In the Mix...

Life has kept me busy lately and I haven't had enough time to do all the challenges that I'd like to do. So I made this masculine card with three challenges in mind. I used Amy R's Friday Sketch #15, Korin's masculine theme, and Allison's Suggestive Sunday. It took me all day to finally get it assembled. I started right after my little one went down for her afternoon nap. Had a break and shared my bits and pieces with Laurie early evening and then finally completed the card after dear little one went to bed for the night. My inspiration for the card started with the Basic Grey papers. SO MUCH FUN!!! I colored Mr. Buddy Monster with Prismacolor pencils and blended him out with Gamsol. I also highlighted a couple areas on him with Crystal Lacquer. Oh, he's so cute I just wanna pinch him!

Anyhow, I hope you had a wonderful day. I know I sure have been blessed today.
Smiles,




CARD DETAILS:
Queen Kat Designs Buddy Monster
QKD Polka Dot Background

QKD My Hero Circle Stamp
Basic Grey Papers
Palette Ink
Prismacolor Pencils
SU! Black Marker
Sakura Pen
Crystal Lacquer
Buttons
Scrapper's Floss

Coloring...

It finally happend... I got my inky hands on some Copic markers. Nope, they are not mine...yet! None the less, I had a chance to give them a whirl and I am not sure what to think. My husband has encouraged me to pick some out and get'em but I'm not convinced that I have to have them yet. It would be crazy to pass this opportunity by so I am still deeply considering it. Here's a few of the images that I colored. I quickly noticed that they don't blend like Gamsol and Prismacolor pencils and they are totally different than watercoloring pencils. I had to completely put on a different thinking cap during my Copic play time. So, I'm gonna say what everyone else says about the experience. There is a big learning curve. It's a very big learning curve but I know I could get the hang of it if I was so blessed. What I recommend is if you are like me and don't have these incredible tools yet find someone that does have them and go a coloring.

Where I Live...

Where I live there are no trees and no need to own a lawn mower. Instead we have lots of snow, dirt roads, and tundra. It's a very unique place that I am proud to share. Sometime you can occasionally hear are the howls of energetic dogs exercising their legs as dog mushing teams. Last week I heard my neighbor's dogs going bonkers. I looked out the window and saw two mushing teams crossing the field across the street. No wonder there was so much barking going on! I quickly snatched up my camera and ran to my front door in time to snap a shot. I hope you like it.

Over the last couple of days I've been out and about and snapped a few more pictures to share. The middle one is of ice cycles on the railing and the other is a neighbor's new toy! I think it's a bit fancy and fun looking. I wonder how much gas milage this baby gets? HUMMM....still looks like lots of fun!

Big SMILES,


UPDATE:
Kemi asked about the first photo. She wanted to know what's the red dot in bottom of the photo is. That red dot is a reflector attached to a metal rod. It marks the edge of our driveway. To the right of the marker is a drop-off that is completely snowed in. Our biggest problem with the snow filling in there is that snowmachiner's drive through our lot and boy is that ever loud. :-( What's nice about having the marker there is that we know where the edge of our driveway is for snow removal. Anyhow, thanks for asking Kemi. :-)

QKD Challenge #4

It is my turn to host the Queen Kat Design's Design Team Challenge this week. For our 4th challenge I choose a spinner card. Did you know that there are two types of spinner cards? I discovered that there are two when I went searching for the tutorial on what I thought a spinner card was. To my surprise I found a completely different design of one that I had done before at a technique class. This uses pennies and pop dots to spin a cut out across your card front. I completely forgot that it was called a spinner card too. The one I was looking for has a cutout on the front with a circle or shape suspended with string so that it spins when the card is opened. So... I searched a little more and finally found the one that I was looking for and here's a picture of my spinner card made with QKD's "Build a Flower" which will make it's debut next month.


