Far North Designs

A Girl in a hat reading her book

2011-04-03T19:28:00.003-08:00

Thanks to Simon Says Stamp and Show for this week's challenge that asked to include a hat. This is my first card with a silicone stamp by La Blanche. The stamp is very lightweight, the size of a wood block and the stamp itself is silicone.

Thanks for looking!

Yikes stripes for Simon

2011-02-27T12:56:00.008-09:00

This week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp asks for stripes to be included. To create stripes I used is a Hero Arts Flower Word stamp and alternately colored the lines. The metal flourish is cut with Tim H's die and colored with alcohol inks as is the flower. The bunny is another HA stamp.

Krafting with a little paper and ink

2011-01-23T10:10:00.007-09:00

Playing with kraft paper and some shadow effects. Stamped the flower in white and stamped with the red ink slightly off register. Love my new present-EK double crochet punch!

It's orange! Yes, an ATC for the Fiskateers. I used a few Fiskar tools including a crimper, tag punch, and stitch punch. The stamps are from Fiskar's "Flowers from Scratch" set.

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

2011-01-23T08:49:00.009-09:00

Wow, where has January gone?

I want to share the wonderful cards that stamping friends have sent me this season. Each year I post my holiday cards on my pantry door so I can enjoy each one while I am on my computer or stamping. After all the work that goes into them I enjoy soaking them in for as long as possible. A huge thank you for sharing your friendship and talents with me!

Be sure to click on photo to see more details.

Last of my holiday cards

2010-12-12T05:18:00.006-09:00

It's time to move along with holiday activities. I had to stop participating in Tim's holiday tags and move on to completing my cards and begin the mailing process. I mailed over 30 cards in these last days as a start and now I am beginning to clean up my stamping supplies for the holiday decorating. Here are a couple cards I created with some of the leftover pieces and parts.

This first one I created for Simon Says Stamp and Share. I used inspiration from one of Tim's tags I didn't get to make. The background is embossed with an inked tree folder The cardinal is covered with red sparklyfluff and IRL life begs to be touched. The edge is accented with pleated red satin ribbon. The ATC stamp is from Unity.

I created this second card for a Fiskateer's challenge. It uses one of the ATC images I stamped with the ink pad I made for one of Tim's tags (Red Lead stamp). I used the Fiskar's crimper to add texture to the background strip which is a scrap inked with alcohol inked using a polish stone technique.

Happy Holidays blogger friends!

...Jan

Tim's Christmas tag #5

2010-12-05T22:56:00.005-09:00

Today's inspiration comes from Tim's #5 tag.
Unfortunately my Santa is rather large making it difficult to add other large elements but I used several techniques and lots of different products. After stamping Santa I white ink to all the appropriate parts including under the hat fur when dry I added white sparkly fluff. Stickles covers the red part of the hat. I used watercolor pencils for the face and and a Spica gold pen to trim the eye glass rims and glossy accents for the lens. A white ribbon was added at the top of the tag and a metal snowflake charm (punch from a holiday Coke Can) and 3 jingle bells embellish the top of the charm. Fiskars postage stamp scissors adds to the look of the Dec 25 stamped image.

Inspiration fromTim's ChristmasTags-days 3 and 4

2010-12-05T07:52:00.004-09:00

I do not have lots of the materials for day 3 and 4 so I jumped in and combined the inspiration from the tutorials. Sorry my camera is not seeing the bird with the strong metallic red as IRL. I attached a piece of Ranger's sheet adhesive to the back of the metal before using Tim's die for the bird. I had embossed some fun texture on it's body and accented with Ranger's white enamel. The base is also metal. Stamped snowflakes with Pearl dabber paint. No tissue paper tape here so the flower was made with alcohol ink on vellum. I heated the red ribbon to add some curl.

Tim's Christmas Tag-Day #2

2010-12-03T05:39:00.014-09:00

This year I thought perhaps I would work on finishing making my Christmas cards and send them out instead of playing with Tim's tag. Well today is day 2 and I already have jumped in. I just couldn't help it. I had a blank sheet of inkpad felt sitting on my shelf for over a year just waiting to be inked (thanks Bonnie!).

So I grabbed my distress reinkers the blank felt and while I don't have Tim's stamps that he used today, I found one of his ATC collage stamp's of santa. Inking the details of the stamp was was a little difficult but once it was finished and I started stamping I found it much more successful than directly inking the stamp as I have done in the past. Wow, I quickly realized this is a much faster way to produce stamp multiple colored images.

My next ink pad is for another ATC chickadee collage stamp by Red Lead Paperworks that got me started on Tim's 2010 tags.

Special thanks to many other sites for are sponsoring related challenges: Simon Says Stamp and Show (terriffic weekly challenges), Ellen Hutson's CLASSroom features 12 days of Christmas tags with a feminine touch, Fiskateers (a great general crafting website that regularly offers challenges).

The Christmas Crafting Groove

2010-11-14T07:49:00.007-09:00

I am busy getting into the groove for Christmas! My table is filled with Christmas supplies as I have been working on cards from Jennifer McGuire's Holiday Thinking Inking inspiration at 2 Peas. She posts a video weekly with 3 different projects. I have been trying to learn the techniques from each video. Here is a sampling of what I am creating...

Watercolor inking techniques-

Playing with distress ink-kissing stamps

Background-inking acrylic stamp block and misting-stamping on watercolor paper

Distress ink play with embossing powders-

Double resist background

Sticky back canvas

Alcohol ink ornament

Acetate cards-

Time for making Christmas presents

2010-11-14T07:22:00.003-09:00

Yippy, I finally made a stamped candle!

For years I have seen this popular but stamped item but I have never tried. Well like everyone who has made them has said, "they are very easy!" Yes, this is my first candle-no draft versions in the trash. I reviewed Anne Gaal's photo tutorial and watched a U-tube video. Basically one stamps on tissue paper and colors as desired and may even emboss parts like I did with the snowflakes. Cut out the design lay it on the candle and wrap it with parchament paper. Heat with heat gun and magic it is complete. Oh, okay you can also embellish after finished too. Anne suggested inexpensive candles are best and that worked for me. Hope you too give one a try this season. If you have some time today both Anne at Gaal Creative and Tami over at the Fiskateer's blog are sponsonsoring challenges so you can enter a photo of your candle.

Happy Stamping!...Jan

Stamptoberfest and inky fun!

2010-10-19T06:03:00.014-08:00

The last two weeks I have been busy playing the challenges at 2 peas's Stamptoberfests and at the same time getting a start on my seasonal cards. It is an annual event in which I host a challenge and I spend many hours getting my stamps inky. At the being of the event our weather turned abruptly to winter...a tad later than usual but nonetheless winter is here and my spirit quickly turns from fall card making to winter too. Let me show you a sampling of what I worked on:

This first card is an inspiration card for the challenge I hosted. Acetate Kissing is creating a polished stone background with alcohol inks. They stamping an image with alcohol inks and removing the ink quickly resulting in a clear image.

Another more tradition kissing challenge involved inking up a large foam stamp, stamping with an inked background stamp and putting it on paper. Here I edged the card with the new Fiskar's border punch.

Quirkiness card challenge: This card called for some serious fun! I added some dimension with the Fiskar's paper crimper as I did some paper piecing.

Jennifer McGuire began her Holiday Thinking Inking classes at 2 Peas during this same time.

Here I did some kissing and shading with distress inks.

Just do it...I tried a technique I had on my to do list for a very long time-watercolor pens on the back of cut n dry foam, misting and stamping.

Watercolor ATC

Burnished background-embossing a background image and adding multiple layers of ink tone on tone. Resist technique completed the main image.

A clean and simple look was created with a new stamp.

Stamping a background with a misting acrylic ink block- another Holiday Thinking Inking technique.

Another burnished background with a vintage look.

A Christmas hanger made with a center of a recylced soda can....alcohol ink base, crimped and embossed then image is added wit final detail of hanger and snow and sitting it in a mini real pile for the photo. Yes, it is winter here :-)

Recyled soda cans

2010-09-26T21:02:00.003-08:00

Here I recycled a soda tin to create a seasonal fall tote

bag for this month's Hero Arts Challenge. Recycling and playing with metal is as much fun as playing with paper and so you may just want to give this a try yourself!

If you have never cut a soda can do know that the sides are very thin metal and can be cut with regular scissors. Cut the main center band of a soda can into the largest flat rectangle possible. Paint the plain side and stamp with background stamp. Fold with short cut edges at top, cut top with decorative scissors. Tape side edges together with red liner tape, fold over to back and crimp. Cut another can for additional metal to create main image. Stamp on plain side and cut out. Use a blunt instrument to outline image and flip to back to emboss. Wire tendrils are curled on a pencil. The pumpkin is colored with Sharpie pens. Punch holes and add ribbon.

This background is acrylic paint but alcohol inks or stazon ink can also be used. This metal also can be embossed with a cuttlebug.

Thanks for stopping by!

It is getting crispy here

2010-09-15T05:12:00.004-08:00

It is in the 40's this morning...so I thought I would add a little brightness to my blog. Unfortunately blogger is not cooperating this morning and will not let me post more pictures. I will try again tonight.

This bright and bold flower comes from Hero Arts.

And the winner is

2010-09-15T05:01:00.002-08:00

I had so many wonderful folks stop by my blog over the weekend! I only wish I could give out treats like at Trick or Treat but since that is not possible I had to draw for 1 RAK winner.

The winner of Fiskateer's blog hop is............

Peg left the comment saying......
Those are so pretty. Makes me even more excited for fall.
September 11, 2010 7:51 PM

If you get me your address I can mail out your RAK by the end of the week.
Thanks again for stopping in!

Fiskateers Orange Blog Hop Sept 10-11

2010-09-09T19:00:00.009-08:00

Blog Hop Post-I hope you have just enjoyed Laura Bray’s blog. If you a looking for the beginning of this blog hop it starts at the Fiskar’s blog

Sharing the Passion of Crafting

Welcome to my home! Come on in and have a cup of your favorite warm drink while we chat about crafting.

For years I have enjoyed expressing my creativity by making stamped cards. I love getting inky and exploring all I can do with ink. I particularly enjoy making my own card backgrounds. For me it is a great stress reducer after a hard day at work.

Like many of my cards this one began as is a single piece of white cardstock. The clock is a Tim Holtz mask and is sprayed with a homemade perfect pearls mist. The rest of the images are stamped on to this background. The bird and word happiness comes from:

Fiskar's set
For the birds

Here the Canadian Geese are leaving in flocks of 100's each day to find warmer weather. The golden leaves on my birch trees are beginning to fall but I miss the red and orange colors of trees that grow further south so I make some of my own. Let me share with you the details of these cards-the background is blended spiced marmalade and wild honey distress inks by Ranger. This background and the center layer are both sprayed with sunflower perfect pearls mixed with spiced marmalade reinker mix and water in a homemade mister.

The tag is covered with Distress crackle paint-shabby shutters. When the crackle is completely dry I add a layer of blended spiced marmalade and wild honey to fill in the edges and highlight the cracks. I stamped the black image with archival ink.

I make the leaves in batches so I can incorporate them into cards throughout the fall season. I begin by making sheets of Polished Stone with alcohol inks on glossy paper. Then I stamp leaves on them with Stazon Ink. For added shine I fin them with a coat of glossy accents and while it is still wet I add a light sprinkling of fine glitter. That is really hard to see in photos but oh so fun in person. The tag string is colored with distress ink on the blender tool.

