Crochet & Covid

 I had all kinds of intentions of sharing something wonderful here and then....life happened once again.  A couple weeks ago, I started to feel unwell and 2 days later a test revealed I had contracted the Sars-CoV-2 virus.  What fun!  It really hasn't been all that fun.  Most of the symptoms are better, now 2 weeks later, but I can't seem to get my energy levels back to where I need them to be.  I guess these things can take time.  But, I was lucky, the symptoms overall, were not too bad.

I though I would share a doll I crocheted awhile back.  It was a lot of work, but I was determined!  I found the pattern on Etsy, and the designer was CAROcreated. (In case a search wants to be made)

She's sweet isn't she?

Hello World

Oh my....it has been some time since I updated here at my blog.  My apologies.  I am no longer a Stampin' Up demonstrator, so needed to remove the affiliation from my links.  Don't misunderstand....I LOVE Stampin' Up, but in all honesty, I was the one supporting my demonstrator status and meeting minimum purchase requirements (and did this for many years) and decided I had accumulated way toooooo much stuff.  Plus, I really just wanted to blog about anything I felt like sharing, whether it be stamping, drawing, crocheting or pictures of my dogs.  You know?  So stay tuned while I think of something to share soon.  

I have missed you all!

Sitting Here Stampin' Up! Set

I promised a few more cards using the Sitting Here stamp set from Stampin' Up!  These were fun to make and I hope that you enjoy them.  These were all part of my participation in the Pink Stamper Design Team.  I am signed up for 3 more months!  Woohoo...I will have some more to share in the next few weeks.

I love to paint with ink!  Using my blender pens and some ink dabbed onto an acrylic block as my palette, I "painted" these images.  I think it's easy to layer the colors on and be artistic without really needing to be an artist.  Sometimes, we don't have all the other pens and paints, but we have ink...and this is a super easy and fun way to paint with color.  Give it a try!

Sitting Here...Again

As promised, I have a few more projects to share with you using the fantastic stamp set from Stampin' Up! Sitting Here.  It's such a special set because even though it appears to be one of those sets with only 1 option, its actually very versatile.  Let me share another way I have used it.

This is a photo of my mother.  How I miss my mom.  It’s always bittersweet to see the photos of her and know I can no longer talk to her when I want to.  But, I have faith and a belief that I will again…someday.  Today I am using an old favorite, Mint Macaron!  I have opted to keep a very simple color scheme of Mint Macaron, Soft Suede and Very Vanilla.

Mint Macaron is a return color that was dropped a couple of years ago.  I missed it!  I'm glad its back and available once again.  I opted to use the hanging bench, snip off the swing and use it as a leg for a standing bench!  Tricky, right?

Sitting Here

Sitting Here is a stamp set that I showed quite some time ago, but as part of the Pink Stamper Design Team, I had the opportunity recently to work with it again.  It was so fun to pull it out and see what else I could do to make my projects a little different than I did last time.

Here is what I came up with.

I had a lot of fun making this shadow box.  I have wanted to do a sampler for quite some time, but felt a bit daunted with the task.  I knew that I wanted to attempt one while I was still on the design team too, so decided this would be the stamp set I would do it with.  I hope you like it.  Because the shadow box I placed it in, is quite deep, I knew I wanted to add some dimension to my project.  I stamped and cut out multiples of the same image and layering it with Stampin’ Dimensionals gave it that depth I was hoping for.  I also allowed my swing to actually be a real swing as the center focal point.  I added some of the new Nature’s Twine as my swing ropes.  And, my swing actually swings back and forth.  (Not that it needs to!). I once again used the Garden Impressions designer series papers for this project because they really are the perfect paper for this stamp set.

I plan on gifting this to a friend that will be retiring next week.  I am going to miss her a lot at work and hope that when she looks at this, she will remember me Kindly.

I have some more projects to share from this stamp set and will post them later this week.  Please come back to visit!

Southern Serenade - Card Variations

Using the Southern Serenade Stamp set from Stampin' Up! once again, I wanted to share some variations with the same stamps used in similar ways but different colors and schemes.

Since we are not able to purchase Stampin Blends until the new catalog comes out, I decided to go old school on my coloring technique this time.  Using the inside of the stamp case or even an acrylic block as a palette, you can add some ink and blend it around with a basic blender pen as a paint brush and color your images.  This is the technique I opted for today.  It’s wise to work in light layers, and then you can build the intensity of the colors to emphasize shading where you want it.

Using the same technique, but in blue, I did the same with this card.  It reminds me of forget-me-nots.  I like the way these turned out.  What do you think?

Southern Serenade - Birthday Treat Bag

I wanted to share a fun little treat bag I made with Mini Treat Bag thinlits.  These are retiring soon and I will miss them because they make the most adorable treat bag!  I also used the Southern Serenade Stamp set from Stampin' Up!

A little tip was using the Brusho Crystal Colors to color the white shred as a way to bring the colors all together in my palette.

I created this gift bag as part of my showcase for the Pink Stampers Design Team for April.  The Stamp set is of course, Southern Serenade, and I will share a few other projects using this set in the next few days.

