Purple and Yellow Tulips

Large stamps are the most wonderful stamps to have if you don't want to do a lot of layers.  I have this tulip stamp from Northwoods Rubber Stamps that is so great to color.  I have two sympathy cards that I made with this image that I just love.  I really like this frilly tulip and I think it makes a wonderful card.  What do you think.  Thanks for stopping by.

Santa Loves Golf

I finally started my own Christmas cards, and I'm really loving it.  These are the cards for our golfing friends.  I started out making them on a horizontal card then switched to the vertical, using Papertrey Ink's New Leaf cardstock.  The golf hole stamp is from Nortwoods Rubber Stamp company and I stamped that in Versamark then heat embossed with Recollection's white detail powder.  The Santa is also from Recollections and also stamped with Versamark but I just let it dry, now powder, since I wanted it to appear faintly in the background. 
Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

The Lone Fisherman

This card shows off some of the other translucent DP from The Paper Comapny called Swirly White that I found in my supplies.  I wanted to use some of my stamps that have been sitting idle for way to long and I needed a masculine card so I combined the three thoughts and came up with this card.  The card base is a very deep purple from Gina K (I think).  The stamps are from two different comapanies, Seagulls from Stampendous, Fisherman and Sunrise/Sunset are from Northwoods Rubber Stamps.  Once again I used a leftover oval die cut to make my focal point.  I just lightly colored the birds, the clouds and some of the water and made the sun pop out brightly.  Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Beckett Tulips

My final experimental card is done on Beckett Expressions Radiance.

The coloring for this one is again YG01 and YG03 for the leaves and the flowers are RV00, RV11 and RV34.

The color went on smoothly and blended well, so my conclusion is that whatever paper you like and can afford is the best one to use. I enjoyed this experiment so much I think I'll do it again.

The DP for this card was Memory Box Pixie with card stock in Cranberry and Meadow.

Hope you have enjoyed my experiment and thank you for stopping by.

P. S. While going through my stamps I came across so many old favorites that I think I'll be tripping down 'Memory' (pardon the pun) lane for awhile.

Cryogen Tulips

This is the second card in my experiment. For this card I used Cryogen White, it is more of a cream color with a very lovely sparkle to it.

For coloring I used YG01 and YG03 for the leaves and Y11,Y06 and Y15 for the flowers. Again the colors went on smoothly and blended nicely.

The DP is also from Memory Box Pixie with the card base in Sunflower and the matting is Cherry Blossom.

So far I'm not finding much difference in the papers for coloring.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

X-Press It Tulips

Well after cleaning up my craft area I deserved some play time. Bruce is gone for the day so I can play with my toys. While cleaning and straightening up I came across some X-Press It Blending paper that I bought from Ellen Hutson several months ago. I had put it away and never used it. I decided to have some fun and experiment with three different card papers for coloring with Copics.

I chose this stamp from Northwood Rubber Stamps to use on all three cards.

The leaves are done with YG01 and YG03, the flowers with R20,R83 and R85. The DP and card stock for the base and matting are all Memory Box Pixie, Taffy and Meadow.

It was easy to blend my colors and I like how it turned out.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

For Jimmy

I had to make a couple of sympathy cards and it was a difficult job. This card is for a friend of my husband and also a golfing partner.

Jimmy was an avid golfer and had suffered a series of stokes over the last few years that ended is joy and passion for the game.

In the spring a golf event will be held in his memory and the word has gone out about it and I think it's going to turn out a large crowd.

For this card I used a stamp from Northwood Rubber Stamps, that I stamped using Memento Rich Cocoa. All card stock is Cryogen White and the embossed layer is Cuttlebug.

The other sympathy card will be posted tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by.

Sympathy for Bob

I know that I have blogged about making sympathy cards a lot, but this one is another sad one. A friend of ours passed away suddenly and he was way to young at only 64. He was an avid golfer and lover of old cars. We had just seen him a couple of weeks ago at a party and he talked about how much he was enjoying his golf this summer. So this one is for him.

This wonderful golf scene is from Northwoods Rubber Stamp and I stamped it with Tim Holtz Distressed Inks Brushed Corduroy and Frayed Burlap. The sentiment is from Rubber Soul. I mounted it to some kraft paper and then onto the DP from Basic Grey Kioshi. The card base is a shiny kraft.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Thank You Cabin

I've had a very busy two weeks. First I went to Fla. for my nephews high school graduation. Had a great time even though it rained for almost the entire time we were there. It stopped raining for the 4 to 5 hours of the party. The trip home was all those horror stories you here about air travel. That is a story for another time.

