Makeover Week - Day 4 Hold it part 2

Tuesday I showed you 2 versions of the "Making the Grade" stamp set from My Favorite Things. Today I have more stamps from My Favorite Things where someone is holding something but like yesterday the sets are retired.

Beakers to Vases

The first card features the set, Scientist. This card was fun to put together but took a lot longer than I anticipated. This beaker holding, smock wearing little girl got a bit of a makeover.  Her beaker has been turned into a vase to hold a sweet bouquet of flowers from the retired Inkadinkado "Lots of Pots" set. Her five button lab coat looks more like a pediatric dental hygienist's smock.

Dig all that dimension. 

I stamped the new My Favorite Things Small Brick Background Stamp onto a tan card stock, then used the Copic Airbrush to color them red.  I love this stamp, the bricks are perfectly proportioned for the rest of the My Favorite Things stamps. I cut out a window then had to make a window frame - more cutting. The wood grain on the window and the window box is from the Heidi Swapp Woodgrain background. I used washi tape to mask off the corners to give it a mitered look. I really like how that part turned out. I put the whole panel on 3M foam tape for some depth.


The valance in the window is a bit of lacy ribbon glued on the back of the brick panel. The window box is popped out with dimensional tape as well. The pots are from the Inkadinkado set I mentioned before. The plants growing in them are the waste side of the grass punch from Martha Stewart.

---------- FAILURE WAS INEVITABLE ----------

Last week when I wrote about rebooting the blog I told you I was going to fail to deliver from time to time. I had posts planned out. I had a editorial calendar in place and life still got in the way in the first week.

Sciatica, severe back pain and tingling fingers and toes, dog sitting and doctor's appointments were not all scheduled for this week when I wrote that post but they happened anyway. So Day 4 of makeover week is happening on Day 5 and you are going to miss some pretty awesome cards this week. I will post them next week. No biggie. That's the great thing about being the boss. You can change the rules midstream. Ask any parent -- it happens all the time.

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You Rock Loveasaurus 

The last card features one of my favorite images by Claire Keay. The little Loveasaurus stamp used to be sold by My Favorite Stamps but they no longer carry Keay images. You can still get a digital version at the Jellypark page at PayHip.com as well as a lot of other Keay images.

The Copics got a work out on this card. This image is so fun to color and I love adding the added bits of interest like the stripes on the tail and the dots on the spine plates. The curtain and stage were freehanded but the guitar and sentiment are from the Stampendous set "Rock Out". The guitar was colored with Copics then coated in Versamark ink and embossed so the whole guitar is shiny.

I cut the arm of the Loveasaurus tucked the guitar under it. Masking to make this happen may be possible but I wasn't up for trying to do it that way.

Research on where to get Stampendous "Rock Out set turned up nothing, nil, nada. So again probably retired.

I matted the image on some kraft paper so it would pop more then decided to do a bit of decorating with my Signo Uni-ball white gel pen. I may have gone overboard but I like it. I even dotted his guitar strap so it stands out a bit more. The background is from a DCWV Matstack called Old World.

About the links

I am not part of any affiliate program - yet. I don't make any money if you follow a link and buy something - yet. So all the links here are either from the manufacturer because they are the only one selling the product or are from the site with the lowest price today. There is a 30% off sale on papercrafting supplies at JoAnn Fabrics right now so several of the links go to that site. 

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Happy Crafting,

Fish for Valentines day

It's that time again. That time of year when love takes over and boys go. "Ewww." Because it's Valentine's Day. My son is not into love and flowers and hearts and pink, but he does want to participate. Pinterest can be a great place to go for inspiration if your kid is not into pink flowers and hearts.

There was a picture in Family Fun magazine, and a pin on Pinterest  that both that both mentioned school and gave fish as a treat. One was Swedish fish and the other was goldfish crackers, which I thought was a much better treat. The kids get so much candy and he doesn't need any more sweetness.  So taking my inspiration from the goldfish crackers sample, the original coming from Mel at Bliss Bloom blog, I set out to make my own. one of the rules in our school district is that all the treats must be factory packaged so I couldn't follow Mel's directions completely. 

When I get a new set of acrylic stamps especially, I scan them into the computer and go to the Silhouette and make my stamp shape fussy cutting file.  The Stampendous Sushi Bowl Party set was perfect as a background for E's Valentines this year.  I used the bowl and the little bitty fish swimming in a school, as the base of the card. I use the shapes from the set, but not the stamped images themselves. E chose fish from the Recollections set called fun fish, for the focal point of each card. I'm quite protective of my Copic markers and wouldn't let him use them to color the fish. Well I would've but he decided to go to bed instead which was a better plan for him.

Once I got started I couldn't stop. I colored all of them, every single fish is colored either with Copic markers or Stampin' Up ink as watercolors. Some of the fish were stamped with Stampin' Up black which is great for watercolors. The rest were stamped with Momento tuxedo black, which hates water but loves a Copic marker. 

Sample 1 of the card that will go on a
package of Flavor Blasted Goldfish crackers.

Assembly will begin this evening and I will be sure to take pictures so that we can share them with all of you. 

First Reconciliation

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Before we get to dinner, before we get to homework, before we get to assembly,  E has to go for his first face-to-face confession. First communions are a big deal, every sacrament should be a big deal, but having a appointment for 4:00-something on a Tuesday afternoon just doesn't seem all that special.  Maybe on the ride to the church, maybe after it's done, something will happen and it will feel a bit more special.

In Other News 

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E has finally mastered the art of blowing bubbles with bubblegum. He has worked on this for a very long time and we are proud to announce that a bubble can be blown with the proper gum.







Happy Crafting,

Different Drummer Christmas Card

Each year I make traditional Christmas cards: Tree and Ornament cards, Santa and Sleigh cards, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cards, Holy Family cards, Wise Men cards, Baby Jesus cards.

The card to the left is one of those traditional cards. Embossed notes on red paper with a bracket tag on top  stamped with an image of a little drummer boy and colored with Copics. "The Little Drummer Boy" was a favorite Rankin/Bass Christmas Special from my childhood so when I saw this stamp a few years ago I had to get it.

I've been getting a lot of use out of my old Xyron lately adhering full card fronts on card bases made with Papertrey Ink Basic White.

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I made a set of 3 cards using the Little Drummer Boy idea in a new way. When I was working on the Rock Star Rosie Benefit I downloaded a drum set from the Silhouette Online Store thinking I would use it to make thank you cards for people drumming up support. I never made those cards so I used the shape to make untraditional Christmas cards. Wishing a Rockin' Christmas to a Little Drummer Boy. The guitar was created from an outline of a guitar in the Rock Out set by Stampendous using the method described in my Lazy Snipper tutorial.  I forgot to tell the machine NOT to cut the text in those guitar and wasted a piece of cardstock and more time than I was interested in losing. Is there an oops or undo button on the Silhouette SD?

The card fronts on these cards are from the DCVW Rockstar mat stack. Black and metallic magenta are not  traditional Christmas colors but I know a few people would probably be happier with these cards than the first card.

So what do you think? Do you know a drummer who would appreciate these cards?

drum_set_C20091009222859_2581

InLinkz.com

Happy Crafting,

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