Don't forget to check the QKD DT spinner card creations! Here's their links:
Linsay
Heidi
Penny
Toni
Juliet


Interested in the tutorials for both spinner cards? Here they are too:
Penny Spinner
String Spinner

Friends

I had a chance to squeeze in some time for stamping with some friends and new friends this afternoon. For a little village in the arctic you would not believe how many different stamping demonstrators we have here. This time around I got to play with Close to My Heart products. We made a card and a scrap page. I thought maybe you'd like to see them both. I am in love with these papers that's for sure and the project designs are so fun!!!

THANKS ROBIN!!!

An Evening Walk...

Last night was the first evening walk of the season. I hope we will have lots more as the weather gets warmer. We bundled Little Ellie up. She was a puffy periwinkle cutie pie in her cold weather gear. We set her outside as we put on our gear but the moment her boots hit the porch she started screaming. POOR thing!!! She doesn't know what to do about the arctic air without being in her carrier or in someone's arms. Anyhow we managed to take a short walk and a couple of snapshots. I can't tell you how exciting this is!!! God blessed our day indeed.

Big goofy SMILES!!!

QKD Sneak Peaks

One of the new stamp sets coming out next month with Queen Kat Designs is a set called "Build a Flower". This set is very funky fresh and I had so much fun playing with it! I just know you are going to love playing with it too!





8x8 Scrappage Details:
Queen Kat Designs Build a Flower
and 100% Girl
Tinkering Ink Botanical Bliss
PaperTrey Ink Lemon Tart
Palette Ink
Ribbon
Michael's Drops





Trifold Pocket Card Details:
Tutorial by Beate
Queen Kat Designs Build a Flower
& Get Well
Tinkering Ink Botanical Bliss
PaperTrey Ink Lemon Tart
Palette Ink
Prima Flower
Michael's Drops



Gatefold Card Details:
Queen Kat Designs Build a Flower
Tinkering Ink Botanical Bliss
TAC White Cardstock
Palette Ink
Martha Stewart Ribbon
Michael's Drops



Well Done Card Details:
Queen Kat Designs Build a Flower
& Congrats
Tinkering Ink Botanical Bliss
TAC White Cardstock
Martha Stewart Ribbon

CHALLENGED!

I don't know if you have ever played with any of the Thomas Kinkade stamps yet from Cornish Heritage Farms. As for me, I was blessed by one from Rebecca Grohall of Bella Carta. Unfortunately, I've had it set aside since. I wanted to save it to make a card for my husband but not only that I was a tad bit shy of where to start with coloring such a detailed image. Since the release of these beautiful stamps I've studied and admired many a stamper's creations made with these beauties. Their art is so impressive. Well, I put my shyness aside and took an evening to color. I used Palette ink on regular cardstock to stamp the image and then I used Prismacolor pencils blended with Gamsol to complete the picture. I kept the rest of the card really simple as to not loose all the details. To top it off this card is perfect for Chrissy's Belli Challenge. This weeks challenge is to make a card using ribbon without bows or knots. Oh what fun!!!

UPDATE: Guess what? I just discovered that Cornish Heritage Farms advertises tutorials on the Kinkade stamps. That's wonderful news!!!

ANOTHER UPDATE:
I just saw Allison's Suggestive Sunday Challenge and my card will work for her challenge too. If you decide to do Allison's challenge also your card must include anything to do with water. :-)

There's TROUBLE...

I turn my back for a moment and lookie who wants play in Mommy's space. Yep, it's my little funny girl! Since our internet connection was out of service yesterday I guess Little Ellie wanted to help me get caught up on my emails and blurfing. What a SWEETIE!!! ;-)

Workin' Hard for My Stamping...

I know I'm not the only one out there that makes cards for sale or for trade to support a stamping habit. Here's a few of the grad cards that I am planning to put out there to support my hobby. I am so thankful to have a best friend to partner up with to sell our cards. Miss Laurie, Stamping for God's Glory, and I have grand plans with our profits... can you say, "COPIC MARKERS!"? Yep, the hope is to have enough cash for a set of markers and the airbrush system. Dreams can come true. I just know it. :-)

Hope you are having a wonderful Monday.