The above tags were designed to also meet this month's challenge requirements at my friend Anne's blog-Gaal Creative. She is currently featuring lots of information on alcohol inks and other Ranger Ink products.

Here is a variation on the leaf theme with many of the same tedhniques.

While my time is limited I still jump into a few other crafting delights including sewing, home dec, metal art and many other craft and gardening projects. Hope you stop by my blog at other times to see what project I am working on.

Your comments are most appreciated... a random drawing will be made for a RAK and the winner will be posted on Sunday, Sept 12. Thanks for sharing your passion for crafting by stopping in.

Please continue on to the next blog Patti Behan 3651

Soda can bag

2010-08-28T19:33:00.005-08:00

Sometimes the inspiration for the creation of a project comes from many different directions. This week Sandi over at the Fiskateers blog presentated a tutorial focusing on using the main band of alumimum from a soda can to create a little tote bag. A related theme is a recent ATC metal swap I made for the Ten Seconds Yahoo Group. I combined this inspiration with a heavy dose of Tim Holtz's alcohol inks and dies. Here is what I came up with that is also entered into the Simon Says Stamp and Show new blogsite challenges--of course this one focus on inspiration from Tim.

Enjoy your inky moments!...Jan

Tags from Retake on Thinking Inking

2010-08-28T19:05:00.003-08:00

At 2 peas in a bucket, we are now enjoying the
final weeks of the Retake on Thinking Inking
challenges and swaps. It has been so-o much fun to learn more techniques and uses for all these fun products.

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Semi-Gloss Paints on sticky back canvas as well as gold dimensional paint.

Playing with perfect pearls-stamping, making pearlized mists and spraying over masks, as well as splattering. Love the pearlized mists!

Distress Inks

2010-08-15T07:37:00.012-08:00

Distress inks by Ranger are my #1 ink choice. I call them my go-to inks. I favorite tools include using my blending tool with distress inks on the craft sheet. Generally most of my coloring on cards is done with small pieces of Cut 'N Dry foam sponge. But my mister is always close by too so I can add perfect pearls for a soft bling. Mostly my cards are lots of layers of ink on white cardstock...and of course stamping.

During CHA the Fiskateers website hosted a weekend challenge event for those who were still at home. I really like working with the color orange so it was fun for me to jump into their theme color contests. Here's some cards I made for that event.

Pulled blender tool down top and bottom.

Distress ink pads direct to the paper.

I used a Tim Holtz stencil for this clock and misted with a homemade pearl mist. Most of the stamps in this card series are from Fiskar's bird and flower acrylic sets.

A final card for the button challenge.

Over at my friend Anne's website, Gaal's Creative she has been posting many of her incredibly creative tags she is making throughout the Remake on Thinking Inking Challenges. Monthly she hosts a challenge and this month's topic is distress inks so I made a distress resist card for the challenge before the August 16 deadline.

Class-A'Peel

2010-08-12T21:41:00.007-08:00

The Stampendous Challenge this week is to use Class-A'Peel stickers. Stampendous sells a wide variety of these stickers but I only had 1 option since I live in an isolated community with only 3 stores that sell some stamping items within a 400 mile radius. So I used what was on hand-a beautiful set of butterflies in flight. I tried the sticker background technique. Adhering one side of Therm O Web Peel N' Stick to cardstock and uncover the surface sticky side to attach the butterfly and glitter. I found this thin-line sticker difficult for me to adhere to the sticky surface. As I tried to lay out the butterfly flat in another area the other side would go limp. I am sure I held my breathe for several minutes while I was biting my tongue LOL!! After the butterfly was secure I poured glitter over the entire piece and gently pressed it onto the sticky surface to make sure all areas were filled with glitter. Unfortunately the solid coverage it not create a dramatic effect I had hoped for in my minds eye. So I turned to the site's video resource and realized I should have used the jumbo stickers as Fran used in the video...what a difference!

So I moved on trying my own creativity to improve the situation by adding some color to another butterfly sticker. I like the look much better but next time I will use glue in specific areas for the glitter without the sticky background OR I will use the background technique with jumbo stickers. I am sure the sticky background technique is very fast with spectacular results. I was pleased to find the glitter sticks very well to the sticky surface...just be sure to contain the glitter when moving it to the surface of your paper and returning excess to your jar. I have already requested our 3 store owners/manager order plenty of the poinsettia stickers for use for my Christmas cards. I am really happy to learn these about these techniques and products before the holiday crunch time! Thanks Stampendous for the inspiration!

Things with Wings

2010-08-12T20:36:00.003-08:00

Simon says stamp and show is a new blogspot which is hosting weekly vintage challenges and wonderful prizes sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. The challenge style is inspired by the likes of Tim Holtz, Wendy Vecchi, 7 Gypsies and Graphic 45 - among many other vintage enthusiasts.
This is the very first week of challenges and here is my entry:

For the stamped flower on polished stone I started with silver foil cardstock. While I like the bright effect in person...it is extremely difficult to capture on camera.
The bottom 1/3 does not show up clearly...there are lots of polished stone lines and the white embossed flower extends to the base. The spiral is a paper clip that I heat embossed.

The bird is part of the nature elements grungeboard set. I started by covering the entire piece with yellow crackle paint, stamped the wing, added an eye with pens and glossy accents (thanks Jennifer McGuire for that tip), and covered with distress stickles.

The flowers are colored with alcohol inks and distress inks. The top flower is covered with opal liquid pearls (Oh, I really like the softness this adds-a keeper idea for me). Thanks for looking!

Retake on Thinking Inking

2010-08-11T22:17:00.008-08:00

Sorry the Google Blogger is giving me fits tonight and will not allow me to move the following items into my perferred order. In spite of that I hope you enjoy seeing the techniques I have played with over the past month.

Alcohol ink background, with dimensional pearls painted daisy and flatened pearls by stem. Bottle dimesional pearls used for green background and covered with diamond stickles.

Examples of using distress crackled paint.

Dabber Paint background with stamped marble image.

Examples of heat embossing.

Stamped image into several layers of embossing.

Examples of different backgrounds.

More heat embossing.

Distress inks and water stamping.

If you have stopped by the 2 Peas gallery in the last few weeks perhaps you have seen more tags than usual. I am hosting 9 weeks of challenges and swaps. Last summer Jennifer McGuire prepared and presented a fabulous educational program for Two Peas called Thinking Inking. Each week she presented 3 videos focusing on specific inking products from Ranger Inks and Hero Arts. Every video was chock full of wonderful techniques. The number of tips, ideas and techniques far exceeded what most us could practice and learn from each video. So this year I am coordinating a challenge to go back to glean more great information. Several stampers are having tremendous fun learning new techniques...and that is my excuse for not posting for a while-LOL!

Thanks for looking!...Jan

A 4x4 view of the Ocean

2010-07-16T18:30:00.006-08:00

I joined a extremely fun 4x4 blank canvas challenge/swap created by our hostess Kristy who even provided the canvas for us! It has been a long while since I participated in such a creative challenge.

As a group we selected the theme. But I must say for me the effects of British Petroleum's uncapped oil well continuing to cause major effects to our ocean's water made a major difference in my thoughts and feelings about this topic as time went on. I am glad I finished mine several weeks ago.

Below are the instruction we were given and a description of what I did for each section. Each canvas I created has it's own distinctive character. This one is for Renu who is the next player to complete the challenge.

Theme: The Ocean
First layer: COLOR
Squirt, smoosh, spritz – get that colour on however you like! Think only of the colour – no planning of future layers allowed at this point.
Each of your canvases may look different at this stage – that is fine.
If you want to add texture i.e. gesso, tissue, glue to the colour – add away!

I first added gesso to the canvas stamped into the goo to achieve some texture. Here you can see some stamp circles in the sand on ocean's bottom. I have some new acrylic paints that I wanted to mix into additional colors. If you look at the water you notice green, reds and other mixes...at the time I thought I would make a tradition collage.

Second layer: PATTERN
Stamped, printed, found: still not thinking too much about the outcome. Just follow your instincts!

While I had already covered this step by stamping in the gesso I also stamp the base seaweed and starfish.

Third layer: STAMPED IMAGES
These can be digital or rubber. Colour them and collage them on.

I prepare the fish to be a focal image by stamp on paper and coloring.

Fourth layer: TEXT – pop some in there somewhere.

I tried handwriting on the canvas but that was not easy so I resorted to typed text letters.

Fourth layer: DOODLING
pens, markers, Paint markers – any media that makes doodling on your work possible.

I wanted more depth and feeling of movement to achieve a sense of water so I doodled away not really knowing how to create the look I wanted. Finally, I simply went for playing and giggling until the canvas was filled. I glued on the fish, stamped air bubbles and added glossy accents to them and finally glued on the title.

TAA DAA: You have created a MASTERPIECE! (5 actually!)

Many thanks to Kristy for guiding us with a winning recipe!!!

More challenge fun

2010-07-02T00:28:00.002-08:00

Stampendous continues their weekly fun challenges!

Stop by their blog to see upcoming new techniques. The excitement includes the major UK publication, Simply Cards & Papercraft which just published an article about Fran’s Painting with Powder Technique!! Step-by-step, it teaches you how to become an impressionist painter by using embossing powder. Card and gift samples are included.

Fly Me to the Stars!

2010-06-24T20:57:00.003-08:00

When I thought of using this special paper which shows stamped images as a holograph I felt the Stampendous Hot Rocketz set was perfect. I guess after watching the northern lights for years I think of traveling in outer space with the movement of wonderful colors of light. Don't you love it when you like the combination of stamps and paper?

The special paper for this card has a black coating over top of holograph paper. The holograph shines through mostly in silver and gold colors unfortunately althought that is what I saw in the camera the photo came out with green images...oh well perhaps you will get to try it yourself and see the sparkle. The process is simple. Stamp with Encore metallic ink, heatset, then rubbed off the black coating and ink allowing the stamped images to shine through. This is a fun different effect. Another sparkling card is a good thing in my mind!

I hope you leave me comment if you know the name of this paper...thanks! I'm off to post this link for another Stampendous Challenge.

Making a few cards

2010-06-17T04:13:00.013-08:00

June brings some special occasions that need a one-of-a-kind card. This first one is a birthday card for my sister. I used this week's Stampendous sketch challenge as well as the add-on reques for a stamped background. The star lilies are a cling stamp and background stamp is from the "just a little note" clear set from Stampendous. The paper is punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.

I used the theme of itty bitsy stamps from Anne Gaal's monthly challenge to create a card for a friend who is battling breast cancer. The background is created with a gold web spray paint. The mat is stamped with Hero Arts "flower plate" stamp. The inchies are from several small sets.

This card's background is made with alcohol inks smooched on a craft sheet and stamped with archival coffee ink. The butterfly is a Hero Arts clear stamp from the "antique engravings" set and the mat is " flower plate". The sentiment is by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps-"dream silhouettes" clear set.

Happy Birthday wishes!

