Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Today is my hubby's birthday so I whipped up this card for him. Not alot of fuss, but I think he will like it just the same. I used the Baby Boy Stripe and Baby Boy Circles cardstock from the My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus line. The candles are from the Penny Black Salutations clear stamp set. I embossed them with clear EP on the Circles paper and cut them out. The words are from a Hero Arts clear set. I stamped the words in Ginger and Espresso Adirondack inks. I inked the stamp with Ginger first and lightly tapped it onto the Espresso pad to get just the right color. I cut the cream panel with "cloud" Fiskars scissors and edged the card with brown shimmery chalk.

Tonight I am fixing hubbys favorite dinner: BBQ Baby Back Ribs, Artichokes and Baked Potatoes. For dessert I am made Blackberry Cobbler. Mmmm......mmmm good. It's easy to make, anyone up for the recipe?

Look who's blogging now!

Hero Arts thats who! I just received an e-mail from Hero and they are announcing their new blog. Looks like they are going to have lots of fun stuff coming up. You know Hero is one of my most favorite companies and I can't wait to see what they will be doing. You can check out their blog here

Tomorrow its back to work at the stamp store and we have been receiving lots and lots of boxes from our CHA orders and donations for our retreat in May. I need to get busy and finish up my samples for next months classes. I will try to get them finished and photographed tomorrow.

TTFN!

Lovin' My Mind's Eye

I was dying to use some of the new My Mind's Eye paper that we received at the store. For this card, I used Julee's Mojo30 sketch. I just love the layout of this one and plan on using it again soon. The base card is Bazzill, the prints are My Mind's Eye. I embossed the flower (Great Impressions) and the words (Savvy) in Jackpot EP. For more info on Julee's sketch, go here.

At the store, we are gearing up for The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape. We are receiving boxes every day from our wonderful vendors. So many have donated great door prizes and things for the goody bags. There are a few spots left and if you can get info all of the info here. Just click on the link on the left to take you to the retreat info.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Hugs,
Melissa

Think Spring

What a beautiful day we are having today. The sun is shining and there is a gentle breeze blowing. When I went into my "studio" today I wasn't sure what I was going to make but I started looking around my desk and this is what came together. The flower stamp is from Paper Inspirations and the word stamp is a retired Hero Arts stamp. I colored the flower stamp with my Tombow markers and then spritzed one time with my Ranger Mini Mister. All cardstock is Bazzill and the ribbon is from Midori.

Here is a closeup of the embossing. The nestabilities cut and emboss like a dream in the Cuttlebug.

Well, I must run now as today is Jimmy's (oldest son) 21st birthday and I need to pick up the house and start getting ready to cook dinner.

Oh and wait until you see all of the new ribbon that Sharon got in at the store. I am sure her faithful employees will be blogging about it soon. You can check out their blog here.

Wonderful Wisteria

Here is a bigger pic of my card that was made with the T & T Technique. I don't know why the tutorial pics aren't clickable. If you would like larger pics, just let me know.

Twinkling Tombows Technique

So what is Twinkling Tombows? Tombows and Twinkling H20's thats what. In the following pictures, I will show you how I like to get the watercolor look using my markers first and then topping it all off with Twinkling H20's and a little glitter glue.

First, I picked the stamp that I wanted and then I gathered some markers, H20's, gold embossing powder, watercolor paper, mini mister, and my Niji Waterbrush.

You'll notice that I have quite a few markers pulled out and an extra little piece of watercolor paper. I swipe each color of marker on the smaller piece so that I can figure out which of the colors I will use.


Oops! I forgot to edit this picture, but you can see that I have eliminated some colors.


First, you will put down the lightest colors that you have chosen.

Next, you will add the next darker shades of markers and blend in a circular motion with the waterbrush.


You will continue adding your markers from the lightest to the darkest and blending with the waterbrush after adding each color.

We're almost there...............

Can you see it happening? At this point, I pulled out a couple of my colors of H20's and put a light wash over each petal.

Then I matted the image (using scraps--whoo hoo!) and stamped the words in Graphite Black Brilliance ink. The image stamp is an Alesa Baker design from Impression Obsession and the words are from Papertrey Ink.

Something just wasn't right, so I had to add a little bit of Stickles to the leaves and petals.

Voila! It's done and ready to be mailed.

I hope this tutorial will help you use your markers and H20's together.

TTFN!

