Here's To Us!!

This week's MFT Idol Judges challenge was to show Who's That Girl on a night out. I chose to use my MFT VIP stamp set due to be released on Wednesday, April 1st (no joke either!), Girls Night Out and paired it up with Meet Me at the Cafe.

First I stamped my images in memento tuxedo black (have I said how much I love that ink?) and then colored everything with prismacolor markers. Since the main image was stamped twice, I cut out the dresses and applied them to the main image with dimensionals. Then after cutting out the awning, I used All Night Media pop dots to "fall over" Who's That Girl and her friend since pop dots are thicker, then pulled the edges of the awning up to add some additional dimension before adding ice stickles. The cafe sign was adhered the same way. Here are some pics showing the different layers, although the pics aren't as good as I'd like them to be.

After cutting out the wine glasses and adhering to the card, I smeared ice stickles to the wine to give them a bit more sparkle. Every card just has to have some bling somewhere. :)

So what's your idea of a girl's night out?

Stamps: MFT Girls Night Out, MFT Meet Me at the Cafe

Paper: white, SU elegant eggplant, pretty in pink, old olive

Ink: SU elegant eggplant, Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: All Night Media pop dots, SU dimensionals, ice stickles, prismacolor markers

Let's Talk Kincade Stamps

I'm not an art connoisseur but there is just something about Thomas Kincade's paintings that draws you to them. Maybe it's the tranquility of the old English cottages he's painted, the soft flowing streams, his new Disney paintings, or just the way he can capture modern day life in the simplest of ways. In each, there is a message for you. The challenge is finding that message.

Cornish Heritage Farms has been given the lisence to take the Kincade paintings and turn them into stamps; and they have done an awesome job at that. Each stamped image comes out looking like a masterpiece on it's own just waiting to be colored. Now, I've read on a couple of boards about people being intimidated about these stamps. Really folks, they're pretty easy to color and if you don't like to color, they work great as a monochromatic stamp too. As for me, I love to color them instead of the monochromatic look, but have done both.

For example, my Cobblestone Bridge below was stamped in memento tuxedo black ink and colored with prismacolor markers with silk flower stickers placed on the side of the image.

By coloring with the prismacolor alcohol markers, I can control how deep I want the color and if need be, blend a few colors together. Same with The Perfect Yellow Rose card below.

On the shaded areas of the stamp, a darker yellow is used and blended with the brighter yellow of the unshaded areas.

Monochromatic works too as in these cards I made for a Cornish Heritage Farms Thomas Kincade card blitz a few weeks ago.

So there's really reason to be intimated by these stamps except our own fear of them. Once you start working with them, they are so addicting.

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms Thomas Kincade: Cobblestone Bridge, The Perfect Yellow Rose, The Open Gate, Nothing Gets Better Than This

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up choc chip, PTI plum pudding, lavender moon, vintage cream

Accessories: prismacolor markers, ribbon bow, mini glue dots, primas, brads, silk flower stickers.

Meet Flopsy, Mopsy, Popsy and Babe

This week's MFT Idol Judges challenge is The Masquerade, or masking for short. I had a blast making my judges Idol entry by combining two MFT challenges and using 5 different MFT sets.

First, I stamped my What's The Story rabbit, created a mask and cut that out. Then after inking up Tea With Flopsy, I overstamped my masked rabbit so it looked like Tea With Flopsy aka Popsy was sitting "behind" my story rabbit aka Flopsy. Keeping Flopsy masked, I inked up my Babe rabbit from Isabel Paper Dolls and created a mask for him. Finally I inked and stamped Mopsy from Eggstra Special. Removing the masks, the coloring began using prismacolor markers making sure each family member was a slightly different color, however close enough to be "related". Stamped the leaves for the tree in three different inks for depth and then stippled certainly celery on the inside of the tree to fill in any blanks I still had in there. Stippled soft sky around everyone and the edges of the card to soften everything up a bit before adding the saying from Time For the Bubbly, once again stamping some leaves in celery so it would "blend into the tree" a bit and not stick out so much.