2010-06-09T16:16:00.005-08:00

One of my collegues is having a birthday soon so of course I made her a card using this week's sketch from Stampendous. I took this photo at an angle to show the 3-dimensional look of the flower.The flower is first embossed and watercolored. After the entire flower is fussy cut, each petal is cut to the outer edge of the flower's center. Then each petal is rolled around a pencil to give it shape. It is only attached in the center. Rhinestone gems are added to the center. The flower's base is edged with dots using a circle plastic canvas as the guide. I love the look of the my new peacock feather by Stampendous with the flower. What a great prize for winning
an earlier challege. Stampendous challenges are fun, give them a try!

Recycle that paper!

2010-06-02T18:03:00.003-08:00

It is always fun to incorporate recyled items into card making. It is just one of my many efforts to save adding items from our big landfill. I thank Stampendous for offering such a great challenge that incorporates some recyling items into their sketch challenge this week.

Here I used a piece of a box that had been damaged as the center piece of the background and accenting it with glitter and the lining of a couple security envelopes. Using the Stampendous flower flourish stamp was lots of fun and I enjoyed adding some bling with additional layers of flowers as well as a tad of of extra doodling, glitter and metal accent beads. I lightly tapped my sharpie markers on top of the background's embossed dots to add color. Happy stamping!

Let the Sun SHINE!

2010-05-25T19:45:00.008-08:00

Fabulous, sweet sunshine! Oh our days are now simply glorious with daylight through midnight and dusk continuing through the wee hours. Oh how I love filling those "extra hours" with play!

I just had to begin this season with my new Stampendous sunshine stamp for this week's sketch challenge. I stamped the sun on acetate with Stazon ink. I really wanted to show off Stampendous's glitter on the sun. Glitter also adds bling to the distressed sentiment as well as the far upper right corner of sentiment's background. I had lots of fun playing with some new distress ink colors including the background resist.

Stampendous sketch challenge

2010-05-08T08:21:00.004-08:00

The Stampendous blog is featuring a sketch challenge each week.

This week I tried a resist technique with their new wildflower sprigs clear stamp set. I used their new mixed set of glitter and fluff to add a little bling to the flower embellishment.

You Brighten My Day

2010-04-23T23:49:00.003-08:00

Stampendous is hosting sketch challenge each Saturday on their blog. Sadly it is only open to US participants.

Here is my take on their challenge this week include acrylic flowers and bottom portion of card. I stamped the acrylic with stazon ink and colored the opposite site as well as adding glitter.

These is my first time of using these Stampendous stamps.

Happy weekend!

Go Green!

2010-04-19T22:20:00.003-08:00

This GREEN PROJECT recyles an empty envelope and uses scraps to transforms it into a storage box for my handmade cards ready for the mail.

Similiarly I recycle tissue boxes by cutting off the top and laying the on their side to create storage boxes for scraps. I use they to store scraps that are the full card front size. These storage boxes make it so easy to recycle scraps!

Welcome Baby Anton!

2010-04-07T22:34:00.007-08:00

Thanks to the card positioning systems challenge I finally have Anton's special welcome complete and in the mail.

Congratulations to Anna-Karin and DH!
Wishing your family much happiness!

Spring is here!

2010-04-07T19:37:00.006-08:00

Well at least some of the snow is melting here and the Canadian geese started to arrive on Sunday. Unfortunately as typical we will slide through spring with lingering cool days too cold for any of the usual beautiful bulb flowers...o-ooh how I miss them! So the arrival of birds here is a huge deal for those of us who miss the spring flowers.

When Anne Goal posted her challenge theme of birds this month, I knew I was playin'! The second part of this month’s challenge is to pass on a gift/donation which also feels like a seasonal ritual. No, I not talking about my IRS donation..LOL! Hand-in-hand with major spring time cleaning to remove the dust that isn't seen during our months of darkness come the passing on gentle used items. So my bags are ready for the women's non-violent living shelter and lots of recyclables for the homeless shelter.

Kirsty at the Stamp Shack offered a color challenge this week that inspired the beginnings of my card. While her colors were bright and bold, I chose to get more acquainted with my new distress inks. I used Ranger's distressed crushed olive, forest moss, wild honey, bundled sage, tumbled glass and Momento's rose bud. The marigold prima is painted with perfect pearls. The paper flowers and leaves are cut to the center and edges rolled for added dimension.

Thanks for dropping in!

Just duckie Easter Bonnet

2010-04-01T19:58:00.007-08:00

I don't often create humorous cards but when Melanie Muenchinger created a challenge to use the scraps on your table she got me into the laughing spirit. Sometimes I just can't bare to immediately trash "almost good" stuff that I really should. This duck image is great but when I was heating the embossing some black flecks flew onto the duck's neck. Now how does on ever recovery that kind of problem?..experts always encourage embellishments so that is how I started with a string of pearls. The flower that was not the right shade of pink for another card was folded for a half and glitter added. And the duckie's picture came together with that minuscule piece of ribbon I couldn't trash...all placed on the background that was not the ideal layout for a previous card and now it is fabulous wallpaper for the duck's picture. Oh what fun to save all those great snippets from the landfill! Thanks Melanie for a terrific challenge and the chuckles!

Happy Easter!

Springtime/Easter wishes

2010-04-01T18:30:00.006-08:00

It finally reached 40 degrees here today and some snow is now seriously starting to melt. I can't wait to see our snowshoe hares as they begin to turn brown for the summer! I love this new Hero Arts bunny stamp and had to initiate it with several different approaches by taking a bit of artistic liberty in changing the color through this series of cards.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend and enjoy some sunshine!

A little watercolor softness -

A randomly misted background with a splash of flower soft-

Card Sketch Challenge

2010-03-30T03:49:00.005-08:00

Card Patterns publishes a new card sketch every Saturday. This week's sponsor is Hero Arts so I inked up two of my new stamps-F5352 sweet daffodils and K5314 silhouette fern and gave their sketch a whirl.

Here we are still watching the snow melt so I have been buying my daffodils to get my spring time fix.

In the meantime I send wishes for a Happy Spring!

New stamps

2010-03-14T18:51:00.012-08:00

New stamps are always fun and particuliarly exciting when they are RAKs for playing challenges. I recently posted many cards I created for the 2 peas Winterfest challenges.

My friend Daria hosted two Winterfest challenges and kindly sent all the participants a RAK. This beautiful Gloxinia stamp set by Innovative Stamp Creations arrived Friday. I wasted no time in getting it inky! However, the stamp did create a wee challenge for determining the best coloring technique. This faux watercolor technique is my favorite result so far. I used white shimmer watercolor by Yasutoma to add the white accents. The background is glimmer mist. The small leaf in front is Fred Mullett's Italian Parsley stamp. Thanks Daria for the added fun!

If you enjoy Ranger Products as much as I do, I hope you make a regular stop at Roni's blog-Ink Stains. She is oh so creative! This week she posted a wonderful tutorial on making bottle cap charms. She loves sharing techniques and getting inky too!

This week she also posted a sketch challenge so I gave it a try with stamps from Inkadinkado. The bottom half of the card in paper from Basic Grey the rest is sprayed with glimmer mist. I used green embossing tinsel on all the images.

Thanks for dropping by!

The challenge of spring

2010-03-06T03:49:00.004-09:00

This has been an usually difficult winter for many. I don't recall so many folks commenting in a single week on awaiting for the return of spring. So that thought was running through my head as I played Anne's monthly challenge. Her challenge this month is to find inspiration in one her cards and to use it in creating your own. That is easy because Anne provides lots of beautiful inspiration! I loved the softness of the sky colors and the swirls in the sky on her "Hello Friend"ATC which she created for last month's challenge winner. So I tried to capture that in my springtime card.

I enjoyed bringing out the Adirondack bright pigments for this card and misted them with some perfect pearls.

Thanks Anne for the terrific inspiration and fun challenge!

2 Peas Winterfest Challenges

2010-03-04T10:00:00.001-09:00

The 2 Peas Winterfest is an annual event that offers a broad selection of stamping challenges.

I hosted a batik technique challenge that called for stamping versamark on glossy paper but not using embossing paper and ironing as is usually required. Spray shimmer mist provided soft colors for the background.

Here are the cards/projects I completed for the for Winterfest during the past week.

For the challenge requiring special folds I made this double slider card.
The outside is sprayed with shimmer pearls.

The children's book The Hungry Catepillar became my theme for the LIT challenge. It was fun to use the catepillar stamp than had sat in my collection for a long time uninked. I inked a small honeycomb background stamp in shimmer pearls and stamped on gold paper. The catepillar is covered with glossy accents. The butterfly is on the inside of the card and is a 2 part die fromQuikuts.

I used Crayola Model Magic for the clay challenge. It air drys overnight and is very light but thining rolled embellishments are fragile when dry.

The flower challenge required stamping on a printed background.

I brayered the image background for this reflection card and used some scraps behind.

This tulip was stamped on a reused scrap of paper that I used to catch the shimmer mist overspray. I added several coats of embossing powder over the entire piece to create the inlaid effect.

I punch many scraps from the week to cover this empty envelope box to create a storage box for my completed cards from this event.

Enjoying challenges

2010-02-14T20:51:00.011-09:00

Michelle Ward of Green Pepper Press Street Team hosts monthly challenges and provides wonderful information on the topic. This month's topic is LOVE Letter as in oooxxx, why of course!

The task is to create a journal page but since I am a card maker I make a full background sheet following the challenge details and then make it into cards. The backgrounds were created with Ranger dabber acrylic paints over a textured gesso base.

I am also playing in my friend Anne's February challenge is posted on her blog, Gaal Creative. I loved playing with wet acrylics with a spring & butterfly theme. Oh so fun to play with wet paint and stamps...and finally adding some embellishment with stickles and dimensional paint. I will have just enough time before Anne's deadline to get these in the mailbox with few surprise notes to family and friends. Thanks Anne and Michelle for great theme ideas!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-13T21:39:00.008-09:00

I didn't get to send out as many valentines as I wished so please let me share this one with you!

My computer caught a virus and was in the shop for a couple weeks and so I haven't been able to post for a while. Here are a couple projects I worked on during that time.

I altered this little tin with an alcohol ink background, heat embossed stamped ferns and added dried flowers.

And a little birthday wish...

Playtime! Gesso and snowflakes

2010-01-10T10:01:00.013-09:00

Don't you just love it when you are working on a project that makes you jump out of bed to finish the last steps so you can see the end result? This is definitely one of those. My friend K- over at "running on ink" participated in a challenge and after reading all details I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get messy and play with gesso, scissors and paper.

Michelle Ward of Green Pepper Press Street Team hosts monthly challenges and provides wonderful information on the topic. This month's topic is Braving the Elements.

Below are two sheets I created with layers of gesso, handcut snowflakes used as masks and finally some smaller snowflakes stamped with gesso. These small flakes are my favorite part. I left the sheets dry overnight so the thicker gesso edges would be completely dry prior to a light sanding. I like the adds texture and contrast of the gesso used in this manner. I enjoyed trying Michelle's various brushing and monoprint techniques and look forward to trying some more. The blog also provides several complementary ideas from previous challenges.