The second part of these last 10 days was very sad. My brother-in-law (Bruce's younger brother) died very suddenly. A total shock for all of us. Brian and Jane (his wife) were up north at their cabin when Brian suffered a massive heart attack. Stunning everyone. Brian was a wonderful person, kind and generous with his time and sharing his knowledge. (He was stage manager at the Wharton Center for the performing arts on MSU's campus). So many people came to pay their respects and share stories of Brian's helpfulness. Jane had so many thank you notes to write for all the flowers and charity donations and just the help given to her at this sad time, she asked me to write a few notes to the people that Bruce knew best. Rather than use the notes that were supplied by the funeral home I chose to make my own in honor of Brian. Jane had chosen a cabin theme for her notes so I pulled out a Northwood Rubber Stamps, a favorite of mine, this cabin scene. I stamped it in Memento Rich Cocoa and decided to leave it plain, no coloring. I used sketch 99 from Clean & Simple, it really suited the mood of my card.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Vellum at the Lake

I tend to think of vellum as a "pretty" thing. Something to make a card prettier, more feminine. This card changed my mind. I wanted to make a more masculine card and decided to haul out my scenic stamps. The lake shore is form the Artful Stamper and the birds are Northwood Rubber Stamps. The DP is of course Lasting Impressions (can you believe I still have a ton of this paper).

I stamped the image with Stazon then flipped it over and colored from the back with Copics. The only thing about coloring on vellum with Copics is there is no blending. It ends up with a bit of a water color look. Anyway, I like how it turned out. What do you think? Thanks for stopping by.

Golfing Christmas

I had to come up with a special card for our golfing friends, so this is it.

Embossing came to the rescue again. This Northwoods Rubber Stamps image works really well with embossing powder. I'm sure many a golfer is dreading the change of season and the end of golf for this year. (Bruce played just 2 days ago and doesn't think there will be any more for the year).

The sentiment is Inkadinkado.

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

The Shepherds

When I think of Christmas certain images come to mind. This stamp from Northwood's Rubber Stamps really illustrates that image.
I've had this stamp for a couple of years and it is a favorite. I used it for a lot of my Christmas cards last year and had fun coloring them. I don't have any photos of last years, it would be interesting to compare to see any improvements in my techniques. (I'm hoping I've gotten better). I used Copics of course and just stamped directly onto the front of the card base. I stamped out several cards and this is the only one I got straight. LOL Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Pumpkin Bonanza

I created this card for Copic Creations challenge Coloring Pumpkins. This stamp from Northwoods Rubber Stamps was perfect for this challenge. (the only stamp I had with a good variety of pumpkins). I colored the pumpkins with Y21,YR24,YR15 and YR04, I just had so much fun working with this image. The leaves all started with YG03, then I added G24 and G40. After that I realized I wanted more of a fall look so I started layering in YR15, Y17, !R24 and YR04. The cart is E11, E31 and E35. A little smooch and white pen for hi-lites and I was almost finished. I accented the edges of the image with YG11 (bottom) and B00 (top). Then I sponged Memento Tangelo and Potters clay around the edge (keeping it in the Mega Curved Rectangle). I just mounted it on card stock from PaperTrey. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

Thanksgiving Cornucopia

This is another card done for my Church group. When I was looking for stamps for this project I had a great deal of trouble finding stamps of a more traditional nature. My friend Rene and I were on the hunt and we went to Michael's, JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby. Mostly we found cartoonish type stamps or modern. Really nothing that suited what I wanted to do. I gave up but luckily Rene didn't. When we were checking out of Hobby Lobby she wouldn't let me see what she bought at first. Then she presented me with this stamp from Cynthia Elmore that she'd found in the sale bin. It's perfect. I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it with Copics. The sentiment is Northwood Rubber Stamps. I cut out with a Nestabilities and added some glitter to give it some punch. Hope you like it.

Northwoods Rubber Stamps

This is an oldie. I made this card back in 2006. It's a beautiful image from Northwood Rubber Stamps. There is no name on the stamp just the item # P4617.

I did look through the catalogue but didn't find it, so it must be retired. I'm not really sure how I did this card but I believe I stamped it in Versamark and embossed it in black. I then colored it with Tombow markers. This is very early in my card making career and one of my better designs. I was looking at some of my other cards from back then and I realize the classes I've taken and the help I've had from my friend Sandy have made a huge difference. Still a lot more to learn but that's the fun of it. Thanks for stopping by.

Cabin

I found this wonderful stamp "Cabin" from Northwood Rubber Stamps at Stamp On It in Grand Rapids. It just jumped into my hand and said "Guy card". I made a similar card as a B'day card for a friend and it was an easy card to make. It's stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa, then lightly colored with copics on a parchment card stock. The corners were done with an EK Success Leaf punch. I look at this and see relaxing in front of a crackling fire with a good book (after a fun day of stamping of course). Have a fun day.