Well I hope you like my MFT Idol Judges entry and have time to visit all of the other judges creations here.

Stamps: MFT Tea With Flopsy, What's The Story?, Eggstra Special, Time For The Bubbly, Isabel Paper Dolls.

Inks: memento tuxedo black, SU soft sky & certainly celery, PTI spring moss & landscape

Accessories: stipple brushes, SU oval punches, prismacolor markers, brads

It's MFT Idol!!!!!

Since I didn't make it into the Top Ten Finalists for the MFT Idol competition, I get to sit back, relax, have a cup of tea and help judge the ones that did make it. Boy am I glad I didn't make it because I would have been out the first week, which is this week! Tonight starts the judging for the next 24 hours here: Vote Here The entries are all just awesome and how I'm going to be able to pick who goes home is beyond me!

The judges (or junkies as we like to call ourselves) decided we would have our own relaxing, stress free challenges to follow along with the idol contestents. This week's stamping topic is Celebrations and this is my idea of a stress free, relaxing way to celebrate.

Our favorite bunny, Flopsy, with my favorite drink under a tree with not a care in the world. I tried out MFT's new Stephanie Fizer digital paper packs with this card as well. The background paper is from the Spring collection. Once you download these digital paper packs, you can never run out of your favorite paper, only the ink to print them with! :) Seriously, I have a few of MFT's digital papers and love every one of them. You really should try them out.

Stamps: MFT Tea With Flopsy

Paper: SU Pretty In Pink, White, MFT Stephanie Fizer Spring Digital Paper

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Soft Sky

Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Prima, Mini Glue Dots, Pearl Sticker, Pink Organdy Ribbon, Stipple Brush

Let's Talk Monochromatic

Monochromatic stamping, or stamping in different shades of the same color family, is one of the easiest ways to get the mojo going when my mojo's gone on vacation, I'm too tired from work, or it just seems to look the best with a certain type of image. I've used this technique for all different seasons and types of stamps. For example:

Blue is one of my favorite colors and monochromatic color families to use. Personally, I feel it's the easiest color family to use for any image or season. On the above card, the background stamping is in a lighter shade of blue than the coloring and embellishments. This way it doesn't "wash out" the focal image.

The pink or purple family is the next easiest to use. This time, there is no background stamping, just a strip of a lighter shade of purple to highlight the focal image. The white bow ties in with the polka dots and white frosting on the cake. The yellow brads brings out the flame from the candles.

Depending on the mood I'm in, the card stock and embellishments available, and the images chosen, using the monochromatic technique can bring out the best in all of us; even if we don't feel we've done our best.

Welcome Baby Gary!

Two weeks ago I was blessed to become an aunt again. However, this time, the blessing was so special. You see, the baby that was born, was born almost one year to the day the grandpa he's named for "graduated" to heaven from cancer of the brain.

Gary Lee Skaggs Sr was a very special man in more ways than one. He was more than just my brother-in-law, he was my friend and confidante (even before my marriage), my financial adviser after my grandfather passed away, and my fellow "outlaw". Gary used to tease me about being a fellow "rebel" and "non-conformist" of the family and always said "us outlaws have to stick together". He always had a smile on his face for you and kind words for your deepest sorrows. When my husband was hurt in an auto accident, he drove myself, my son, and mother-in-law to the hospital accidentally driving by the accident scene with my banged up car still at the intersection. As we all panicked, he stayed calm praying for us and for Ken while silently berating himself for taking that particular way to the freeway. While Ken was being sewn up at the hospital, he held my hand keeping me calm. He helped me with all of the insurance mess that follows an auto accident as well including the settlement; talking me through each step long distance from his home in Idaho. Christmas 2006 he put outdoor carpet on the doorstep of my mother-in-law and ours so both my husband and his mom wouldn't slip and fall going down the stairs. A few weeks later, we found out he had a brain tumor. Two months after that, he was gone, but his legacy lives on.