Since this is my first challenge at this site I was not sure I wanted to start a journal so I considered alternatives to use this background. I thought about the challenge title "Braving the Elements" and then it came to me. Here winter brings many months of cold frigid weather so much so that one learns to prepare and to adapt in order that life can continue as routinely as possible. For instance last weekend when temperatures were 32 degrees below zero I didn't give a thought to stopping for fast food when running errands. I relaxed for a few moments in the car while eating and I watched a raven close by. Ravens are big time scavengers and in winter often tear open trash bags in the back of trucks in search of a few food morsels. As I saw that raven braving the elements, I shared my fries. Today I pulled out my large raven stamp and sat him on a snowpile as he was on that day. Here is a plain stamped image with my raven stamp. Stamped on the gesso backgrounds you will see the gesso behind the raven acts as a resist and didn't allow the ink to cover as the plain stamped image the gesso pattern becomes a part of the raven. What a serendipity to find each raven has its own style. Thanks K- and Michelle for tons of fun!

Goodbye 2009

2010-01-02T08:30:00.007-09:00

Yes, 2009 moved too quickly on some days. I have lots of photos that never got posted. So this is my brief catchup for some that I want to still share.

Yes, that is real birch bark from trees that to be removed this past summer. Brilliance ink was used to stamp on the black glossy paper.

Paper pieceing was done for the bird's body and acrylic paints were used on the background.

I cut some embellishment frames dies from a coke can with my Cuttlebug. I first added a piece of craft foam to the back so the dimension would be retained.

Mr. Raven enjoyed the last berries of the summer. Lots of distress ink applied with cut n dry sponges.

Love the sticky backed canvas--used it for the base of the flower.

Welcome 2010!

Wishing you the very best as a new decade begins!

New things for a new year!

Here I am trying my hand at embossing some metal over chipboard.

Recycle and reuse!

2009-12-30T19:34:00.005-09:00

I found a scrapping website, Artz de Scrap which focuses on altering items. Since I recently overdosed on making an abundance of Christmas cards and my craft room is now filled with an avalanche of scraps I am happy to jump into using a few of the leftovers for an altered matchbox challenge. Although I felt a little past the Christmas theme an idea to make a container for storing some recycled scraps for next season pulled my thoughts together. While pondering the matchbox I recalled wanting to save some of the snowflakes from the holiday Coke cans. Yes, a little can cutting and punching of metal and I have a stash of embellishments as well as some larger snowflakes like the one behind the bird.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T00:13:00.014-09:00

One of my favorite things about the holidays is making merry for
others. Even as a child I can remember staying up into the wee hours to have enough time to finish a special surprise. Some things don't change much. I still do not get enough sleep when I am excited about making a special project to surprise my friends.

One of this year's highlights was sharing in a couple handmade ornaments swaps. Oh my, what fun I had! Most of the ornaments are fairly small since I am swapping internationally. I decide to place them on some frosted branches on a shelf which I can see when using my computer. Here's a few close-ups but click on the pictures to get an enlarged view.

Every one is a beauty! I received a knitted beaded tree from Sarah in Australia. Dymphie from the Netherlands made with copper embossed covered book and shares lots of photos of her process on her blog. Saddly she has waited over a month and not all her ornaments have just arrive . Other ornaments include a felted tree with beads, Daria made a mini canvas covered with embossed copper and inset picture, a paper block ornament, Christmas art under glass with a soldered frame, a memory framed ornament and Annie created the 3-D shadow box at the bottom.

Here are also a few of the cards I didn't have time to share while I was making merry.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is Coming

2009-12-06T08:22:00.005-09:00

Yes, Viriginia, Christmas is coming. How do I know, you ask. Well it is another year of 12 Days of Christmas Tags from Tim Holtz. This is a special gift that comes to papercrafters each December. Tim makes tags with incredible details and share lots of tips and new techniques for using Ranger products and his own. The first year I got to make many of the tags. Unfortunately this will be another light season of playing but I was extremely happy to work on inspiration from the first 2 tags.

O-o La-La Love the Rock Candy Stickles and Rock Candy Crackle Paint! This was my first time using them...lots of fun. The penquin is heated embossed with black embossing powder on grungeboard. Thanks Tim for a very fun technique!

For tag #2-Of course inspiration can result in items other than tags and take on looks very different than original work. For the 2nd tag Tim shared how to cut and bend his metal flower embellishments and create a rose. I just had to give it a try. After putting it on the card I felt it need to have a softer look so I added some frosted lace stickles as well as some green and gold stickles on the leaves.

Summer is quickly slipping away

2009-07-29T06:31:00.003-08:00

Our Alaska summer has been absolutely glorious. I just love summer days in the 70's! Our flowers are now at their prime! But oh summer is quickly passing us by. I know because it is a now a little twilight when I go to bed at midnight and it is dark in the middle of the night.

I have been stamping but haven't been on the computer so much to post. So here are a few of my recent pieces. I am continuing to play the Thinking Inking series on Ranger and Hero Arts products on 2 peas.

This card used dimensional pearls for the background. The butterful is 3 D-stamped with Stazon on acetate and stickles added to the back. Folded on both sides of the body and placed on pop dots.

This is a clear acetate card. The green paper is a not a part of the card. The flower image was stamped on sticky backed canvas. The centers are embellished with dimensional pearls and stickles. The edge of card is highlighted with pearl dabber paint.

I used handmade paper for this card and began with color the hitting the high spots directly with distress ink, then wet it with glitz mist and embossing with the cuttlebug. Add more distress ink.
The paper flower was painted with marigold crackle paint and when dry highlighted with fired brick distress ink.

I had great fun playing with dabber paints and a little grunge board.

Hope you are enjoying your summer too!

Thank you for being a special friend

2009-06-14T16:39:00.008-08:00

Once again I have a heavy heart as I say goodbye to another stamping friend. Amazing what special friendships we can make on the internet and yet never meet in person. The internet connection was the only connection Jean/micemom and I shared yet we still shared lots of e-mails filled with encouragment, inspiration and moments of laughter while writing about card making, stamping, inking as well as many related and unrelated matters. While I will miss Jean greatly, I know she is now in a more peaceful, restful place. Jean was a very supportive enabler encouraging me, as well as others, to try new supplies, techniques and challenges. She personally often took on the challenge of making a card that was considered a little more complex than the usual. So today I made this card in celebration of all the beautiful moments that Jean/micemom and I shared.

For this card I started with Mind’s Eye printed paper and embossed with the QuicKutz diamond and dots embossing folder and sanded to make the embossing stand out. I used Hero Arts real dill H3258 stamp in the background. I added liquid appliqué to the flowering tops and star dust stickles. The double layered butterfly is made with the new QuicKutz die cut. The bottom layer is a stamp from the HA Leaf cluster set D4947and sprayed with Memories Mists-Iridescent and finally embellished with gems and pearls. The top polished stone layer of the butterfly was made with alcohol inks. The black decorative border paper was sprayed with Krylon spray webbing paint and punch with the Martha Stewart lace punch.

Flood my world with color

2009-06-03T04:51:00.004-08:00

After begining surrounded by the whiteness of snow for 8 months of the year, I can't wait for the landscape to flood with color. I tried to create a card that reminded me of the flower gardens with a single flower standing out. I started the background with my new Hero Arts stamp and used a gold dabber acrylic paint on the stamp to create a shabby chic imprint. I used Cut n' Dry sponge to blend the background distress ink colors, distressed the edges and covered the background with iridescent Memories Mist. A medium size flower from the background stamp was stamped, embossed and inked. I used the scrap of paper from inking the flower as the background for the HA sentiment. Final touches of embellishment included inking the lace and card base and adding stickles, pearl and gems.

Challenge Play

2009-05-25T18:19:00.012-08:00

I have been busy playing at a few different challenges across the Internet. Here are a few of the cards I made.

Hero Arts sponsored a great "go green" challenge. I made several cards.

I save lots of the wonderful stamps that come my way on swaps. The sentiment is a RAK from lakeslady/Joan.

I used scraps for this card including the marble paper I created with shaving cream. This card is for my sister who loves cooking and flowers.

I stamped on old calendar pictures for this card and envie.

This card used the newly released Quickutz embossing folder...what fun to sand the images. The sun and flower image are stamped on more of the homemade marble paper. Thanks Tami for the RAK.

I created this fern card using Tami B/teabear's wonderful video tutorial on her blog. Perhaps you may have done the bleach technique in the past but this one has an added twist that is lots of fun.

My most recent challenge is on GinaK's Stamp TV site.

She had 2 tutorials on wax paper backgrounds. I used plain wax paper for the frame and ran some through the cuttlebug for the background behind the flower.

Ink-a-palooza challenges

2009-05-07T06:04:00.009-08:00

For 10 days I played during the challenge week at the Stamp Shack. Lots and lots of ink...and here are a few of my favorites. Many thanks to all who played--it was a fun-tastic time!

Alcohol ink background.
Color challenge.

Aluminum foil on cardstock, embossed and colored with sharpies.

Distress ink backgrounds

Distress ink on fabric. Emboss resist.

Background stamp glazed with Perfect Pearls.

Earth Day 2009

2009-04-22T22:55:00.005-08:00

I remember being excited at the difference we could make when I attended one of the first Earth Day celebrations in 1970. We still have a long ways to go but it only takes each person doing a little bit more. I am sure you know that so I just want to say-- thanks for doing your part!

Odd Bird Planet sponsored some great stamping challenges to celebrate Earth Day and to help us all think of some little things we can do. This first card is for a scrap aluminum foil challenge presented on Paperie Petals blog --thanks Kim! How many times do we not need the full piece that we tear off?...try saving the scraps and use them in your card making.

For this challenge I re-purposed one of the prima cans into a q-tip holder for in my bathroom. I used Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas, gesso for texture and of course my fav OBP flower stamp! Nichole did a super job with sharing ideas on re-purposing package materials on her blog. Even if you don't have time to do the challenges take some time to see her great examples.

I have spent the last few months making home improvements to reduce the use of heating fuel and electricity. Who would have thought I would love looking at my cute new little yellow furance LOL! But even more I love looking at those looking at those bills going down!

What have you done recently to help our planet?

Hope I have some time to do a few more Earth Day challenges tomorrow night!

Sending springtime wishes

2009-04-06T18:39:00.016-08:00

There is still two feet of snow on the ground here. But the temperature finally broke freezing this week and a the Canadian geese have arrived in Fairbanks. My thoughts turn to spring time.

This daffodil card is made with a crayon resist technique (the waxy kind like the one from the egg dye kit).

This one layer card was made for a Hero Arts blog challenge. The Happy Easter is heat embossed with Ranger's Glitter.

This card was made for a Ranger Challenge requiring making your own colors. The background is made by mixing Ranger's distress Fire Brick and Dried Marigold reinkers on a craft sheet...spreading it across the sheet and placing the paper on top. I then misted the leftovers making the softer color for the background around the birdhouse(inkadinkado stamp).

The Kreativ Blogger Award

Thanks to Anne, a stamping pal from the Hero Arts blog recently shared a lovely award with me.

The award asks that recipients share 7 things about themselves.

I love learning and sharing papercrafting techniques. In addition to visiting the many stamping blogs of friends, I most often frequent and participate in challenges at commercial blogs by Hero Arts, Tim Holtz and Ranger Inks. I love all the new U-tube videos that share techniques (only wish my computer had faster download capabilities). Because I like playing with paper and ink most of my work includes lots of white cardstock and very little printed paper. I have just started using watercolor pencils and love them. My long time favorite for coloring is Tombow pens or distress inks with cut n dry sponge. My favorite themes include elements of nature.

Thanks again Anne for the Award!

