Friday, December 20, 2019


Card or Package Topper…


Started out to create a birthday card for a very special and dear friend’s big 60th. Of course, with a December birthday my thoughts first revolved around a poinsettias. Then I realized her last several birthday flowers were poinsettias. Oh, I could not do that again this year. After very little debate I selected Lady E’s Flower 001 and cut 4 layers of each size out of a pink foamiran (flower foam.)

Now, I really wanted something that would be an outstanding accent. I have been experimenting with Pan Pastels during the past few weeks and having just too much fun. (Must say, I have watched and been completely influenced by Susan from Susan’s Garden Club with her use of these fantastic pastels.)   The Magenta Extra Dark was the perfect accent color for the pink. I did use the PP applicator to apply the color.

As an experiment, I used Krylon’s Workable Fixatif to set the pastels. Once I felt the Fixatif was dry, I heated the petals then rolled/scrunched per usual. Then I used the wooden ball stylus to open and shape each section.

To build the flowers, I used hot glue and just 2 layers for each of the three flowers. The centers are a soft yellow Prill that are again hot glued in place.

For the leaves, I cheated!  So sorry! Purchased these through Amazon. When I started to put it together, making this “just a card” did not feel right. So, I mounted the entire “card front” to a 5x7 canvas board. Gave it more stability.

The rest was just wrapping the package and mounting the “package topper.”


Thank you for stopping in. Hope you found this a fun project.

Well, I guess that is it for this year. I pray you have a Wonderful and a very Merry Christmas. May 2020 be an exciting and creative year for us all.

God Bless You, Everyone


Tuesday, November 19, 2019


Did You Know????

The Christmas Rose is steeped in history, tradition and beautiful folklore. The rose is heavily associated with Christianity and the birth of Christ through a little shepherdess named Madelyn. The legend goes that Madelyn was tending to her sheep one cold and wintry night, when three wise men and a group of shepherds passed by her snow covered filed. The wisemen were bearing gifts for the Christ Child, and the shepherds were bearing fruits, honey and a pure white dove. Madelyn became saddened that she did not have a gift for the newborn king, not even a simple flower. She began to weep. Just then, as an angel was looking down and saw Madelyn tears falling on the snow. The angel descended from heaven to offer her aid. She brushed away the tears and the snow-covered ground revealing a beautiful white flower with tips of soft pink.
Today, we call this delicate white flower our Christmas Rose.


Thursday, November 14, 2019


It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas…

Welcome and thank you for taking time today to visit, I will be brief… Like you, I have been busy with some special request projects and some card makings. Next year – 1 Christmas card per week.



What I am sharing is a very easy and fun technique. Yet, somehow, people always seem amazed and say, “You made this!?



Materials and directions:
 *Card-stock of your choice
 *Apply Double-sided sticky tape sheets to fronts only
 *Select Dies of your choice
 *Then using your die cutting machines- cut parts
 * Remove Glue sheet protective covering
 *Add Glitters of your choice to the glued-upper side
 *Use your shaping tools to add veins (work in back side)
 *Hot glue layers – lifting petals
 *Add Prills to center of pin project
 *Glue Pins for backing (optional)
 *Add Tealights (found these on Amazon) but do not glue in place

All done!

May you have fun this holiday season.

May God Bless You and Yours

Wednesday, October 23, 2019


The Leaves of Autumn…


All my life, I have enjoyed autumn. As I child, playing in a pile of leaves was exciting. As a young adult, a walk through the wooded areas around our home was a little more romantic in the autumn, especially with someone special. Those romantic memories are still being made today. Oh yes, I am a hopeless romantic who loves the feel of autumn.

The card I am presenting today was featured on my FaceBook video recently. I wish I could take credit for the idea but I was influenced by a video article on the Rubber Stamp Tapestry, September newsletter by Desiree Kuemmerle. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8S3g5FIDWA&t=317s.)  So, I thought I would share both her ideas and mix in a little of mine.
  
Cut Cardstock:
White – For base card, cut 1 sheet to 10.5” x 6.25” and fold to 5.25” x 6.25”.
For top layer, cut a second white sheet to approximately 4.25” x 5.25 “
For middle layer, cut either the Olive or Burgundy to 5” x 6”
For leaves, cut one of each color cardstock to 4.25” x 5.25 “

The Blending:
There are a lot of different blending applicators on the market these days. The blending brush I’m using was purchased on Amazon.


For the cardstock layers and colored leaves, using the blender brush in a circular motion, I lightly blended the edges with Copper working from the outer edge inward. Top layer white you may want to add a blush of any of the inks.


For the white leaf, you can apply the copper (or any color) if you prefer wish to.


White leaf with peg stamps:  


Now for the fun. If you have not used peg stamps before, I do hope you will give them a try. The most important thing about pegs is that you hold the vertically – straight upward. There is, in the wooden peg, a line indicator that will, like on the leaves, show where the stem is. It also helps to notice its location when doing design work (watch several videos for more placement ideas).