His legacy continues on in the lives of his sons, in all of us, his granddaughter born one week after his passing and in his newborn grandson. What is your legacy?

Babies, storks and bugs!

It seems like I know what a lot of friends, and relatives, of mine were doing last summer since they're having babies right now. I've been in need of making several baby cards lately and have had to get a little creative with some of my stamps since I don't have a lot of baby stamps.

I had found some really cool paper at Joann's from Die Cuts With a View called Nanna's Kids so I paired it with the stork image from GinaK's How Sweet It Is set. Since one of my cards was made for twins, I stamped the stork three times and then colored the blanket in purple twice and popped one stork up on pop dots. To keep the card on the "feminine" side, I added some prima flowers and bling before adding the congrats from an old retired Stampin Up! set. For my boy stork card, made for my new great-nephew, I colored the stork blanket in blues and just kept the card simple.

The ladybug Die Cuts With a View paper was the inspiration for this baby card. I used Papertrey Ink's Little Lady set and masked off the wording from another Papertrey set to get the congratulations only. I thought having a momma ladybug and her baby would be a perfect baby card and very unique too.

Easter Painting MFT Style

Anyone remember that old show "Love American Style"? Geez that dates me! Well how about an Easter Painting MFT Style? This is my entry into My Favorite Things MFT Idol contest audition. The winner gets a $200 shopping spree at MFT. Can we say YIPPEE!! Just like the TV show American Idol someone gets booted off the contest every week after the auditions until a winner is decided by the DT judges.












I was at Beverly Fabrics over a week ago and found these cute canvas ATC thingy-s and wondered how they would looked stamped up like a painting. Not too bad although it does take longer for the ink to dry. I stamped the egg, chicks & saying in memento tuxedo black then colored with prismacolor markers. Stippled bashful blue & glorious green for the sky & grass. Stamped two more chicks, colored and popped them up on the "painting" with some mini pop dots I also found at Beverly Fabrics, added a gingham bow, primas, pearl gem sticker and easel to finish it off. It's a cute gift for only $4.





Side view for details.







Good luck to all of the participants.

Anyone Want A Cat Nap?

I totally love my cats...my fur children. They bring so much joy and laughter into my life. Quite often my husband and I will find all five of them asleep on our bed at the same time, sitting or playing in a box, or just being silly. I snapped this picture not too long ago of all five asleep on the bed and they're just too cute when that happens. They all have their "spot" and someone had better not try to move them from it or take it, because we have a cat fight otherwise on the bed. Midnight will actually "tell you off" by meowing or squawking at you.

Introducing clockwise: Squeaky, Tiny, Tigger, Midnight, Mittens (behind the PJ's my husband threw on the bed). Midnight always has to sleep in a very undignified pose, usually on her back and twisted around. Tiny and Squeaky have to sleep near each other with Mittens on Daddy's side of the bed. Tigger just wants the girls to leave him alone.

Ever have a child enjoy the box more than the toys? Well Mittens loves to play in boxes and sometimes just sit in them for hours. We think it's because she, Midnight and their brother were abandonded at the vet's office in a sealed box and she feels more "at home" in one.

Midnight loves to also lay on the ground in unladylike positions. What a big mouth! Isn't she cute though?

Sunrise

I'll get the hang of this blogging stuff yet. This post was my first blog post and I needed to edit something.

One of my favorite types of stamps are the Thomas Kincade ones from Cornish Heritage Farms. CHF just released a new Kincade stamp called Sunrise one week ago and I was fortunate enough to win one during their Thomas Kincade Blitz. I stamped this image in pallet noir and then watercolored it using Stampin Up! watercolor wonder crayons and an aquapainter.


Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms Thomas Kincade Sunrise
Paper: Watercolor, Stampin Up Elegant Eggplant, Summer Sun, Going Grey, Garden Green
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, Brads, Diamond Ice Stickles