Challenges at Scrapbook News and Review

2009-03-22T09:48:00.009-08:00

Today is the last day of classes and challenges for the Spring Fling at Scrapbook News and Review . Yes, you must register (free) at the site and then head to the forum and find the Spring Fling section for the Crop Challenges and Classes. Tami B. is on their staff and posted a terrific class yesterday on embossing distress. What a easy and fun cuttlebug (or othe embossing)techinque. Here is what I did with it.

I made this cracked glass for a sketch challenge.

A color challenge requested the use of jellybean colors.

Finally every spring has its insects...

Hope you are enjoying your spring days. Here warm sunshine is filling our days now and it is a few degress above zero. It is such a pleasant time of year to enjoy the outdoor activities like ice carving and the sled dog races. It truly is an amazing time of year to visit...just let me know when it works for you!

Weathered with wax technique challenge

2009-03-18T22:05:00.006-08:00

My friend Tami B combined a couple techniques into one and created a wonderful Weathered with wax video for the 2 peas stampfest challenges. Here is my take on that challenge. I dry embossed the butterflies from the back to create a 3dimension look.

Take it off challenge

2009-03-18T21:01:00.015-08:00

Last week I enjoyed several challenges over at the 2 peas stampfest. Daria hosted a fun challenge where I covered black glossy cardstock with mica reinker and then stamped in the goo and gave the stamp a little twist before lifting the stamp off and stamping off on a scrap paper. I discovered that it took several attempts to achieve the correct blending of the inks so they would not get muddy. As well it took several attemps to find the correct stamp that would retain a interesting pattern in the thick ink. Here is my final entry.

Since I experimented with several stamps trials, I did achieve several pretty stamp off backgrounds. The inks are metallic and the thickness gives interesting dimension to the background. Thanks Daria for the fun!!!

Embossing Paste and Acrylic Paint

2009-03-01T21:59:00.013-09:00

I am in a swap which asks participants to play with embossing paste (molding paste) and acrylic paint on a 4x4 base using Jacqueline Sullivan's tutorial. I had worked with embossing paste and stencils in the past but this was the first I stamped and used hand tools to place designs into the paste. After making these several pieces I realized I enjoyed this creative process much more than using the stencils with the embossing paste. I used dabbers and Lumiere acrylic paints. I create this card to demonstrate how these backgrounds can be used. Here I stamped on a transparency and color with Lumiere paint and Stickles. The best part of the background is enjoying the texture and dimension so click on the pictures and you will see so much more.

Listen...Spring is coming.

2009-02-24T22:24:00.008-09:00

Each day more birds come to my bird feeders ...I know spring must be near.

I enjoyed a little creative play tonight altering a spice tin to play in Heather's challenge. I created my own version of a bird's nest.

Try a little canvas

2009-02-17T21:57:00.009-09:00

If you a haven't tried stamping on canvas I gotta tell you, you are missing a lot of fun!! For my first canvas adventure I tried my hand at making a little ATC traveling case for my swaps. I used Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas that was introduced by Ranger Industries last fall. I had bought a package but with all my Christmas projects I didn't have an opportunity to think about where to start with this product. Then recently I found a similar project with directions on Ranger's website. Of course I had to make it my own LOL!

I began with Claudine's resist technique. I dipped foam stamps into gesso to stamp the polka dots and swirls in the center. I sponged over the gesso dots and swirls with fire brick distress ink. I then added a few flourishes in black archival ink. I cut material to cover the entire inside but left a side seam allowance of 1/4" on both sides. Yeah, sticky back canvas makes projects fast and easy. I zipped off the backing and on went the fabric. Folded up the bottom and hand pressed the side edges together for a good seal. I added a little checkered ribbon trim on the inside to cover the side edges.

I used gold metallic dabber acrylic paint to add interest to the outside opening edge and black dabber acrylic paint for the sides. Embellished with plain white Prima paper flowers that I inked and stamped and finished with some final pearls. This whole project took less that 1 hour including drying times...and most of my time was spent selecting the combination of stamps, inks, and material.

Painting with Alcohol inks

2009-02-15T09:21:00.007-09:00

I love swishing my aquabrush with pretty alcohol inks across acetate. I find this technique not to be a precision painting style but rather lends itself to relaxing and playful creative time. This one I had fun experimenting by adding playful dots.

I used parts of background stamps for both of these images. I had fun adding stickles behind the alcohol ink for a set of ATCs.

Christmas card recycling

2009-02-15T08:47:00.010-09:00

I participated in a swap at the Shack that asked for Christmas cards to be recycled into cards that could be used for other purposes. This is what I came up with...

I recycled the gold frame and used some lovely holiday red paper for the background.

This original background behind the fern was a painting like Christmas card front. I prepared a base piece of cardstock by running it through the xyron. I laid out the pieces as I cut them into strips. The burgundy background is sprayed with Radiant Rain. The fern is stamped on a transparency and dabber gold acrylic paint is on the back.

For this final card I used the back of a card for the background of this new one. The stamped images are made with shrink plastic.

Living with Extreme Cold

2009-01-22T21:30:00.005-09:00

Our weather plummeted to EXTREME COLD temperatures for 17 days after Christmas. Temperatures were generally in the range of -35 to 45 degrees below zero. One of the most dangerous parts of such extreme cold is when particles freeze in the air creating ice fog causing visibility to be severely limited. Life tended to move at a survival level of going outside only to go to and from work with a maximum of 1 essential stop. All energy is focused on the basics. Finally the extreme temperatures broke with a warm air current bringing us an unheard of 80 degree temperature difference within 24 hours.

The warm weather was welcomed for the fireworks display to kick the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Alaska statehood . The display had been cancelled three times during the extreme cold. The fireworks opened with a display of several large candles floating into the air which turned into stars forming the pattern of the Big Dipper -the design of our state flag. What a fun evening of watching fireworks in the warm weather! That's something unheard of here since we have sun all night long during typical July 4th fireworks we regularly have our big fireworks display on New Years.

Like everything my creative projects screeched to a minimum. I began the year with recycling many calendars by making them into envelopes for my cards. I recycled a piece of clear packaging plastic to use as a view finder to determine the best placement of the picture. I tried to layout the envelope so the most interesting portion would be on the left side to allow for the address.

I also participated in a sympathy card swap and enjoyed preparing one of my favorites techniques of white embossing on white vellum and coloring on the back side of the vellum to create a soft look.

I have also been busy creating a few RAK’s, birthday cards and such. I am enjoying the size of these short cards inspired by Godelieve. I also learned the vellum technique from her as one of 2 Peas special event challenges-many thanks Godelieve! On the short cards I added dye ink, stamping and shimmerz to the white paper primas. Glossy accents give dimension to the berries. The heart is cut from a recycled Christmas card. 3-D foam is placed behind the center of the petals adds dimension to the center flower. Thanks for stopping by!

Open House Around the World

2008-12-23T05:33:00.037-09:00

Come on in to my Open House!
I know that the Internet world can be slow during the holidays as rubber stampers are maxed out on stamping and busy with activities. Yet some of us have moments where we would like to enjoy seeing what other stampers are doing. So I created this Open House to share some of my home and community's holiday traditions with you. I announced it as a swap at the Stamp Shack. Nine other bloggers have joined in this Open House with posts to share their holiday traditions from their corner of the world.

Welcome to Fairbanks, Alaska!
Thanks for stopping in...please help yourself to some goodies!

Let me begin by showing you around my town. Know you can double click most blog photos if you want to see something larger.

Recently it has been about zero degrees F most days but no wind - unlike many other places. We are enjoyng a much milder season than in many years. Of course the snow came at the beginning of October and we can expect it to be with us until at least the end of March.

We celebrated solstice last weekend and are thrilled to now be gaining sunlight. We have 3 hours and 49 minutes of daylight today and will gain another 59 more seconds of daylight tomorrow!

A river runs through the center of town with decorative displays on both sides of the banks. These pictures were taken at about 10 o'clock last Saturday morning. I used no flash so you could see the beginning of daylight.

The Northern Wind blows some light onto the riverboat. Lots of lighted characters fill the plaza across the river adding brightness to our dark days.

Ice carvings are a big part of our community’s holiday decorations. The polar bear, aka Nanook, is the mascot of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

Dancer and Prancer welcomes us to North Pole, Alaska…just a 20 minute ride down the road.

Of course Santa Claus House is the big attraction in North Pole.

One of my personal favorite traditions is finding some quiet of the winter to enjoy making and mailing lots of holiday cards. These highbush cranberries are enjoying their own special quiet.

This year brought a new challenge as the electric was off for over 6 hours one Sunday during prime writing time. So like the pioneers before me I wrote many cards by candlelight huddled under a blanket.

I truly enjoyed making this peaceful resist card.
I made many other cards this season but this became my personal favorite...I love using a resist technique.

Many stamping friends from around the world shared beautiful holiday greetings. Many thanks to all!!

I enjoy cooking and sharing time with friends. Please help yourself and take a few seconds to look at how this ice bowl is made. Two stainless steel mixing bowls, with about a half to one inch space between the rims, are taped together and filled with water, greenry, flowers, and fruit. The whole thing is then frozen outside in nature's freezer. Bring inside and warm up so the ice bowl is released.

I am sorry you are running out of time but there is one last thing I must show you before you leave. Look at my favorite manger scene. It incorporates many different Alaska native cultures in traditional dress. You really must plan to visit again next year since there still is so much to see. Please leave me a comment for I have a doorprize for one randomly selected visitor.

Thanks for stopping in and sharing my holiday!

I wish you a most wonderful holiday season!

The next Open House stop is Mrs. Fence in Maine.

A Christmas Tradition

2008-12-05T00:27:00.008-09:00

Tim Holtz is busy posting his tutorials for 12 days of Christmas tags. You don't want to miss this chance to see new ways of using supplies by a master teacher!
I thoroughly enjoyed working on the tutorials last holiday and have enjoyed the first 3 so far this season.

This first tag features Tim's new masks. They are very large in size but this shows how they can be used effectively on smaller items too. I love Tim's technique of spritzing the distress ink to allow it lightly color and soften the look of the mask. Also tried out some new grungeboard from his botanical set with the new distress stickles. What a fun tutorial to give a jump start on the holidays.

Tag 2 features a variety of blue alcohol inks and silver mixture spread on a craft sheet with glossy paper moved on top. Also used a splatter brush to add some white flecks over all (very difficult to see in this picture).

Tag #3 features the use of a fragment piece to spotlight Santa's face and one of Tim's metal tags. This new combination of stamped images for me was lots of fun and of course playing with the distress inks and Inkessentials white pen.

Thanks for looking...and know I hope to follow several more tutorials during the 12 days so stop back soon.

Thanks to my creative friends!

2008-11-16T08:38:00.008-09:00

I want to shout out one BIG THANK YOU for the many birthday cards that were sent last month from my creative friends. Wow what a treat! For a full month my mailbox was filled every day with the most creative fun mail! Many, many thanks to each cyberfriend! You are the BEST!

A Touch of Christmas bling

2008-11-16T07:37:00.011-09:00

I have been away enjoying some time Outside (yes-that is how our newspaper refers to the "lower 48 states") with my family. It was hard to believe that while we have had snow on the ground since late September, Ohio was still enjoying temperatures in the 70's and many colorful leaves on the trees. We had a great time and enjoyed some early celebrations for my birthday and Thanksgiving. A big thanks to my family!