Paper Pumpkin- Save 50%

Now is the perfect time to sign up for Paper Pumpkin!  The first 2 months is 50% off!  What is Paper Pumpkin, you ask?  Let me tell you all about it!  Paper Pumpkin is a fantastic, monthly subscription service which delivers pre-designed, precut papercrafting projects straight to your doorstep.

 

Here is where you can sign up!  To get the deal, sign up by May 10th!  

Last Day for Sale-a-Bration!! And my last Waterfront Post!

Finally, I wanted to share the last project I made with this very versatile stamp set, Waterfront.  Love it!  But before I get into that....I wanted to remind everyone that the clock is ticking away on this the very last day of 2018 Sale-a-bration for Stampin' Up!  So many wonderful perks are still available...free stamp sets and items are there for the taking.  Don't miss out!!!  Read to the bottom for all the details!!

I knew that I wanted to make something that wasn’t a card and wasn’t a scrapbook layout, but my mind went blank when it came to something 3-D with this stamp set.  It seemed like something that needs to be more like artwork, but couldn’t envision that on a treat box, etc.  So, I opted for something semi-permanent, or at least something that wouldn’t be discarded after 1 use.  A desk calendar seemed like a good option.  With the year already 3 months in, I hesitated, but, decided, why not?

Here is how I created my calendar!  Simply create a basic A2 Card.  Then, to make the stand, cut another piece of  Cardstock at 4.24” x 5”, scoring at 1”, 2.5” and 4” all along the 5” side.  Simply attach the 1" flaps to the Inside of the card base, and you have the easel.  

This was another use of the Brusho Crystal Colors.  Once again I liberally sprinkled the Brusho directly onto my mountain stamp and this time I really applied the water liberally on my paper.  I laid the paper directly down onto the mountain  stamp instead of the stamp onto the paper. (This kept more control over the crystals so they wouldn’t fly everywhere and bleed in the water) I smoothed the paper over the top and pulled it away.  It made this lovely blurry image that I moved around a little bit with my Aqua Painter.  I blotted a little with tissue as needed so the image didn’t get too our of control.  I did the same application with the trees, being careful to keep them straight and where I wanted them.  I knew simplicity would be important and just let the Brusho do it’s think by guiding it around with my aqua painter.  I actually picked up residual crystals off of the stamp with my aqua painter and made my sky and added the nice blurry ambient surroundings.  It reminded me of the misty, wet mountains of my childhood on the Oregon coast.  If you haven’t played with Brusho yet, I recommend you do!  I am so in love with this product….and have my fingers crossed tightly they will carry it over in our new catalog this year.

I used Prussian Blue Brusho for the trees

Moss Green for the Mountains (this has multi-colored ink crystals from browns, greens and even a little purple)

Tiny sprinkle of Camboge for the pinky look in the sky.

It's Sale-a-bration Time!

Sale-A-Bration is one of Stampin' Up!'s biggest sales of the year! Through March 31st, for every $50 USD you spend, you'll receive a free Sale-A-Bration product. For anyone who has enjoyed Sale-A-Bration in the past, we have an exciting new announcement for this year: We now have a new reward level, giving your customers more flexibility and options for their free items.

Let’s break it down:

• If you spend $50, you get one free level 1 product.
• If you spend $100, you get one free level 2 product, OR, you can choose two level 1 items.
• If you spend $150, you have the option to choose three level 1 items or one level 1 item and one level 2 item.

This new option allows everyone to create a personalized Sale-A-Bration experience! Contact me for more info!

Waterfront Stamp Set--And Again!

I think this is my favorite card made with the Waterfront Stamp set.   I wanted to do another basic landscape but wanted it to look like the mountains I see over here in the western United States.  The mountain peaks in this stamp set can give this option if you change the orientation of the mountain stamp and only ink it about 1/2 way up.  By turning the the stamp about 85 degrees and stamping across, you have granite mountains!  It’s pretty awesome, right?  I stamped them first in Basic Gray and then went over that again in Black to give some definition.  I then sponged on some white craft ink to give a misty-foggy effect that would lay against the mountains.  I made sure that was very dry before I started to layer my trees.  

Here is a tip to get the taller trees:  Don’t ink the tree stumps, only the branches.  This way you can layer down to make a much taller tree by repeating the same image over and over again.  Also, stamp off the sides and bottom of your card so there are no tree stumps, and layer the colors from light to dark.  I used Pear Pizzazz and Always Artichoke and then a few extra layers here and there in Basic Black to get that added depth to my forest.  The Sky was sponged in marina Mist and Dapper Denim, with a layer of stars over the darker side made with the White Craft Ink.

It's Sale-a-bration Time!

Sale-A-Bration is one of Stampin' Up!'s biggest sales of the year! Through March 31st, for every $50 USD you spend, you'll receive a free Sale-A-Bration product. For anyone who has enjoyed Sale-A-Bration in the past, we have an exciting new announcement for this year: We now have a new reward level, giving your customers more flexibility and options for their free items.

Let’s break it down:

• If you spend $50, you get one free level 1 product.
• If you spend $100, you get one free level 2 product, OR, you can choose two level 1 items.
• If you spend $150, you have the option to choose three level 1 items or one level 1 item and one level 2 item.

This new option allows everyone to create a personalized Sale-A-Bration experience! Contact me for more info!