to say. As always, click on a pic to enlarge it.

There was some confusion as to whether the ATC’s were to be birdies or the cards layered, but who cared. Layered cards and ATC birdies abounded. First up, Ella’s Spring is in the Air card. I think that is all one stamp, layered on some pretty BG paper. Love the blue eggs!

Ella's Spring

This is Connie’s fussy cut owlie. Love the sentiment! Who used to say that on TV long ago? Ahh, I remember. Kojak! I couldn’t stand him! LOL But if you were alive in the 70’s, you knew who loved you, baby! Link to Kojak is here.

Connie's Owlie

Because I can, here’s a pic of a card that doesn’t even exist any more! I popped out my 3-D birdies and layered them on what I thought were colors that matched the birdies. They may match, but they made me nauseous! When your friends have nothing good to say about something, you know it’s time to take that puppy apart and start over.

Kathy's 3D Birdies

This is what the three layers looked like after I dismantled the above. I hadn’t stuck them together, yet.

3D Birdies2

Ursula drew my name in the exchange. Bet she’s glad I came up with this one instead! I brought in two birdie cards and gave Ursula her choice. She took this one. While the die cut was nice and easy, I think I’ll keep doing my fussy cutting.

Kathy's 3D Birdies 2

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WE INTERRUPTED THIS BLOG DUE TO FLORIDA WEATHER! Yesterday, around 3:00, I was merrily typing away after getting all my pictures loaded to this post, when it got so dark (even next to picture window with blinds open!) I couldn’t even see my keyboard! That did not auger well! I went and took a peek out the front door, just as a huge bolt of lightning landed so close across the way that there wasn’t even thunder. Just CRAAAACK! No boom at all! Followed by KERFLOOSH! Slammed the door and came in here to turn off puter. I sat in the living room watching it blow, rain and light up for a while, then read with a lamp on until almost 5:00. By then, my mojo was gone. Click on this link here to see some pics of what the weather looked like yesterday (after the frog pic, of course) Pic 11 of 34 is real close to what it looked like around here yesterday.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging! LOL Good thing I could save it as a draft!

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The colors on this card by Pam are much better IRL. She made this little birdie with SU’s new two-step bird extra large punch and some patterned paper. It punches the birdie, the wing and the branch, all at once. Pam also used the scalloped edge trim and modern label punches on her feathered friend card and a tiny jewel for his eye.

Pam's Punchy birdie

Linda made this super bright, fun chicken card. Inside and on the envelope it says “From one chick to another!” I really loved this card (it has fussy cutting!) and when I pulled the last name out of the envelope for the exchange, it said “Linda!” Woo hoo!

Linda's Chicks

This is Lona’s card using a bit of a real peacock feather mounted on a layer embossed with a feathered embossing folder. Coooo-uhl!

Lona's Feather

Jeannie made this Autumny looking card with a bird punch, finishing up the birdies with gold Krylon and ruby jeweled eyes. Hey, Jeannie! It’s not purple and has no embossing! LOL We could still tell it was a Jeannie card! The Krylon and the ribbon give it away.

Jeannie's Trio

Holly made these three sparrows as her feathered friends. Lovely colors and layers and Primas, oh, my.

Holly's Trio

Ursula did some fussy cutting, too, on this cute little birdie card. Love the purples, too!

Ursula's Robin

This classy pink and silver card is Tange’s birdie card. Love the sentiment. Tange fussy cut and popped up the focal birdie.

Tange's Swallow

This is Therese’s little bluebird card. Therese has a bluebird nest in her yard, so she had to color this birdie as a bluebird. I like how she layered the circles, rather than just stacking them.

Therese's Birdie

Rosie had the project for June and here is a pic of her sample. Rosie also used the new SU two step bird extra large punch. Rosie had everything we needed, including the pearl eyes. The purple square is a left-opening flap that folds over on the peach side.

Rosie's Project closed

When you open the peach side, you see this scalloped piece we stamped a birdie on.

Rosie's Project half open

Here’s how the entire card is set up, with the sentiment inside the purple square. Rosie said she saw the fold online, but the card is her design. I don’t think Rosie can say she’s “just a beginner” any more. Great project, Rosie. Thanks!

Rosie's Project open

Here’s the outside of my finished project. Will definitely be using this fold again. Rosie punched extra wings, so I stuck mine behind the popped up birdie.

Kathy's Project

Next are three of the layered ATC’s nine of us (plus Bonnie, the sweet Priceless employee that keeps the shop open for us on meeting nights). I love how Bonnie’s little kitty is peeking out of her ATC at my two little birdies! Ella did the bright fussy cut cardinal on her popped up tree mosaic.