After being away from stamping of course I had to checkout the Hero Arts challenges. This week features challenges for a broad range of techniques.

Of course I love any kind of resist work. I had to try out some new bling I purchased-Rangers Embossing Tinsel. It is chunkier than regular embossing and is really catches the eye. Wonderful stuff!!

I also tried out some of the new Hero Arts acrylic stamps. For this last card I embossed a grungeboard disk in the cuttlebug.
This little bird is carrying a wish token...Hope you too are having fun as you begin to prepare for this holiday season.

Shimmerz

2008-10-28T22:58:00.006-08:00

I am still trying out some new things for Christmas cards. Here I tried a new product called Shimmerz. It is a thin watercolor paint with mica. It dries very quickly and adds a shimmer when you tilt your card. I used a white layer of "angel wings" shimmerz on the the ornaments in this card. I know you can't see it so why don't you head over to the home site so you can enter you name for the blog candy that will be released on Nov 1st (see post for Wed Oct 22 Colors and Candy).

I began this card with a watercolor wash for the background. Embossed the ornaments with Ranger Seafoam white embossing powder so I use a embossed resist technique to color them. One oops-I tried to make 3 different colored balls but the background yellow tones turned my blue ink into green. Greenry stamps are from the SU Peaceful Wishes set and the ornaments are in a River City set.

Winter is Here

2008-10-19T19:09:00.005-08:00

It is a quiet Sunday. Our leaves are gone and snow has covered the ground since the end of September. All day I was thinking I should get out and take some new photos for my blog but I spent the day stamping instead. But in late afternoon a moose walked through on the path through the birch trees.

A community marathon uses this trail every September in celebration of the Equinox. Hundreds enjoy the challenge of this race that's said to be one of the most rigorous in the world.

Melinda Gates joined a relay team for the 2nd year to honor the memory of past Iditarod champion Susan Butcher. The racers and walkers take almost 1 hour to all pass through my property. It has become a ritual to greet them and cheer them on. But for now it is the moose who enjoys the quiet of the afternoon.

Challenge fun!

2008-10-17T17:19:00.005-08:00

Hero Arts' blog is focusing on printed papers this week.

Since I generally do not use many PP, I have enjoyed learning a few tips this week. During the World Card Making Day I was introduced to a new to me sketch site, Triple the Sketch. So with today's sketch post I decided to combined both. I had to adjust the sketch to work on my card.

I used Basic Grey and Memory Box papers. The snowflake stamp is from Stamp Oasis. The image is embossed on a glitter mist background. The Hero Arts sentiment and seal are overlayed on the cuttlebugged circle.

Remember you can double click on any picture to see more details.

Thanks for looking!

Harry smiles!

2008-10-17T12:18:00.003-08:00

Many thanks to Lianna for hosting a very challenging swap. She sent the participants in her challenge several collage elements and asked us to use 3 in making a card, a postcard or an arch. I used the pearl at the top of the arch, Harry's photo, the paper behind it that I used as a framing mat also the button straight pin and the paper I stamped the sentiment on. The long scroll die cut was make with the CB and the bottom hinge arrow and the little heart are grungeboard element. I 've only made a couple arches but this was a fun challenge--for me it was like creating my own jigsaw puzzle. Thanks again Lianna!

World stamping day challenge

2008-10-04T15:08:00.010-08:00

Tons of challenges are happening all over the net to celebrate our special card making day! Hope you are find challenges that you are enjoying.

My friend Jennifer threw out this challenge last week-to use a bottle label to make a card. I must say with a little hot water soak it came off lots easier than I ever expected. I cut the design out of the bottle cap to use as an embellishment. It is a little hard to see in the picture but it is a large dark image of a mama polar bear with a lighter image baby bear...and it is our "Made in Alaska" trademark that is purchase by locals to designate products that are truly made here.

I have been on a few other challenges too-
Wonderful Women was an eye catching challenge for me at 2 peas. This one also qualified for the 2 or more mingled flourishes and some doodling!

I wanted to begin working on some Christmas cards so I am also playing over at Scrapbook News and Review. You have to register to play but it is free.

For this card I used the Blue Christmas inspiration photo. I made a homemade glimmer mist background. It shimmers with gold flakes.

This contest at SRN was sponsored by Apple Blossom Studio Stamps and required a border. I am off and running to play some more!

Deck the Halls

2008-10-02T21:20:00.009-08:00

The Hero Arts blog challenge this week is to create items to use to decorate for the holidays.

This idea was shared by the our dear stamping friend from PCMB and Two Peas , the late dear who moi. Sent to me by Lori on March 9, 2005. The directions are generic in order to accomodate various box sizes.

This simple box cover is constructed from heavy weight white cardstock. Begin with a 7" square to creating the lid. Scoring 1.25 inches in from other edge on all sides. Stamp as you desired. The tissue oval hole is made by using the tissue box as a template. To create the side of the lid cut one scoring seam on each corner and tape the short flap underneath the lid. The base wrap begins with 2- 5x11.5 pieces of cardstock. Wrap each piece on the outside of the box to create 2 side panels and to provide a seam allowance for taping underneath the other sheet's panel to connect all 4 panels together. Cut away excess and leave flat for stamping. Notes- some box panels on the same box are slightly different widths. This pattern does not cover the bottom of the box.

I layered blue distress ink to create a background for the falling snowflakes (CL Classic Christmas borders-new Hero Arts Winter catalogue). I consider the Three Snowy Trees stamps one on my very favorite HA stamps which I have enjoyed each year since 2000. I used liquid applique for the snow. Added lots of glitter on the snowy tree boughs.

I used 12 x12 gold metallic cardstock to make this votive box large enough to enjoy this collage stamp. I scored the paper in 4" blocks and cut away the corner squares all except for a tape allowance stripe broading each of the 4 panels by a 1/4 to 1/2 inch depending on the tape width. I stamped the image onto vellum with Nick Bantock's prussian blue dye ink and embossed in clear. I used metallic dabbers to paint the frame and embellished. The best part of all is I found a battery operated tealight candle-that flickers!...so this is safe around animals and children. This image is so beautiful on vellum-I need to go play more!

First Christmas project takes shape

2008-09-27T17:34:00.010-08:00

I am excited about completing my first Christmas project of the season. This tea box is fast and inexpensive to make. I had everything except the embossed paper mache box which I found at JoAnn's for $1. I am thinking this gift box will make a perfect size for a small stash of tea for my friend's office desk-(nicely holds 6 smaller size teabag packets).

I began with 1 layer of Ranger's Dabber Acrylic Pearl Paint- for the basecoat on the entire box. The dabber sponge top made an easy job of highlighting the tops of the embossing and box edges.

All images on the box top are heat embossed. I used the HA clear- tea for two set as the focal images. Sharpie markers worked best for coloring and stickles were add sparkle for the steam.

I also worked on these scraplings. I began by running the labels thru the CB with the swiss dot embossing folder with it partially inked. Stamped the images and put the snowman on pop dots.

Ah-h we have 2 inches of snow this morning...more will soon be here. Time for more holiday projects!

Time for making Christmas Cards

2008-09-23T05:23:00.016-08:00

Last week Hero Arts threw out a great challenge to encourage me to get started with some holiday cards. I pulled out my Christmas stamps to try Sheri Carroll's Shabby Chic's tips. This is not a specific style that I have worked to achieve in the past so it was indeed a challenge for me.

My first idea was to recycle a coffee cup sleeve.

After all I feel recycling is very chic! The sleeve has such a wonderful texture I had been wanting to create something fun with one. The background is metallic gold dabber with lots of sticklers. HA Stamp, punch table cloth and embellishments. I added a little pocket to inside to make it a gift card holder.

Here I used a plain wooden ornament for my jumping off point. Crackle paint, metallic dabbers, and distress ink were all used on the snowflake...and then more sparkle and pearls to finish it off. The outside backgrond paper was put through the cuttlebug with distress ink.

At the last moment I decided I just had to try combining this collage stamp with some the button printed paper that I had hanging out for quite a while.

Hmm now the dilemma--now I am ready to start Christmas stamping but I don't feel I have enjoyed my fall and Thanksgiving stamps enough....could my answer be to just take the week off work? Oh how I can wish!

2008-09-15T22:26:00.003-08:00

Ah-h the leaves are swirly in the breeze and gently floating to the ground as only a few geese remain behind...

Mother Nature is such a special inspiration for me. I continue to play with the cuttlebug and alcohol inks.

The new picture on the header is taken in my neighborhood and the one in the sidebar is of my drive. Please remember when you look at the thin spruce trees that their feet are buried in frozen soil. Yes, the forest here is mainly aspen, birch and spruce...so not a broad range of color.

What a terrific award!!!

2008-09-12T23:51:00.004-08:00

Look at this fabulous award I received ~
I love sharing stamping & creative ideas with the community on the Internet. As our interests develop and grow in new directions it is possible to find a new group of folks that can support and encourage our talents and yet we can still stay connected with our beginning pals-even if it is just ever once in a while. Joni is a fabulously talented and creative friend and it is always fantastic to check in to see what she is doing at her blog Kix in Life! Joni, thank you so much for my award!

Equally special is making new friends. I have be playing with the Hero Arts group over on a Flicker website in one group that posts to participate in the HA blog group and also a cuttlebug group. This award was also presented to me by Gigi 001 (AKA Deborah) and known as Mimi on blog posts. Many thanks Gigi!.

Ta-dah I pass along this wonder award along to:

Christie is always trying some new techniques and having fun with stamping. Currently she in not in communication with us because her home in in the Hurricane Ike's territory. I am sure she would appreciate knowing other stampers were thinking of her.

Jennifer is from a family of professional seamstresses who continual shares her skills of putting just the right combinations together. No detail is too small for Jennifer to give it her all.

Kim is a very talented artist don't miss going to the bottom of her second page to see the broad scope of her world.

Phree is a new friend from Scotland. She is patiently sharing with me some things that are unique to her corner of the world.

Renu is one of those exceptional creative talents who always has a beautiful work.

Sherri is one of our most fabulous yakadackers at the stamp shack. She is passionate about playing and creating or most any kinda fun!

Stacy has a fabulous eye for color and details. Her work always has wonderful detailed embellishments which often includes stitching.

Tami creates non-stop stamping fun -an esty store, on-line zine writer, and a has prepared a wonderful alcohol ink class to share at her local stamping store and shares her samples.

Here are the instructions for award recipients:
1. Pick 7 of your favorite blogs

2. Winners can put the logo on their blog.

3. Link the person who gave your award to your blog.

4. Name the 7 that you are giving the award to with their links.

5. Leave a message on their blogs so that they know they've won!

Part II More cuttlebug play

2008-09-09T22:58:00.005-08:00

Thanks Kim for throwing out the suggestion of trying out alcohol ink on metal! Oh I love metal and don't use it often enough. I saw your comment this morning and every time I had a spare moment today my mind was turning around how to give this a whirl.

