I'm back, with the Lovely Tree again!

I swear to you, I will *never* get enough of this tree! I love, perhaps even LOVE, this tree! *lol* I admit that this was one of the first Katzelkraft stamps I fell in love with, not THE first - but that's a whole 'nother post.

This was actually done a while ago, well, almost done. After I let it sit for a week or so I decided to add some extra bling. That finally 'finished' it for me. Not only is it the very first Christmas card of the year (boy, am I behind or what?) but I also got to use a bunch of Katzelkraft stamps on it. Yes, the snowflakes & the flourish also came from Bea.

Sometime in the last year or so I saw the idea to place the circle off center. I hadn't tried it yet but the idea was still cooking around in the back of my head. I still think it could use a ribbon, but nothing came out right so I left it off. The tricky thing was to get the dots spaced right around the circle. Once again, I got major inspiration from my Yahoo group girls! I found a circular piece of plastic canvas stuff - it's in the needlepoint(?) section, near the floss & stuff. At least that's where it was in my Hobby Lobby. :) This thing has evenly spaced holes all through it (there were square pieces too) so I just lined up the edges & tried to center my pen in each hole. Worked like a charm and cost less than a buck!

I know you can't really see the bling I added, so here's a close up shot of what they look like. I didn't want to put crystals in every snowflake (although I could've) so I just spaced them out and kept adding until I thought it looked good. I used my good Swarovski crystals (they have amazing color and fire) but they seem to be harder to find lately. Wonder why?

Thanks for visiting! Promise I'll have more black next time! :D

Recipe: Ranger Perfect Pearls, Swarovski crystals, Gelly roll glitter pen (stardust?), Cuttlebug & Nestibilities, Tree, snowflakes & flourish by Katzelkraft, Tis the Season by Northwoods, Distress Ink in Weathered Wood, Snow Cap White Pigment Ink from Ranger, Stamp A Ma Jig

My (oh so) lovely Katzelkraft tree!

Today I thought I might show you 2 versions of a card that I made. Yes, I made two of the same(ish) thing. I made the first one (on the blue background) and had to, *ahem*, adjust it a tad. (Many thanks to the girls in my Yahoo group for their excellent suggestions!) There were some things that I didn't like very much, so I thought I'd remake it - fixing the things that I didn't like. Hmmm, neither is exactly what I wanted! You can't really tell from the pics but both backgrounds were made with Adirondack inks just slapped on paper & brayered until it looked OK. Then I went in and sprayed Glimmer Mist over the top & brayered again. You can't really see the shine, but trust me, it's there.

So, number one.... I didn't get the best image when I stamped (operator error!) and I didn't feel confident enough to use the Stamp A Ma Jig to realign the stamp. Instead I went over the tree with a black Glaze pen. Once it dried I realized that I didn't like it! The black was just too black and shiny, KWIM? It made the ribbon look off, although it looks better in a pic than in person. The dimension of the glaze pen didn't do it for me either. I really liked the sentiment stamp, it seemed like a great choice for this gorgeous tree. But again, it wasn't perfect - I should've centered it better.

Then, number two.... I didn't get as much blue in this background which made it look bad on the blue cardstock. *sigh* I finally found some nice cardstock for the base (and my image looked great) but then I had to go and change the sentiment. D'oh!

In the end I guess I like them both, but if I could just take the best parts of each to make one card.... Oh well, guess you can't have everything! I did learn one important thing from this experiment. I honestly didn't like the backgrounds when I made them. It was just an experiment to get color on paper (for a trial run) and make it shiny with the Glimmer Mist. Strangely, the first attempt looked much better than the second, probably because I was over thinking the process. After it was allowed to dry, and I was able to choose the best looking piece to stamp on, I was amazed at how much I liked the result. Lesson: let it dry and stamp on it before tossing it! :)

Thanks for visiting, hope you come back soon to see another version of this lovely tree!

