It's probably the hardest thing I've ever done...

Seriously.
My darling friend Lauren sent me some ultra fun papers to use for stamping stuff. Mostly old book pages, but a few other interesting things (like comics in spanish!). Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I have *never* torn book pages before. I'm a bibliophile - can't help it. Books are to be loved and respected. I thought I might have a heart attack when I heard the first quiet rrrriiiipppp! (and it doesn't help that dh was making fun of me at the time, asking if I needed help with my book burning!)
Then I got into a whole 'nother realm of difficult. After tearing, gluing and gessoing I had a piece of neat looking paper - but no idea of what to do with it! Finally I settled on this:
which is not at all like something I would usually make! It's a bit wonky (on purpose, I swear!) and kinda busy for me - but I like it.
The Hero Arts grass stamp was inked with Ranger's archival brown color and stamped on a piece of my collage paper. I used several colors of Distress Inks to add color to the piece - but then cut most of them off when I decided to cut it into a circle. More of my collage paper was covered with an orangey-brown color of mulberry paper, then glued down with mod podge and a touch of reinker. The background card was rubbed with a gold mica magic reinker, which I also used to edge the strips. Although you can't tell from the picture, there is a lot of glimmer and shine going on!
As the final touch I added one of Tim Holtz's epoxy stickers (also glued down to collage paper) as a dangling charm from the embroidery floss.
All I can say is - this *really* stretched my comfort zone! And Lauren, you better be proud of me! :D
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A little somethin' that was up on Flickr

And I've finally gotten around to putting it up here! :)
This Hero Arts image was stamped on watercolor paper with permanent ink and colored with Distress Inks. Mostly I used a water brush to add color, but here and there I added color with the blending tool.
The butterfly was colored the same way, but on a second piece of watercolor paper & cut out. Since I wanted the wings to be popped up (but not with the pop dots that I have, they're too thick) I came up with another solution. I used Glossy Accents on the back of the wings - built up until it was a thick as I liked - and let it dry. The best part of doing it this way is that I was able to add more dimension at the edges AND I was able to take it out to the very edge of the wings. That's awesome because they can't be crushed in the mail! :D
Although you can't see it in the picture, there are little bits of sparkle here and there (spica pen, mostly) for interest. Oh, and the lozenges were also cut from a second piece of watercolor paper - these were coated with GA for shine then glued in place. After all, practically *every* card needs a little shimmer and shine, don'tcha think? ;)
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Whew!

It's been a wild few days! I finally felt well enough to return to Zumba class last week. Man, you can really tell when you've been out for a while. Thought I might keel over for a little while... but there was no time because....
There was all the prep (and house cleaning!) for a certain little boy's 4th birthday. Whereupon I think I lost my mind - there was enough food for an army, and trust me, there was no army here! :) Since I've been so sick, and DH has been having trouble with his health, we only invited adults - all of Z's favorite people. Talk about an embarrassment of riches - that kid made out like a bandit!
Sunday I finally broke down and got a haircut - six inches! Yup, still feeling that weirdness in the shower. You know, when you've still got plenty of conditioner but you've run out of hair? ;)
So I thought tonight would be perfect for a short post. You may have noticed that I added a link to my (new) Flickr account over on the right. There are some things that I post over there before I get to them here, this happens to be one of them. I *love* this card. Simply adore the way it came out!
As you can see, that big flower from Hero Arts is still calling to me (and I'm not done with it yet!). This time I stamped it with white ink on vellum two times & cut it out. Using scissors, I curled the petals up on one flower & down on the other before gluing them together. The center is filled with Glossy Accents.
The panel was a piece of white c/s brayered with Waterfall and stamped with white ink. Not even a hint of shimmery stuff (I know! Shocking, right?) The paper ribbon is from K & Co, but I did color it with some distress ink - I *think* it was Scattered Straw. There are a couple of pearls on the paper ribbon, but they are hard to see in this shot. Once it was all glued down I added some piercing (this particular piercing is a TJ technique, but you could do it freehand) and faux stitching to finish it off.

Here you can see the pearls better and get an idea of just how full the flower looks. I just love it! :D Not practical at all for mailing, which is kind of a bummer, but great for hand delivery.

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Dropping in real quick...

Ugh. I'm *still* sick. Two weeks of ear infection, two different antibiotics, two visits to the doctor... yuck! Sorry this is going to be such a short post, but I'm off to bed as soon as I've finished here.
Haven't been making too much the last few days, but I do have something interesting. :) Remember the wood flower from my last post? This time I used the wood as a background - you can see it much more clearly this way.
Looks like wood burning, doesn't it? A long time ago my Grandpa V. used to do wood burning. He could make the most intricate (and beautiful) patterns and pictures. There are other fond (and funny!) memories associated with his wood burning hobby, and this card brings them all to the front of my mind!
Once again I used the birch wood panel. I stamped the flourishes (Inkadinkado) with Brilliance Coffee Bean ink, let dry and went over parts of it with a Uniball Signo pen (yes, technically this is the bandanna technique too!). The bird was from an entirely different experiment - it was stamped with Coffee Bean on kraft paper, colored with pencils and coated with Distress Crackle paint. The sentiment came from the Love Hurts plate at Non Sequitur.
Thanks for dropping by!