Well I'm a cowboy who never saw a cow...never roped a steer cause I don't know how...and I sure ain't fixin' to start in now...

Hey, y'all! I'm hereeeeee....yes, I know...things have been crazy, and I have been neglecting y'all. I miss you, too! Oh, and thanks to everyone who weighed in on my last post. I am still working on getting the kraft background on there...I'm not very HTML savvy and haven't quite figured out how to keep the middle section white and put kraft on the sides. Wish me luck!

Anywho...it's the 3rd Tuesday in May, which means it's Texas Tuesday again! I only had a few minutes, so I whipped up this cute little 3.5" x 5" notecard using some images from The Cat's Pajamas and a sentiment from somewhere I can't remember. How's that for being specific?


Card Size: 3.5" x 5"
Instructions:
1. Stamp Sprinkle first in Memento Black on Kraft
2. Mask Sprinkle and stamp the "town" behind her
3. Add color with Prismacolor Pencils without blending.
4. Mat the image panel with black, punch the bottom with the Scalloped Scallop punch.
5. Stamp sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black onto Vintage Cream card base
6. Adhere image panel to card base.


Don't forget to hop on over and see what Geeta, Linda, Betty & Mark are sharing this week...Libby is on holiday (love saying that, I feel like Bridget Jones), but she will be back soon! She will also be posting the Texas Tuesday Round-Up next Tuesday, so if you want to play along, you still have time! Here's where you need to link your card up to be included in the Round-Up.

Thanks for moseyin' by...have a fabulous day!

The clock struck one, the mouse ran down...hickory dickory dock...

Hey, y'all, happy Wednesday! I'm feeling a bit better, so the stamping therapy must be working! *grin* I have something really fun to show you today, but I am not responsible for any new addictions, k? hehe...

I haven't really gotten into the whole digital thing...I am one of the people who crafts for the process, not necessarily the outcome, kwim? Sure, I love a great hand-made gift to give, but the actual making of it is why I do it...it's a wonderful outlet for me. Ok, sorry, tangent. Back to the point. I saw this card on Paula's blog and had to go check out this amazing artwork she was raving about. HOLY COW! I was in love. With Mo's Digital Pencil. She has some fantastic images in her store, and what I love most is the diversity of her images. And there are lots of boy things! Yay! So, my friends, here is my first card with one of Mo's images...my very favorite and the one that made me suck in my breath and go OOOOOHHH!!!! Are you ready?

I know!!!!! (in my Monica voice) Can you believe how cute this is??? This image is called Not Even a Mouse, and I printed him on Bella's Bestest paper with my HP printer. Then I dusted off my Prismacolor Pencils and Odorless Mineral Spirits and colored...and colored...and colored... I won't tell you how long it took me to color this, but mostly cause I don't remember. I did it almost 2 weeks ago. Even my hubby was impressed, asking if I printed it like that or if I colored it. *giggle*

So finally I'm making a card out of this cute little guy. First I cut and embossed the image with my Deckled Rectangle Nestabilities and sponged the inside with Versamagic Wheat and Chocolate Chip ink before removing the die. I was determined to do this card without a sketch to follow, so I stared blankly at my 5" square Chocolate Chip panel for quite some time. I knew I wanted to use this striped piece of paper from the Earth Love Mini Deck from Cosmo Cricket. I cut a strip (cutting the green and teal out cause they didn't match my image) and sponged the edges with Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip ink. Then I decided to pull out the green in the image by adding a 4 1/4" square of River Rock cardstock, faux stitched and sponged around the edges with Old Olive and Close to Cocoa. I adhered that to my Chocolate Chip layer, then added the striped piece on top.

Once those things were in place, I was sure I'd be done. But my eyes kept wanting something vertical under the image on the left side. So I chose a piece of retired felt stitched ribbon from last year's Stampin' Up Holiday Mini and adhered that to my card. Still needed a little "something," so I added 3 cross-stitches with twine. I like it! Finally, I mounted the whole thing on a 5 1/4" square Kraft card base.

Well, I hope you enjoy my card today! I'll be back a little later with some Bella goodness, k? Have a wonderful day!

And if you really try...you'll find there's no need to cry...in this place you'll feel there's no hurt or sorrow...

Hi y'all! Happy Saturday! I realized today that I hadn't shared this card with you yet, even though I uploaded it to my Splitcoast Gallery. Shame on me!

When I first got into coloring stamped images, I bought a set of Prismacolor Pencils and colored everything I could get my hands on using the Gamsol Magic technique. My friend Paula inspires me week after week with her awesome creations using colored pencils, so I got a wild hair to dust off my pencils and odorless mineral spirits and give it a try again. Here's the result:


Not too shabby, huh? I have to say, I was quite impressed with myself! *grin* You should notice a few Paula-inspired details on this card, as a matter of fact.

The first thing I did was ink up Polly Packages from Stamping Bella in Brilliance Graphite Black on Bella's Bestest Paper. I wasn't sure how Memento would react with the OMS (odorless mineral spirits), so I decided to just use Brilliance and heat set it. Then I began to color...wow! Not only did I not forget how to do this, but I think I'm better at it than I was before! Who knew? Not to brag at all, it just shows how practicing with shadows and layering color, even with different mediums, makes such a huge difference! Let's see if I can find a card that I did back in the day...ok. Found one...this one is from 2007...just six months or so after I started stamping.


This was one of my very first Bellas...Flowahbella. I still lovey her soooo much! But look at the difference in the shading! WOW! There are so many ways to grow and learn in this hobby...that's one of the reasons I love it so much.

Anywho, back to my card. I decided that the image was perfect for this week's Sketch Challenge on Splitcoast. So after I got my image colored, I cut and embossed it with my Rectangle Nestabilities. Leaving the die in place, I sponged Versamagic Wheat Chalk ink around the edges of the rectangle, giving Polly kind of a white "glow." Once I cut and embossed a Chocolate Chip scalloped mat and adhered the main image to it, I decided to be brave and see if I could stitch around the edges of the rectangle without losing the embossing. Success! It was so stressful...I sewed soooo slow! And it's still not totally straight, but, well, it's pretty darn good I think. *giggle*

The next thing I did was cut a base layer from the Treasure blue polka dot pattern from Bo Bunny's Tis the Season Collection. I sponged the edges with Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip ink, matted it with Chocolate Chip, and stitched (not-so-straightly again) around the edges. The bottom strip with the snowflake print is actually the back (or is it the front?) side of the Treasure paper, which I sponged with Cocoa and Chocolate inks as well before adhering to the base layer. I then chose the Stripe pattern and cut it with my Nestabilities Labels One die so the stripes were diagonal instead of vertical. I sponged the edges of that one as well, then adhered it for my side panel.

Right before I popped up the main image on dimensionals, I wrapped a piece of coordinating ribbon around the card base layers. After the main image was down, I tied a cute little bow on the left side. I needed a little something on the top right, and three small dark cocoa glitter dots were just perfect. The finishing touches were a little Diamond Glaze on the berries on her hat and some Diamond Stickles on the gift bow. Of course. *wink*

Well, it's late, so I better wrap this up. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!! OH!!! One more thing....I have started sign-ups for a LULU Blog Hop over in the Bella Forum. Here's the link...go check it out! We'd love to have you play with us!