Big SMILES,

RAK'ed

What a blessing to receive these lovely cards. The first is from a new friend, Terri F. from Washington. She made this awesome creation with rub-ons and stamping. LOVE IT! (See the red card below.)

The second is from Chrissy of Creating with Chrissy. This card accompanied a paper cube that I won from one of her Belli Challenges. I've never stamped a paper cube yet and I just know it's gonna be a fun challenge. :-) Back to the card, LOVE IT too! I like the embossed circles in the brown boarder and the ribbon. (See the blue and brown card to the right.)



THANK YOU LADIES for being such a blessing to me!

Got My Shot!

This is a first for me! I saw the first bird of Spring and I actually had a camera handy to capture the moment!!! So exciting!!! I guess if you don't live here you might not think that this is all that. Well, for us arctic dwellers it's a sign that Spring is finally here when the birds return. Before you know it I'll be complaining about all the birds chirping when we are trying to sleep. Yep, that's right! Our birds never sleep during the summer because the sun never sets! Right now the sun is setting around 11 to 12 pm. CRAZY isn't it?! Other signs of Spring include "Spring break-up", the whaling crews breaking trail, and the warmer weather. I just can't wait for the better weather to take Ellie out for some summer walks... Spring is coming and all I have to say is, "BRING IT!".



PHOTO DETAILS:
I took this shot while looking through the blind slats of our dining room window. I was surprised that it turned out so well. Can you spy the snow bunting? He's perched on sled.

QUEEN KAT DESIGNS

You just gotta see these new release stamps from Queen Kat Designs.
CLICK HERE for the full details!



Not only that check out QKD's new stamp designer. Here name is SJ. CLICK HERE to see her blog.

Playing with COLOR

My color capers continues...this time around I tried blending reinkers with rubbing alcohol. You can see further information on Jody's blog post called "Drunken Watercolor". CLICK HERE. I took a couple of days coloring a whole page of Bellas and comparing all the variations of color. I also mixed in some more color with my markers too. These blended pretty well and really helped because I don't have very many reinkers. The trick is to color onto something nonporous that leaves the ink on top (not seeping in) like the back of a CD. Anyhow, I found this process very long and challenging. There definitely is a learning curve with this technique. If you decide to give it a try you'll need to practice-practice unless of course you are a natural. ;-)

For more ideas on non-Copic coloring techniques see Julie's video on Paper Pleasing Ideas. CLICK HERE.

CARD DETAILS:
Huggy Bella (From my pal, Kim Burress. HUGS KIM!)
"Hug" Sentiment from Queen Kat Designs
Doodle across the bottom is SU!
Freehand Doodling
Basic Grey Paper, TAC Cardstock
Palette Ink
Reinkers
Markers
Michael's Wedding Confetti
Iron-on Mini Jewels

Late, But Done...

Yesterday during Ellie's naptime I was able to sit down and create a card with Beate's Weekend Sketch #43. To my shame I have quite a collection of neglected SU! stamps and I decided to dust them off and create this beauty. I also dusted off my old Basic Grey papers too. I love this color combo. It's subtle and pleasant. Anyhow, here it is and I am happy to of got it done. This card was easy to complete and I might just have to make a few more.

Monday BLESSINGS!

Lookie what arrived for me on Monday!!! I can not express how much this excites me!!! That stamp set is one that I had really really regretted not getting when it was available for purchase with TAC. It was a limited edition collection and I totally spaced getting it. Thankfully an Angel came to my rescue and her name is Angela of Artistic Detours. Not only did she send me the stamp set but inside the box was some yummy treats and some of her handmade stamped goodies and to top it off some ribbon and felt flowers. What a blessing indeed!


If you want to be treated too you should stop by her blog and check out her stamping art. It's sweet, cute, and clever.
Click Here

THANK YOU ANGELA!