Recipe: Tree by Katzelkraft, Woods by PSX, Heart by Stamp Oasis, Adirondack ink in Currant, Denim & Eggplant, satin & velvet ribbon, Pearl Glimmer Mist, Black Glaze pen, Gelly Roll pen in white, Gelly roll glitter pen, piercer & (home made) template

Not a speck of black in sight...

Hello again!

I tried and tried to get a good pic of this card... alas, the blue layers are shiny/metallic and throw the camera off every single time! So, the colors won't look as good in a picture - you'll just have to trust me that they match IRL! :) If you saw this in person you would know that both blue layers are the same paper. Does that give you an idea of the trouble I had? And since there was such trouble balancing the blue, you can't even see that the stem extends down on the lined paper. Sheesh. I didn't realize that I would need a degree in PSE to start a blog!

I don't do enough with this dandelion stamp, I really like it (read: HAD TO HAVE IT! lol) and always seem to forget it when I'm looking for a more delicate image. Oh well, I used it this time! Hope you enjoy and thanks for visiting!


Recipe: blue scrapbook paper, lined scrapbook paper, tan C/S & ribbon, flower from Penny Black, sentiment from B Line Designs, white ep, tan ink

Something mellow

Hello again!

Today I have something a little more mellow - no black! A little amazing, no?

I *love* this stamp from Third Coast, but then I love all the stamps I get from Val. If you've never gone to see her offerings - do!
Once again I was lured by the Distress Inks, they are very easy to blend using Tim's blender. The only problem I have is remembering not to put the edge down first - I'm working on it. Some days are better than others, this time I didn't get any hard edges (woohoo!).

Thanks for visiting!


Recipe: Bamboo Post stamp from Third Coast, background paper from DCWV, ribbon from my stash, Distress Inks & blender, white embossing powder, 'Journey' is from another stamp by Rubber Stampede (partially inked)

Another TJ technique

Hello! I'm stopping in today to post a picture that doesn't look great on screen, but has *mucho* shimmer IRL. This was called Opalite Smoosh (heh, I think it was!) and uses the opalite pad under the regular inks to give it gorgeous shine. There is no way to really give you a hint, but if you've played with opalite inks you can picture the golden/rusty shimmer coming through the distress inks. I hope you like it!

Recipe: stamp from Of the Heart, Distress Inks in Shabby Shutters & Fired Brick, Opalite inks in Golden Mist & Autumn Rust, Graphite Black ink, Mat from DCWV, black & white c/s, green ribbon & asian coin from my stash.

Just stopping by!

Hi again. I am still in NM and I don't know exactly when I'll be returning home. My grandpa took his last breath on Friday; it wasn't a surprise, but it's never expected. KWIM? I wish that I could post something especially for him, but that will have to wait until I return home to all my stuffies - I only brought the bare minimum with me this time.

Actually, I took time to write a post last night - can't tell, can ya? I was trying to use Windows Live Writer (for the very first time!) and the dang thing froze my entire system! Of course it waited until I had finished writing everything, added a photo and went to hit 'post' before it crashed. Grrrr. On the upside, I wasn't all that fond of the pic that I had to go along with that post anyway!

So, here is something that I hadn't intended to post yet - but will! Like I said, I'm not at home, so this will have to be an approximation of what went into the card. I think the stamp is from Inkadinkado (Hobby Lobby at any rate) and I'm fairly certain that the background is one of the Ranger multi color pads. After that had dried I sprayed some pearly Glimmer Mist on it & brayered it for an even looking coverage. There are some flourishes on the card itself (which is blue) but it was nearly impossible to get a picture of black flourishes on dark blue cardstock! Guess I need to work on my photography a bit more. Oh, and I found some clear plastic-y ribbon that was printed with flourishes too - that's what is on the corners of the panel. I'm not sure that I like them but they're stuck down now, quite permanently! I can't (for the life of me) remember who the greeting stamp is from... if you want to know, leave me a comment & I'll check as soon as I get home.

Thanks for visiting!