ATC's 3

For these four, Jeannie did the Paris Exposition ATC for another swap (I had extra, too, so I got this one). Jeannie also did the seahorse. Linda did the elegant black and white ATC. The top right corner is a flocked DSP and the lower left is glittery embossed swirls. The punched birdie is Pam’s. Love how she punched birdie in two colors to have a more realistic bird. She gave him an eye, too!

ATC's 1

These last four ATC’s start on top left with Holly’s lily, fussy cut and glittered with something that puffed up. Dark green layer is crimped. Birdie ATC is Ursula’s. How she stamped birdie on the glittery, textured light green CS is a mystery. Maybe with markers directly on the stamp? The little Asian lady is Therese’s with lots of, you guessed it, fussy cutting! Connie fussy cut the fashionable lady and embellished her hat with a feather and put a beaded necklace on her.

ATC's 2

Just because, so you can see how I designed my ATC, here is the first one I made. I used the Sizzlet Birds and Blooms for my birdie, which I layered over a Little Leaves Sizzlet. I had a 6x6” pack of double-sided designer papers and used several of the different Always Artichoke colors. The birdie looked lonely, so my final design included two birdies, flipped over so they faced each other, friend to friend, so to speak. Finished off with Modern Label and Word Window punches and sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Kathy's ATC

I brought in this card for show and tell and so whomever drew my name could decide which one they wanted. This or the 3D birdies above. I used more of the Always Artichoke double-sided DSP and fixed up the focal point the same way I would eventually do my ATC’s. I made the above ATC, then this card, then made my ATC’s in my final design. This card is an excellent example (even if I say so myself) of what one can do with an ATC, even if you’re not into ATC’s. I could make more of these bases and just slap an ATC on there.

Kathy's die cut birdies

Last, but not least, here’s another show and tell. This ship card was one I made with some die cuts called Pyramidenkarten from a company in Germany. I also got some of these in lighthouses and flowers. Here’s a link to the site, http://www.reddycards.de/, but it is in German. If you paste in these two words in the seach window, you will see the raw materials for the ships and lighthouses. Segelboote + Leuchttürme

I gave this card to Jeannie for Chip Shipp’s birthday Sunday. She was supposed to finish it with some sort of sentiment, but she and Chip liked it just fine as it was.

Chip Shipp's bd card

That’s it for now. Comments always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Pam’s Life’s a Beach Card

Pam missed our exchange last month, but she sent me a picture of her card.  She gave me permission to post it here and told me where to go to get information on how to make it.  Click on it to enlarge it.  Pam used the reeds from Autumn Days for her beach plants and Summer by the Sea (sadly, retired).  Pam said she colored the kids with an aqua painter and the ink-in-the lid technique.

Beach children step card

Go here for a link to the card Pam CASE’d made by Chris Twing.  Go here for a link to Chris’ blog.  I went there and couldn’t find the card or the instructions (although there’s lots of other great stuff), so I poked around in the resources on Splitcoast for a tutorial. Go here for a link to Beate’s tutorial on how to make the step card.  I thought I had the Summer by the Sea set. But as it appears not, I know a couple places where I can borrow it.  Hint, hint. 

That’s it for now. Comments always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

May Creative Images Meeting

A lot of us were out of town this week for various reasons, some for fun, some for sadness.  Our hearts go out to Linda on the loss of her mother.  Of the eight of us there last night, nine exchange cards were turned in.  Connie brought in Holly’s card.  Connie really wanted that little mermaid and was lucky enough to draw Holly’s name in the exchange.  Without more ado, here’s our “Life’s a Beach” exchange cards.  As always, click on the picture for details.

This first card is Jeannie’s purple vintage beach scene.  Jeannie said purple is her favorite color, this week.

Jeannie

Connie did this collage of beach motifs with some popped up shell embellishments.

Connie

Ella “strutted her stuff” with this popped up layered die cut seahorse.

Ella

Holly was off playing in Orlando this week, but had Connie bring in her exchange card with this fussy cut, popped up dreamy mermaid.

Holly

Therese made this card with the popped up frame around her colored flip flops.  Love the seashell border punch!

Therese

This is my palmy brayered silhouette sunset.  Russel didn’t like the brads!  Too bad!

Kathy

Lona made this torn and layered beach scene.  Love the little seabirds she cut out free hand and the puffy cotton ball cloud.

Lona

Rosie made this scallopy, glittery seahorse.  You can’t really tell, but there is frosty glitter all over it.

Rosie

Tange made this crabby sandcastle using the Perfect Pearl  technique Lona taught us last month.

Tange 

Tange did the project this month on how to use a brayer.  We did a nice background with versamark resist that we can use to make a card.  Lots of different brayers and colors made for lots of different results.  Very pretty, too.  Thanks, Tange!  I’m going to try to bring a finished card to show and tell next month.

For show and tell, Jeannie brought in a little blue wedding card she made using a “cherish” popped up embellishment. 