ETA: I have had a couple of people tell me they couldn't remember what I was calling this technique, so I am changing the name from T & T to Twinkling Tombows. I hope this will help. It should make it easier to search for also.

To Copic or not

After much him hawing around, I have decided not to invest in Copic Markers. Eeek, you say! Although I love the result many stampers have gotten with them, I decided that I had purchased lots of sets of different coloring mediums and I must learn to use them properly before I invest in another medium. I currently own: A full set of 48 Lyra Watercolor Crayons, A Bazillion Tombow Markers, 120 Prismacolor Pencils and too many Twinkling H20's to count. Oh and lets not forget chalks, inks and remember those much loved Radiant Pearls?

So in my next post, I will show you one of my new favorite techniques. I am calling it T & T.

TTFN!

Mojo Madness!

So every Monday Julee at Poetic Artistry posts a new sketch for us to try. Every Monday, I vow to sit down and make a card or two using her sketch. Most of the time, well this is no time. This week though I decided come heck or highwater I was going to give it a try. Here is a like to Julee's post with the sketch info. Here is what I came up with.

The first card was definately in my "comfort" zone as I love flourishes and flowers. The flourishes are a new set from Inkadinkado and the flowers are from Prima. The little pearls were a gift so I don't know where they came from. I used a black base card and cream VIA cardstock for the main part of the card. The small piece of print is from Crate Paper. I edged the cream layer with Antique Linen Distress Ink from Ranger.


The second card was just fun! I used another new set from Inkadinkado for the paws and the pup. The solid cardstocks were from a DCWV pad. I stamped the paws and pup with black ink and then went over them with my black glaze pen. It is kinda hard to tell, but I put some brads in some of the blue dots on the print panel. The fun dot print cardstock is from the new DCWV Pets paper pad. There are 48 prints in the pad! I gave this card to Dwight for his birthday.

If you give Julee's sketch a try, leave me a comment so that I can check em out!

Happy Birthday Dwight!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today at the store we celebrated Dwight's (Sharon's Dad) 93rd birthday. His birthday is on the 2oth, but he was coming into town today so we surprised him with some cards, truffles and a Napoleon cake. Dwight is a very special man to me as I no longer have Grandparents of my own, I like to say that I adopted him. I am very proud of him as Sharon took him to the DMV on Monday to renew his drivers license and he passed the test with 100%.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Luck o' the Irish to you all! I hope you all are having a great day. Here are a couple of cards that my friend Ginger made for samples in the store. The stamps used are from Stampendous.

On the homefront, all is going well. Hubby is as busy as ever, Jon is eagerly waiting to go back to work at Millers for the summer (I think it is really the girls in bathing suits that he likes .)

Abby still has her leg wrapped up, but she acts like she has no cast at all. She goes back to the vet on Friday. Last week the vet said it will take a full 6 weeks before he knows if this is working. Wags, well is just Wags. He is the king of hubby's lap and the king of the bed too!

My oldest son will be 21 on the 26th and I have to admit, I am a bit emotional over this one. He doesn't live at home anymore and I miss him eventhough he lives just a short drive from here.

I have been creating and taking pics to share with you. I have been working on my T and T Watercolor technique. Can you guess what T and T are?

Well, I am off to indulge in a little reality T.V.

Hugs to all.

How Many of Me?

A little something for the Useless Information file..........yep, we all have one!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 91 people with my name in the U.S.A. http://howmanyofme.com">How many have your name?

No Mojo

I haven't stamped much lately. I did make some ATC's for a few swaps over at the Stamp Shack. I see so many cards on the net that I like and want to make, but when I sit down to make something, my mind goes blank. Bummer for me! The swaps I did were: Black/White, Owls and the last one is Cupcakes. Yum, I wish I had a cupcake right now. :) As soon as I get them back, I will share them with you.

On the home front, I have been busy schlepping my dog Abby to and fro from the Vet, to the groomer and back to the Vet again. Abby tore the ligament in her knee and may need surgery but the Vet has suggested we try immobilizing the knee for the next few weeks and seeing if her knee will heal on its own. Anywho, she is the sweetest dog and I don't want her to be in pain, so I hope the splinting will help. She does seem to feel better with her leg wrapped.

I am still working 6 days a week and not liking it at all. 5 days would be fine, but 4 would be better.

Hope all is well with you all. I really appreciate you all for hanging in there and reading my ramblings!

Melissa