Sometimes when I use AI on aluminum it does not give me the contrast I want and I end up covering the background with acrylic dabber paint or gesso which does not leave the metal look to be enjoyed. So I started this time with trying out the AI on small pieces of brass, aluminum and copper. The colors did their own polished stone effects and created fun backgrounds. I then run it through the CB and tried a couple methods of removing the AI from the embossed leaves. Of course blending solution works great but one must be careful not to have a tip of the rag remove it from the background at the same time the leaves are being cleaned. I personally liked my other solution...Sharpie markers also lift off AI so I did that to replace the color of the stems. I found success in cleaning the leaves with a quick pass of the Sharpie marker and an immediate wipe with a dry tissue. This left the leaves the beautiful natural golden brass color.

I gotta tell you this is fast become my favorite embossing folder! The embossed pieces can be used any direction. This close-up may have the image upside down from the folder but to me it looks a lot more like tree branches as opposed to the bush-likeness in the original direction. This little serendipity learning occurred while using the scraps to make the card above. This photo is somewhat better of the AI than the card but I tell you--just try it! Get your fingers a little inky. This larger piece will be a wall hanging but I gotta finish it another day.

When I first saw these landscape type embossing folders I wondered what I could possible do with them besides pumping out the same image over and over. Now I am glad I gave them a try and I am one my way to order some of the other seasonal ones too!

Thanks Kim for expanding the possibilities even further! And for any of you who don't frequent Kim's blog Running on Ink do know she is one fantastic, creative and immensely talented young woman. You just might want to check out what she is doing too.

Artsy Play with the Cuttlebug

2008-09-09T06:06:00.010-08:00

I just bought 2 of the new landscape embossing folders (the Leaves and the Grass with single bird) and have spent some time playing with them. Here is some of my work.

For these 3 cards I used the technique of inking the inside top of the embossing folder and running it through the CB. The outside of the top of each CB folder has a little printed indentification which helps to quickly distinquish the top from bottom.

The leaves and branches are the color of the paper I selected. The ink added to the folder is the flat background. The thread like lines are created by allowing the ink pad edges to leave heavier ink lines on the folder.

Here I added some background lines with cut n dry sponge.

Also colored a little color to the leaves a little.

Not too much space for stamping...but I okay with that since I got to have some creative play time.

An ATC Matchbook Project

2008-09-01T13:18:00.017-08:00

I am in a swap that requires using 1 stamp in 5 different ways. I am partnered with Sarah{loobylou}from the Stamp Shack for this swap. Sarah is a moderator at the Shack and helped me through many technical glitches which I created while doing work for the creative team. I am thankful that her schedule generally matched up with mine and she could solve my problems almost instantaneously. Sarah was my behind the scenes person who was there through every season! While I worked on the concept for these ATCs I was also inspired by the Hero Arts weekly challenge to create a book. I thought it would be added fun to combine these 2 projects since my 5 ATCs wouldn't fill the typical album page that Sarah stores them in. However she will have the option to lift the ATCs out if she so desires.

The front cover features the full image of the Hero Arts tree stamp from the Live Simply clear set. It is copper embossed and is colored with several inks to represent all the seasons. I used a fiskar's texture plate in my by cb for the background--many thanks to a RAK sent by Mary {swapin cards}!

This first ATC represents spring with a bird sitting in a hand drawn nest with 3 little sparkling gem eggs. The tree is colored with Tombow markers and the sky is stippled. A background stamp finishes with a tree bark look.

The summertime tree sparkles in the sunlight and is colored with spica pens. The background is created by putting dimensional pearls on the blending tool and twirling it in circles on the paper.

The fall ATC is a camouflaged look created with alcohol inks. A quail sits hidden in a pile of fall leaves.

An emboss resist technique was used to create the winter look with a fresh layer of snow on tree. The background is embossed with the cuttlebug.

The final ATC is the bird on the very top of the tree.

The background is lumiere paint tapped on black cs with a piece of a plastic shopping bag.

Thanks Sarah for all your wonderful help through all seasons! Hope you enjoy this little remembrance!

Thank you for a special year Stacy!

2008-09-01T12:07:00.011-08:00

Serving on a creative team for a full year is a large volunteer commitment. So I wanted to say a BIG thanks to Stacy {jbgreendawn } for the tremendous effort she put forth to making the Stamp Shack creative team projects a success. Stacy and I share the joy of gardening so I made her a lunchbox and of course sent the red and yellow card I posted earlier.

Drying flowers so I can enjoy summer throughout the year is a favorite of mine. I love incorporating them into boxes. Here I use a white lunchbox (perfect for storing our A2 cards) and covered it in alcohol inks. I use coordinating Adirondack pens to complete the coverage next to the hardware. A layer of background images is stamped and heat embossed. Ferns and a net background are stamped and embossed with Ranger's seafoam white powder. Finally I add the flowers and ferns that I have dried with a microfleur in the microwave. I put down a layer of modpodge where I want to place them and place the flower on top. Then I add another layer of modpodge on top starting in the center of the flower and gently stroking it onto each petal to the tip in an effort to complete coverage without bubbles. A coat may take approx 15 minutes to dry. I used a foam bush to add an additional layers. I generally add 3-4 coats before I like full coverage.

My original photos turned out blurry so I want to say an added thanks to Stacy for taking these for me.

Artist Trading Cards

2008-08-17T08:52:00.012-08:00

Ever sign on to a swap thinking this is a pretty easy topic but then feel like you struggle through the journey that follows? I am working on ATC's on with a flower theme and one with that requires using some acetate.

Our usual fabulous summers here have had a sad twist with rain, rain, rain since July 4th and temps hanging in the 50's. Unfortunately most of our flowers and vegetable gardens are no longer beautiful. So I think the sadness of losing a season of beautiful flowers and warmth reflected into my work.

Here I tried a new technique call black velvet. While the technique did come out like described it give interesting results. I used an image that looks hand carved.

I tried playing with using some of last year's dried flowers. :-( didn't get to dry any this year...good thing I still have a plentiful stash from last year!

Here I played with the acetate and layers of inks and papers. I think it is time to let these sit and to move along to a different project or two....happy stamping!!!

Blog Candy Winner!

2008-08-17T07:26:00.004-08:00

Thanks to The Custom Random Number Generator we have a blog candy winner!

Happy day for Christy !

She left the comment "Very pretty cards Jan!!!!!! Don't feel bad about the word verification, I had to do it on my blog too for the same reasons!" Christy do know I will put the candy in the mail tomorrow.

Color Challenges & Blog Candy too!

2008-08-09T06:57:00.012-08:00

Generally I steer clear of color challenges because they seem to give me a creative block and since I don't often use printed paper I often need the right inks to go with the techniques which often runs into an enabling situation (yes, off to the store once again LOL!).

Yellow, Red and Black Challenge

Yes, this month Stamp Shack's challenge team is finishing our 1 year term. Stacy has coordinated the year's color challenges and has truly gone above and beyond in helping to coordinate our many other projects. I wanted to thank her for her dedication and support so I made this card for her final challenge.

Last week Stacy participated in my final technique challenge (background masking) and posted a beautiful card that can be seen on her blog. As usual her card is filled with many exceptional details. Thanks Stacy for such a wonderful year and the lovely remembrance.

For this card I stamped Rubber Stampede's Gerber Daisy in Adirondack pigment yellow and embossed. Blended Nick Bantock's vermillion lacquer ink with my Ranger blending tool...love that tool!!! I used Ranger acrylic white dabber to bounce a little white highlight into the flower's center for some added depth. Edged with a corner of SU's flourish stamp. Added dew drops and ribbon for embellishment.

Pumpkin orange, yellow, and blue Challenge

This week's blog at Hero Arts features color information. The challenge offers a choice of three color combinations and of course reguires using at least 1 HA stamp.

The orange background mat was stamped with HA Wild Fairy Lily stamp...slightly tricky with all those stems. Stamped without reinking to add lighter images for depth. The HA watercolor sunflower is new to my collection-I love it. Stamped in Adirondack's pigment ink and embossed. Blended Nick Bantock's deep turquoise for the background. This long legged HA Decorative Bird was selected for his ability to reach the sunflower seeds. His body has a 2nd layer on pop dots. Stickles and sunflower seeds were added for embellishment.

Blog Candy Sorry, I recently have experienced several spam comments so I had to add the word verification on to my comments section...I know I too dislike those so much! But I hope you will still leave a comment. In appreciation I am offering a little blog candy-2 distress ink pads -tea dye and vintage photo and a sample of Cut N Dry foam (blending sponge) in this cute little tote that can wonderful hold your Stickles or dabbers. I will randomly selected the winner from the comments posted here Friday, August 15 by 4pm AST (yep, that's Alaska Standard Time).

PS. A stamper from 2 peas and Hero Art's flicker group asked that I share a link to her new blog. Anne is currently working on an Art Journal project. In Addition to her art blog she has a beautiful professional photography blog. Tell Anne I said Hi if you get a chance to stop by.

Another challenge

2008-08-04T21:18:00.010-08:00

As my final technique challenge on the Creative Team member at the Stamp Shack I provided information on a range of background masking techniques. Here are a few samples:

This one shows a layer technique using a torn paper mask and the new Ranger pigment inks. I used a range blending tool to achieve the even colors. The sky is made with the CB distress embossing folder.

This next card is a pop-up...alway guarenteed to have a fun surprise inside. I masked real ferns for the background on this one.

Spray ink or paint make for a fast background and some real glitz in person.

I made this last card for a new neighbor. I stippled around a mask by Heidi Swap for this one.

Thanks for letting me share!

1 challenge...more pics

2008-07-26T21:57:00.006-08:00

Hero Arts is soon going to release some 12" long stamps August 1st in their new winter catalogue. As a prep for these new stamps the Hero Arts blog featured a wrap around card challenge this week. Here is what I created~

The image begins on what is the tradition back of the card. This card will go in the envie facing out so the reciever understands the ongoing design of the card.

Full outside of card.

Full inside of card.

Thanks for looking!...Jan

Inspiration

2008-07-13T07:26:00.009-08:00

Soaking in all the beauty and colors at the University of Alaska's Botanical Gardens helps one get through our long winter months. Today many artists were enjoying the beauty.

The purpose of the gardens is to conduct research on what plants can thrive in our harsh winters. Over the last several years the staff have been researching peonies to learn if they could be a viable international export crop. These beauties are blooming here right now which would make them available at times when they are not blooming in other parts of the world.

Catch-up on Posting

2008-07-06T22:42:00.008-08:00

Here's a few cards I didn't get a chance to share-

I made some inchies for a Hero Arts challenge incorporating them into a card. I used my new Spica pens but unfortunately the photographed colors did not stay true.

Sometimes a card works out to be a lot easier than you ever expected...this was one of those happy surprises. After the initial scoring, the Ranger Ink Blending Tool made simple work of accenting the tiles in all the right places with distress ink. Three coats of UTEE added a wonderful glossy look to these tiles.

This is an ATC challenge to use the cuttlebug. Oh I had tons of fun playing with lots of ideas for this one! I used a soda can for the embossed metal image. I call the background a double-double dip for I inked the inside of the embossing folder and ran it through the CB. Inked a 2nd folder in a 2nd color and ran through again. This eliminates most of the embossed texture of the first design but leaves the inked look. I used cranberry ink with the diamond pattern for the first pass and the script with a watermelon light ink for the second. This textured background can be used for times when you don't want a distinctive design. Lots of different combinations are waiting to be tried!

Thanks goes to Tim Holtz for the inspiration for this background from a tip he shared...know if you get tired of your grungeboard pattern you can do a similar thing of passing it through the CB to create a new different texture.