Jeannie's show and tell

That’s it for now. Comments always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Connie’s Workshop

Connie hosted a workshop in her fabulous crop room (we’re working on getting her to do more cards!) and along with Connie, we had nine ladies.  We made the flower pot I previewed last time and a Mother’s Day/birthday card made with retiring colors.  The ladies didn’t object to me taking pictures, so here goes.  As always, click on the pic to see it in detail.

First, Connie’s table set up.  We had room for lots more, so we will probably be discussing having a shoebox swap at her house sometime this summer. 

Connie's set up

This next pic is half the ladies showing off their flower pots.  They all managed to look a little different with everyone’s details.

Happy ladies

Here’s the rest of the ladies with their pots.  That’s my hostess in the black top.

More happy ladies

I learned how to make this pot from Kerin Sylvester’s video tutorial:  here.  Her video is great. Love that Daisy flowers, 2, die that I used to make all the flowers.

This last pic is one of the samples I made using Garden from the Heart.  Colored the hat and gloves with markers and fussy cut them out.  Lovely Lilac, Orchid Opulence and Yo Yo Yellow are all retiring.  

Garden from Heart 4

That’s it for now. Comments always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

April’s Stamp Club

Surprise!  I’m actually timely this month.  We had our meeting last night and while we had several absent members, we had ten ladies.  We decided what to do with our December Stamp Camp.  On our regular meeting on the second Monday of the month, we’re just going to have a pot luck Christmas party, exchange our Christmas cards, swap Christmas gift tags and have our Chinese gift exchange.  I’m thinking about a cookie exchange, too, maybe, for those who like that sort of thing.   The stamp camp will be some time in January, when we do projects that take longer than we can do at our monthly meetings.  So, start thinking about cool projects, ladies.

Our exchange theme this month was “My Favorite Color” and we had some great cards.  First up, my card with my favorite pink dogwood watercolored and fussy cut.  Click on any card for details.

Kathy's Pink Dogwood

Several ladies used purple as their favorite color.  First is Tange’s purple scalloped ovals on a dotted swiss background.

Tange's Purple Scallops

Helen’s get well card fooled us into thinking her favorite color was blue. 

Helen's Blue side

NOT!  Pink it is!

Helen's Pink Insides

Here’s another purple card, Holly’s Hi card with purple Primas.  Helen received this card in the exchange and was nice enough to scan and send me the pic since I forgot to take the pic after I wrote description on my cheat sheet! 

Holly's Purple Hi

Lona made this purty blue and silver dragonfly card.

Lona's Blue Dragonfly

Connie made this funky orange lamp card!  Something different from pink, blue and purple!

Connie's Orange Lamp

Jeannie submitted two purple cards, one finished and one not.  I call this one her “purple junk” card.  Look at the details and you’ll see the Chinese junk with its reflection.  This is a smaller than normal card.

Jeannie's Purple Junk

Since I got Jeannie’s name in the exchange, I chose the unfinished one and put it together this morning.  Lovely fussy cutting (my favorite) on the stylish lady.  Nothing embossed on this card, but you can still tell it’s Jeannie’s style.

Jeannie's Purple Lady 

Lona traded with Tange and did a great project using Perfect Pearl Powders.  I’d never used them before but it was a nifty technique.  Lona stamped the image on acetate with black Stazon and ran the acetate through her Xyron machine.  We peeled off the two layers, laid the image down sticky side up and brushed on the Perfect Pearl with detail brushes on the butterflies, clocks and coin.  Then we covered entire piece of acetate with Perfect Pearl (Lona and I used gold) before slipping the acetate powdered side down into the card front for which she had cut and punched the corners.  Here’s Lona’s sample with white background and mine with black.  The cards are really pretty and shimmery.  Thanks, Lona!

Lona's Perfect Pearls sample

Kathy's Perfect Pearls

That’s it for the cards.  Just because I can, here’s a picture I took this morning of the wisteria along the fence in my back yard.  I thought we had lost most of the wisteria in the cold snaps, but a couple days ago, it all just exploded!

Wisteria 2

Exciting news coming soon about Stampin’ Up’s color renovation.  Thirty colors are retiring, 10 retired in colors are returning, 5 totally new colors coming (for a total core of 40 instead of 48), 5 new in colors coming this year and 5 more next year.  Lots of specials to get everyone caught up, including customers, starting in July.  Markers, ink pads, crayons, pastels, all being updated.  If you kept your retired in colors from last year and have all the in colors from this year, there's only 5 totally new colors.  Soooo, it is not as bad as it looks, money wise.  It's the demos who got rid of last year's in colors that will be kicking themselves, even when there was a memo from SU to keep them.  Most are coming back, including Pacific Point and Riding Hood Red.  Let me know if you want to know what’s retiring so you can stock up on retiring cardstock and reinkers.

That’s it for now. Comments always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)