Last post of 2008 Where has the year gone?

Hi Everyone,

Well, we are drawing near the end of another year. A very creative and exciting year for me personally. Here is a Birthday card I made for my soon to be 7 year old granddaughter. I think she will like it.

I just can't get over how darn cute this little elephant is. In case you haven't been to my blog for a few days this elephant is from the Dr. Pea_Nut stamp set I bought at Our Craft Lounge a couple of weeks ago. I also bought Bub's Beaver.

I of course colored the elephant with copic markers. I stamped the scalloped punch birthday and trimmed close around the scallops and cut another yellow scallop punch to put behind it.

I used a corner rounder punch to create the scallop on the orange panel under the main elephant image. I tied a yellow stitched grosgrain ribbon around the entire image panel. I mounted the scalloped sentiment circle up on a photo mounting square. I added a few white gel pen accent dots and my cute cute birthday card is done. I think she will like it.

I will have some more cards for you tomorrow. My husband is out of town and nothing to stop me from stamping from dawn till dusk until Sunday, that's what I call a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!!!

Cathy

I took some time to do a couple of challenges

I decided that I would take a little time tonight and make a card for two challenges at GinaK Designs. I love the Hoodie set Just so Sporty by Melanie Muenchinger, sold at GinaK Designs.

I have always liked making black and white cards but I usually add a splash of red with it. This card was for two challenges on the GinaK Designs forum on Splitcoast Stampers. The first challenge Day 2 was to have something on your card "off kilter" I made my background cut at an angle thus satisfying the off kilter challenge.

The challenge for Day4 was to make a black and white card. I have had this cute dp that I got in a package of papers at Target. I colored the hoodie from the Just So Sporty set, stamped Thank U, sponged the edge with basic grey, and mounted on black card stock. I added a piece of black and white checked ribbon to the bottom of the main image. I added a black brad to one of the sateen flowers also available at GinaK Designs and my two challenges are complete in one card.

I have really missed doing the GinaK challenges but most of all I have missed having the money to buy her stamps, sigh, deep sigh! I know that there will be a new release next week and I am trying to budget a little so I can get at least one new set but we will have to see.

Be sure to check out my weekly post on Artistic Outpost. Wednesday is my designated day to add my projects to their blog site. Check it out sometime.

Goodnight,

Cathy

I'm Baack!

Hi Everybody:

Christmas is over at the Edgar household and I can get back to business now. Notice that I didn't say normal?!?

I don't want to make another Christmas card for at least 6 months, or see one for that matter. I am so ready to move on with Valentines day and just whatever cute thing I want to do. Tonight I finally made this card that I have had colored for months.

I know that you all remember that this set by Melanie Muenchinger called A Year of Flowers sold at GinaK Designs, is one of my favorite sets and I used the heck out of the poinsetta flower for holiday cards

I colored the rose with my River Rock stamp pad and aquapainter, Yep, I do know how to use other mediums, just always seem to pull out my copic markers. What can I say I love my copic markers!

I punched out the main image with my marvy giga scalloped oval punch and cut out the pink oval behind with my fiskars cutter. I had colored some leaves but they were too green so I went with plan B and stamped onto the same polka dot paper I used to mount the rose image. I had saved this piece of DP to use with this rose when I got it colored because it matched so perfectly. I found this piece of rose dp that I thought would coordinate nicely with the river rock polka dot. I didn't really like it, it was too plain until I decided to add the pink which is the back side of the river rock polka dot. I punched photo corners with my SU photo corner punch and put them behind the corners of the main image.

The pink ribbon was some that I dyed and the ribbon slide was from a bulk order from when I was a SU demo. I tend to hoard these little slides but sometimes they are just the accent that I am looking for so I do use them.

This isn't the monochromatic card that I had planned but I think it turned out pretty.

I have to get busy and get my Christmas Thank You cards made and sent this week. I have been working on them. I am using the My Cuppa Joe set from GinaK Designs (which I am sad to say is the last GinaK set that I have been able to get and I won that one from a challenge drawing). I know that there will be a new release and last month was the first month for quite a while that I couldn't buy any stamps. If I don't get any other stamps I have to get the butterflies but it was the free set if you bought 3 sets and I just have to wait until it is available for sale.