Summer is here!

2008-07-06T22:06:00.010-08:00

Yes, it reach temperatures in the low 80's F this weekend! Gosh that is warm enough to go sockless! Oh it was glorious with wonderful breezes and blue skies for as far as you can see (at least 250 miles to the Alaska Range). Yes, we do enjoy warming up for a few days each year!

The 1st lettuce is now ready to harvest from the gardens. These huge leaves fill 2 slices of bread. 1 leaf or 2 for your salad?

The flowers are now filling out nicely!

A bee enjoys the last of this season's Wild Roses.

WSW-Wonderful Stamping Week!

2008-06-22T07:31:00.011-08:00

Yes, it was week of fun stamp and lots of creative stretching! I enjoyed lots of fun creative challenges at 2 Peas in a Bucket this week as well as lots of inspiration at the Stamp Shack and across the net in general!

One of my favorite challenges was creating from the inspiration of specific pictures. These one was inspired by a green/black/white office with lots of swirls.

A warm and beautiful solstice weekend gave a few more hours of sunlight than usual to being able to stamp and create! Challenged to recycle some items for a card I used the inside of a soda can and die cut it with my cuttlebug.

Celebrations to remember the historic events that led up to Alaska joining the United States 50 years agoare now beginning in our community. A fun project this week was creating this collage celebrating statehood. Thanks Tami/teabear for the challenge of figuring how to incorporate a playing card in a card.

Donna/countrycowgirl created a wonderful tutorial for the folks at the Stamp Shack. So I ended the week playing with some alcohol inks. If you haven't seen her blog you should check it out she too loves techniques. Thanks Donna for the fun!

World Stamping Week at 2 Peas in a Bucket

2008-06-15T04:44:00.011-08:00

Yes, I am playing over at 2 Peas in a Bucket all week in their 30 plus challenges. In between several other Saturday activities I made a few challenge cards.

This first one is a business envelope size and has a wrinkle free background made with distress inks. The grass stamp from Stamp Zia had been waiting several months to be used and I am so excited about the butterflys that are from the Stamp Barn that I purchase in Victoria on my cruise.

This geranium card was created for an orange and pink challenge. I love this new stamp! I did a lot of cutting on this one so I could pop-up the flower.

Oh wow, I used my new Ink Blending Tool(it looks similiar to the alcohol ink applicator handle but holds cut n dry sponge) with a hand torn mask for this one and I am totally sold on it! Thanks Roni for sharing those great tips for using the IBT on you blog! I love how even the new Ranger pigments inks slide on the paper with this tool!

Stamping with a friend!

2008-06-12T22:08:00.009-08:00

My wonderful friend, Jennifer of "Thimbles, bobbins, paper and ink" and I continue our challenges. This month we tried a little something different. We made 2 sets of inchies and sent one set to the other person. Then we were to make a mini-album or something to display them.

Unfortunately a big catastrophe happened for me when I went to make my album. Two of Jennifer's inchies had an up-front and close encounter with a blue dye ink pad. The best I could do without altering her work was to cutout the images which worked perfect as embellishments (a frog and a bee). Once again I send off my sincerest apologies to Jennifer that they are not featured in their original natural beauty!

Now I will let you scroll down to enjoy the album and of course remember to stop by Jennifer's to enjoy her view of this challenge.

Texture!

2008-06-11T07:16:00.004-08:00

Oh don't you love different textures! This is a fast and easy technique that I learned about on Roni's Ink Stains . You will find the link in the right column of her home page where she lists her favorite top 10 techniques for the blending tool and links to her previous posts. I used the Ranger's liquid pearls although her directions for her#10 technique called for Ranger's dimensional pearls. This is the fun results I got.
I can tell that I will be trying many more things with this technique!

Doodle the stress away!

2008-06-10T21:34:00.005-08:00

Wow this is such a relaxing card to make! I started with the "winkle-free" distress technique and filled in the background with open doodle type stamps. Then it is all about breathing deep and using 2 pens-1 black and 1 white to add lines, dots and doo-dahs and I was happy to use the simple layout sketch Roni at Ink Stains provided this week. If you like Ranger Ink products I highly recommend that you make Ink Stains a regular stop on your blog list!

Painting on acetate with alcohol ink

2008-06-02T20:53:00.012-08:00

My favorite project on the Cruise with Tim Holtz was this clear photo album. I had tried my hand at painting with alcohol inks before taking the cruise. The medium to make this work is Ranger's blending solution in an aquabrush. Learning to control how much blending solution is used and the effects of the differences takes some experimentation. Tim provided us with a palette with about 6 drops of alcohol ink in each well. I real-ly liked using the palette over the butter dish lid. Having all the colors ready at my fingertips gave a different encouragement to try various colors. A deepest color is often at the top rim of the well. Colors stay liquid only about 5 seconds so the palette can be easily stored and pulled out for reuse at any time. He also provided the Koi aquabrush. I love the long thin tip for both swishing a lot of color for a background wash and for fine details. I prefer it over the aquabrush I had been using. This brush can be filled directly from the bottle and has a small cap to seal the barrel if you want to store it filled. Tim warned that water and blending solution do not mix and can deteriorate the plastic if you mix uses of your brush. The transparencies that we painted are Prima Paintables.

I am not nearly done with my album so to get back into this type of work I stamped some images in stazon ink on transparencies and painted on the opposite side. Here are my results.

Summertime

2008-05-30T18:39:00.009-08:00

There is still a chill in the air here . ..but I am so ready for SUMMER!! We do have long days of light but where is the warmth?? In the meantime I will succumb to making a few summertime craft projects.

This summertime pin is made with grungeboard elements, crackle paint, distress ink and dabber paint. There is a U tube video about making such pieces but I sorry I seem to have lost the address.

This week's Hero Art's challenge is circles.

I enjoyed playing with the Big and Juicy Ink Pad and of course a little bling!

More cruisin'...

2008-05-27T10:02:00.005-08:00

GLACIER BAY!

The beauty of glaciers caving is at special as I had dreamed...and then some! Only wish I could have captured their moment and a few of whale tails we said in pictures to share with you.

We altered this mirror frame in class today. Yes, I covered the mirror with paper to photograph. We cut pieces of grungeboard and colored them with Dabber paint and then distressed them and added black dabber paint to accent. To make it my own I used some Prima flowers from our first kit and swirls from the new grungeboard smaller alpha set.

Cruisin’ to Alaska!

2008-05-26T22:41:00.028-08:00

Since Monday was our full day at sea, we had our first and longest class with Tim. We made a 4x4.5 album to use on our trip. What fun to experiment with lots of new products!

I really like using grungeboard for covers of albums! It is flexible and can be embossed in the cuttlebug! I was surprise to learn you can sew grunge and even laundered it. We slathered on the crackle paint and after drying added distress ink. As I worked to make it my own I added dabbler sail blue paint. It was amazing to have all the pages precut with some with pockets and others with flaps. It gave us plenty of opportunity to learn how to use the ink blending applicator as we distress all the edges with ink and the distress tonic tool as well as a hands on try with the bind-it-all.

Tuesday-Juneau, Alaska!
We only had the morning for classes so this one was short, easy and fun. These products are just now being shipped to stores, so we were the first to play with Tim’s new hardware. We each receive a wonderful sacks full of sprockets, spinners, tokens, chains, latch hooks, clips…etc. We had such fun putting together combinations to wear as jewelry or to add to our crafting projects. Here I made a book spine hanger for my friend Lesley.

We were in Juneau, Alaska's capital and 3rd largest city (pop. approx 30,000) for the afternoon and evening. When I directed the Girl Scouts in northern Alaska, I had a wonderful colleague and friend, Lesley, who directed the Girl Scouts in southeast Alaska. She still lives in Juneau and enthusiastically gave us a personal tour of the area. We enjoyed hearing the stories of our state's government as we travelled through downtown and the senic ride to Medenhall Glacier where we got to touch the glacier ice (pic on left).

We made a stop along the coast to visit St Theresa’s retreat center where we enjoyed the peaceful walk among these tall trees along the water. What beautiful stone work!

Lesley saved the best treat for last! We met her husband for a lovely private dinner at the inn on top of the mountain that is gotten to by tram. While I am uncomfortable with heights I decided to be a "traveler" and try the new things of the trip. To my surprise I felt very secure in the tram and the views were spectacular. A quick special thanks to Lesley (red jacket) and Don (not in picture) from me (black jacket) and Peggy (blue jacket) for sharing the sites of Juneau.

A FANTASTIC CRUISE!

2008-05-20T19:06:00.015-08:00

May 11-18 2008 ... life doesn't get much better than enjoying a week of leisurerly crafting with Tim Holtz and cruising the beautiful waters of southeast ALASKA!

The view from my balcony in Seattle was fantastic particuliarly since I had never seen the space needle before this trip. The fast pace of the city provided a sharp contrast to what we would see in the days ahead.

Tim is one fantastic organizer of training events! It is difficult to simply explain how fantastic crafting with a master teacher and organizer can be. Tim provided EVERYTHING the 200 participants could possibily need for a spectacular crafting time. If you think of a luxurious crafting time...this is it!

At a reception the first evening we recieved the nametag that you see on the far right. It is also a zippered pounch to carry our room key and any other personal essentials. We wore it to all the classes and quickly learned to identify our classmates by "the look" of the tag and a similar designed zippered totebag.

Tim planned for every possible item we could possibly need for our projects. The first day we received a basic kit complete with a sampling of the newest inks, paints and tools. He even provided rubber gloves and a tea towel to be used as a ink rag as needed.

O-o la-la there were always surprises!!! We received an abundance of additional supplies and embellishments so we could personalize our projects. Hm-m I see I still have lots of grungeboard and a wonderful set of Hero Arts travel cling stamps to enjoy but lots of ribbon must still be stashed in a suitcase pocket.

So I best run along to finish up cleaning out the suitcases...see you soon with pics of my projects.

Cruisin' Alaska's Inside Passage with Tim

2008-04-29T21:51:00.008-08:00

Finally, after weeks of thinking about this trip I have met about 30 of the cruising crafters on-line. Wow what a terrific group this is! Already bonding as we explore transportation options, excursions, and special opportunities to find creative products for sale. Everyone is so jazzed about the trip we can hardly stand it! While the creative fun with Tim Holtz is still ahead we started our own warm-up exercise. Many of the crafters are making 50 ATC's for swapping. So I have gotten busy and jumped right in! I used my Ranger Acrylic dabblers for the blue ice the bears are walking on and the background for the doll in a parka.

Jennifer’s Turn

2008-04-22T21:26:00.005-08:00

My friend Jennifer from Thimbles, Bobbins, Paper and Ink is joining me in a few challenges. Last month I suggest waterbrushing alcohol inks on acetate. This month it is Jennifer's turn to select. She chose to work with coloring embossing paste.

I started with basic white embossing paste and tried to color my paste with perfect pearls. That did not work. I moved on to coloring the paste with Lumiere acrylic paint. These colors are very intense and colored the paste wonderfully. I tried several colors from soft pastels through metallics and found this blue to be my favorite for this butterfly medallion.

I am pleased to know a new option for coloring my embossing paste. Thanks Jennifer for the challenge! Jennifer has colored her image with multiple colors...you will definitely want to look at her blog!