Love and Chocolate by Art Impressions!

Hey, all!  Valentine's Day is almost upon us.  Are you ready for the big day?  No need to worry.  It's nothing that a big ol' box of chocolates can't fix!  And while you're enjoying every velvety morsel, maybe you'll come up with a great a V-Day gift in the process.  Nom, nom nom!  LOL!

This image is part of the Love and Chocolate set from Art Impressions.  Snag it and lots of other wonderful stamps in the Ai Shop!

Stay Crafty!

  

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Tweetheart by Art Impressions

Hey, all!  I'm back today with a cutie patootie from Art Impressions.  Valentine's Day is right around the corner so why not get started with one of the brand new Valentine Sets.  The Love and "Hugs" sets come with 2 image stamps, a sentiment and an Action Wobble Spring.  When the spring is added to the mix, the stamped image appears to be hugging itself.  Too sweet!

The set  I used today is called the Tweetheart Set.  Super flippin' cute and perfect for your sweetie.  

Visit the Art Impressions Blog daily for inspiration from the Design Teams.

Stay crafty!

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Valentine's Day Card Class at CP2

Hello, all!  Today I am sharing the first of two cards I will be teaching for a Valentine's Day card class at China Phoenix 2 on January 22nd.  I wanted to do something a little less traditional for Valentine's Day this go around, so I reached for my Bombshell Stamps.  These images are beautiful and edgy, and I just love them!  I combined one of the sacred heart images from the All My Heart set with a couple of the sugar skulls from the Sugar Skulls set for a V-day card that says, "I love you, but I am so uber-cool, you are lucky to have me!"  LOL!  

I colored the sacred heart image and the sugar skulls with Copics using primarily reds (R39, R29, R24, and  R22).  A thick coat of dimensional lacquer makes the heart pop and gives the card added interest.  The best part, though, was dyeing the seam binding.  I went back and forth spraying the seam binding with water and swiping it with the Fired Brick Distress Ink pad, then I crumpled the ribbon and dried it with my heat gun.  My hands were bright red after this process, so I knew I had been successful.  Dont'cha just love to get inky?!  I finished it off with the usual accoutrements...gemstones and glitter glue.

YAWN!  I must be boring myself with this post, because I can barely keep my eyes open right now.  I can't even stay awake long enough to proof read it, so if there are any typos or grammatical errors, please forgive.  I am literally sitting here nodding off.  Ack!  Okay, I am going to succumb to Mr. Sandman and take my behind to bed.  Tomorrow I will be back with something more entertaining ;D  Stay crafty!

My Heart Has Wings

Good Morning. Well, it looks like I spoke too soon and jinxed the fab weather we were having. Today, unfortunately, has brought us clouds, rain and that oh so blah feeling of dampness mixed with cold temperatures. Even my awesome new skylights couldn't muster up a little brightness for these pictures, so let's give a shout out to photo editing programs across the land. YAY, iPhoto!!

This is another Valentine's Day card I created using an older image by Christine Adolph for Stampington. Beautiful as it is, the butterfly did not exactly fill me with that Vday feeling, so a punched heart found it's way to the card to amp up the romance quotient. I slathered a thick coat of Diamond Glaze on the butterfly to achieve that extremely shiny finish. Do you ever work with dimensional lacquer? Give it a try. It is so easy. Just outline the image with the lacquer then fill it in, sort of like decorating cookies with royal icing. Make sure that the lacquer forms a nice thick layer and don't be stingy. Oh! And most importantly...NEVER shake the bottle! You'll end up with all sorts of air bubbles, which is great if you want the finish to look like the craggy surface of Mars, but not so great for non-plantetary projects. The only other drawback to using this stuff is that it takes a good long while to dry. What's that you ask? Why yes, that is a fingerprint on the butterfly's wing, because Miss Instant Gratification couldn't leave well enough alone for an hour or two. Ah, the charm of a handmade card ;D

Hmmm...it's starting to snow. I hope you're keeping warm at your end of the keyboard.

Love

Here's another Valentine's Day card using an image by Christine Adolph for Stampington. This card is a bit simpler than the others, but I think it certainly gets the Vday message across :) Sometimes short and simple is just the right combination.

It is bright and sunny here in Albuquerque...a glorious start for the week. Hope your week is starting out with a bit of sunshine, too :D

Forget Me Not

Wow! A Saturday post from me? Unheard of...lol!

Love is in the air so I whipped up another Valentine's Day card. I was still waxing nostalgic for my older stamp images so I used yet another image by Stampington. I completely forgot that I have a rather large basket of their stamps, so when I started digging through them the other day, it was as if I was seeing them for the first time. Kind of like Christmas all over again. One of these days, maybe I'll take pictures of what I think is a clever storage system and give you a peek into my supplies. Of course, how clever can it be if I can't even remember what I have ;D

Love is in the Air

Hello! Just a quick post today to share a Valentine's Day card that I made using an older Stampington stamp by Christine Adolph. Actually, it's not that old...2005 I believe, but in the world of rubberstamping there are always so many new products and images being released, it's hard to keep up. I get so enamored with the new stuff that frequently I push the older stuff aside and there it sits, collecting dust, waiting for some inky love. Today this line of VDay stamps sang out to me and demanded my affection, so this little beauty got to touch ink to paper for the first time. I forgot how much I love these images. Stay tuned...I think I need to get a few more of these dirty ;D

Eureeka!! January Class Samples are Finished!

Good Afternoon! I finally completed my January class samples and can breathe a little easier for the moment. I was really sweating it for a while ;D

I know in a previous post, I confessed my relentless obsession with Christmas and how I love to begin the celebrating right after Halloween and continue clear through New Year's Day. However...once the new year walks its happy butt through the door, then I 'm done. Finished. Kaput. No more Christmas. The tree comes down, the decorations get packed away, and the Yuletide tunes sit untouched on the iPod until Walmart rolls out the holiday chotchkes next year. Long story short, I put Christmas to bed for a looooong nap and moved on to the next holiday lurking around the corner...Valentine's Day.

The Valentine's Day cards I created for my class are not over-the-top, but are more on the subtle side. I was shooting for cards that were a little more versatile and could be used for a number of other occasions. I was craving a bit of whimsey when I started putting these cards together and nothing satisfies a "sweet" tooth like the adorable critters by Penny Black. These images are great, because it only takes a bit of color to bring them to life as you can see with the hedgehog and cat cards. The froggy queen was a bit of a diva, however, and it took me a while to make her look presentable. Did I get frustrated? I started to, but then I realized that this little obstacle meant that I needed to add more soft greens and yellows to my ever-expanding Copic Marker library. Any excuse to buy more Copic Markers is..., well, as Martha would say "It's a good thing"... ;D To finish the cards, I added a non-traditional paper palette and a few embellies and called it a day.

Now, what on earth will I do for my March class?