I hope that you are all as happy to see some new cards as I am to be making them. I am glad to be back to my mundane life of work by day and stamp by night. It's not cheap but still cheaper than therapy.

See you tomorrow. Goodnight

Cathy

Look at these cute stamps from Our Craft Lounge!

I am going to show you three of the cutest stamps that can be used for many different occassions from the fairly new Stamp Company Our Craft Lounge. The stamp set is called: Dr. Pea_Nut






I showed you this stamp a couple of days ago but I didn't make a card out of it and I had colored that one blue. I thought that a "sick" elephant would be green. He looks like he feels pretty bad to me. I colored them with copic markers of course, I seldom use anything else these days, just seems to be what I always grab.

Bub's the Beaver is the name of this stamp set from Our Craft Lounge and I love love love to color this set.

I have to work at using designer paper on my cards sometimes. It isn't that I don't have any, I have hundreds of sheets because I buy it when I see something I like or it is on sale. It is probably because I color the image and then make the card afterwards and I don't always find what I feel is the perfect dp. Sometimes being a perfectionist is a hinderence.

I sponged the edges with Ranger Vintage Photo Distressed Ink to soften the cut edges a little. I added a green brown ribbon under the main image. I popped up the main image on foam picture mounting tape and the scalloped sentiment is up on two stacked foam tapes to make it higher than the main image.

Finally I added the brown Robin's Egg Dew Drops from the Cowboy bottle.

My final image is also of Bub's the Beaver with my new favorite sentiment. "Well, I'll be dammed....."

This is another image that I showed you the other night with the blue elephant but I sponged the edges with Ranger Vintage Photo Distressed ink and added the cute brown gingham ribbon. It is still a pretty masculine card since there is only a ribbon knot and not a bow. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I may post sporatically for the next few days. I have to work tomorrow (Christmas Day), and Friday,and we are having our family Christmas on Saturday. Hopefully the weather stays nice like they are forecasting.

Hope to see you back here soon.

* * * *

I just read that Whimsey Stamps was having a Guest Designer call for January and the Bub's Beaver qualifies for the 3 layers and at least 3 embellishments and besides I think he is too cute. Must be an animal or Whimsey stamp. Here are the important details. Full requirements are available on Splitcoast Stampers under Design Team Calls:

Monthly guest designer for January 2009, design call now open!We are looking for a talented crafter who loves to stamp, create and share! Each monthly guest designer will be asked to create atleast one Whimsy Stamps project per week. This project must then be posted on your blog. Whimsy Stamps will post your artwork on the gallery page of our site. We also ask that you participate in any other Whimsy related challenges.Important:-Anyone from around the world may enter this design call.-Monthly Guest designers must have their own blogs to share and promote projects featuring Whimy Stamps.-Enter as many times as you would like.-It is not necessary, for this particular design call, to use a Whimsy Stamps image, however if you have one, please do.

* * * *

I love to be on a design team, it gives me a true purpose to stamp and create not just because I love to do it and would do it anyway.

Cathy

My First InStyle Stamps!

I got my first order of InStyle Stamps yesterday and made these cute cards.

All of the images are colored with copic markers, my usual medium of choice.

InStyle Stamps is a new stamp company that just opened an internet store a couple of weeks ago. The images are sold as single stamps. Check out the store and Virginia's, (InStyle Stamps owner), blog. The stamp above is a modified version of the Roxy Stamp. I changed the hair size from the huge afro to this modified afro just for fun and because I can :)

Here is a stamp called Pam:

The stamp only has one dog on a leash but I added two additional friends for a more fun walk. I like the saying "It's all Good" because it works for so many things. I made the bottom dog walking outside the frame. This technique is called outside the box and I think it adds a little interest to an otherwise pretty plain card.

My final stamped image is the Roxy without any hair adjustments:

This depicts my high school era. Yes, I am that old! I have always liked the colors blue and green together, maybe for that very reason. I colored the image with copic markers and then used my copic blender pen to make the blue jeans appear bleached out or very worn.

I airbrushed the prima flowers with my copic airbrush the largest on the bottom in green and the middle in blue. I added a blue and green large brad to compliment the color scheme.

I hope that you enjoyed learning about this new company and seeing a few of the stamps they are offering currently. Virginia is adding more stamps all the time and has some great challenges, contests and the cutest animated images that she will make from your photos. Check it out.

I hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas.

Cathy

OMG these stamps are too dammed cute!

I placed my first order from Our Craft Lounge on Friday and they arrived today. I was soo excited to get them. I was even more excited when I realized that I didn't have to cut them out and the packaging is the best I have ever seen. Here are my two samples:

This darling elephant image is from the Dr. Pea-Nut set and I thought since I was making him a little sick elephant he would be blue. I used copic markers to color him and I haven't decided what kind of card I will make I couldn't wait to post these to show you.

The second image is the cutest grumpy beaver and who doesn't need a stamp that says "Well, I'll be dammed...." I know I do and I know I will use it a lot :)

Isn't he just the cutest ever! I can't wait to have some time to color some more as there are several cute images on this set that I can't wait to use. Make sure you check out these sets and all of the others from Our Craft Lounge. This set is called Bubs the Beaver.

The artist of these darling stamps is none other than Marianne Walker, Product Specialist for Copic in North America, who taught the Copic Certification Class I had the pleasure of attending in Kansas City in October. (I apologize Marianne if I got your title incorrect, I couldn't find it anywhere on your blog tonight.)

I have to go play some more, I can't help it these are just too much fun.

Night......

Cathy

What a Cutie Pie Valentine!

I know that it is less than a week until Christmas but I am tired of making Christmas cards so I'm not. I got these new stamps yesterday from Artistic Outpost and couldn't wait to play with them.

The stamp set is called Cutie Pie and was a new December release at Artistic Outpost. I had chosen the Vintage Circus stamp set for my release set as a Guest Designer so had to wait until the new stamps were actually released to get this darling set. The images are all cute but this is my favorite so it got to make it's appearance first.

I had colored one little majorette already with a white skirt and hat but the lace heart I wanted to put it on was off white, so it didn't work. I colored another with beige and brown tones with more a burgundy red shirt and boots for a more antiqued look. I added a burgundy ribbon and a antique silver heart to the ribbon knot.

I had a few issues (personal) with this new set. I had gotten two stamp plates from Artistic Outpost in my order yesterday. I waited until dinner was over to cut them out. I cut out both sets and then brought out my cookie sheet covered with waxed paper that I use to set the stamps on to apply the glue to the back. The glue is just sticky enough that they will adhere to the acrylic blocks. I use Ailene's over and over which I apply thinly, with a 1/2 inch artist brush, to the back. I leave them on the cookie sheet over night and they are ready to use the next day. I cut a 8 1/2 X 11 acetate transparency sheet cut in half to put my stamps on and they slide right back into the original plastic packet with the index card. Well...........I started mounting my stamps onto the transparency sheet and realized that I was missing the largest heart stamp from the Cutie Pie set. I remembered that I had cut it out as it was the first stamp I cut out.

I dug through the trash to see if I had thrown it away accidently. I know it is disgusting but it is just paper and coffee grounds, but to no avail. No heart stamp. I finally gave up and figured that it was gone for good. I was creating this project and thought I might want to put a sentiment along with the heart charm and guess what, the seriously cute stamp is MIA also. It wasn't late and I never moved anything from the table except to throw the scraps away. I have no clue what happened to them. Long story short, I ordered another Cutie Pie set and while I was at it ordered Snowy Woods too, hate to waste the shipping on one set. Any excuse to get a new set works for me.

Enough about my mental lapse, what do you think of my little majorette on the lace heart? I had bought the lace hearts a few years ago when I was making rag quilts and still had a few left and thought it would be really cute with this Vintage Valentine set, I think I was right.

I have to go wrap my Christmas presents which I have put off as long as I possibly can.

I am sure that I will have a post each night this week as we are not having our family Christmas until next Saturday. I have to work Christmas Day and the following day. That gives all the kids time to have their Christmas with the kids at home and then come to Omaha for the week-end. Hopefully the weather will straighten up and not be so frightfully cold.

See you tomorrow,

Cathy