The next thing is to make sure you have enough ink on the design.

For this leaf, I used a variety of colors. I selected one leaf stamp and randomly set at least (pressed) at least 3 impressions using one color. Then, with a different leaf stamp, set 3 more impression using a different color. Continue till you are pleased with the appearance.

Optional:
To brighten the color a little more, while the ink is still fresh, apply a coating of Clear Embossing powder to the front of the leaf and heat set.

Veining!
I call this giving life to the leaves. I use either a veining tool or small headed ball stylist. (I also might use some old dentist tools!) If you do not have a sculpting pad, fold several layers of cloth towels together to create a semi-soft surface.

With your stylist, apply pressure onto the back of the leaf and draw the stylist towards and down the stem. Add as many veins as you feel comfortable with. And yes, if you embossed the white leaf, after it cools, you can do the same type of veining.

Assemble:
Add the colored and white layers to your card base. I like double-side tape but you might want a glue, just make sure it is smoothly applied. Arrange the leaves to your desired look.
To the inside, add your sentiment or handwritten note.



Mailing:
Because you have created a beautiful dimensional card, mailing might present a slight challenge. What I do is double box the card. For this I go to PaperMart.com and enter #840965. It is a little deeper clear plastic box which will allow the leaves not to be crushed. Then I use a slightly larger box mailer. (I use this double-box idea for my foam flower cards.)


Material List –
Cardstock: White, Olive and Burgundy
Stamp Set: Rubber Stamp Tapestry’s Indian Summer
Dies: Tim Holtz’s Sizzix 660038- Layered Leaf   
Cut ‘n Boss embossing machine
Ink’s:
Gina K: Dark Chocolate, Dark Sage, Faded Brick, Sweet Mango, and Honey Mustard
Color Box Pigment Ink: Copper
Extra Fine Embossing Powder
Embossing Gun

From Amazon.com: Blender Brush, COMIART Ball Styluses Dotting Tool Set, McGill Paper Blossoms Molding foam, Double-sided Tape 


Paper Mart: Plastic Box - #840965
Household Items: Paper towels and a damp sponge

Thank you…
Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed this presentation. I love working with the peg stamps, especially those from Rubber Stamp Tapestry. Their designs are exciting which allows you to be creative. Take a look at their tutorials (pegstamp.com)– great ideas from a variety of stampers. While there, signup for their newsletters.

PS – For my video, please go https://www.facebook.com/barb.tobias.12 for 10/23/2019

Well, till next time…
God Bless You All…





Thursday, October 3, 2019


The Splendor of Autumn...



I can not believe it is already October. This week, as Jim & I ran our many errands, we were able to enjoy seeing the beauty of the early autumn colors. Each season has its own beauty but the colors of autumn, well they are my favorites.

For the past few days, I gathered a few sheets of olive green and reddish (brick red) cardstock together and a few sheets of soft pearl white cardstock. Then, I started having some fun. I used Sizzix 656927 Bigz Die - Tattered Leaves by Tim Holtz to cut out my leaves. Made several of each color. Really quick. Actually, I was able to cut 3 layers of cardstock at one time – easy.


Then, going through my crazy variety of inks, I selected the browns, brick red, charcoal and gold from several companies to blend and accent each leaf. The Autumn Splendor stamp is an old favorite but unfortunately it is retired. Wish I could find it again.

Using Susan’s Garden’s sculpting tools, I embossed the leaves and highlighted them with gold ink.

The butterflies are from Paper Mart and just added that touch of color.

I know, these are rather easy projects. It is sometimes just so relaxing getting back to basics.

What are some of your projects for this season?



Well, time to clean up the shop again so I can mess it up with my next project. Thinking of doing some ornaments … maybe a quick video.

Till next time,

God Bless


Tuesday, September 10, 2019



The Majestic Grey Wolf…


My family has always had a tender place in our hearts for Wolves – there is just something about these majestic creations of the wild that we love and admire. When I first saw Whimsy’s newest Dove Art release, Wolf Head, I had to have it.


Then I saw and was inspired by Bev Rochester’s handsomely finished article on the Whimsy Blog page of September 7th.  My stamp arrived yesterday and, of course, I could hardly wait to get going. The gentleman who will receive this over the weekend will be celebrating his 86th birthday.


If you want more information regarding the Grey or Timber Wolf, there is an interesting article on https://animalcorner.co.uk/animals/grey-wolf/ .

Materials:
Whimsy Stamps, DA1124
Concord & 9, Woven Background
Ranger’s Distress Oxide, Black Soot and Hickory Smoke
Cardstock by Neenah and Elizabeth Craft
PrismaColor Pencils – Black, Yellow and Pumpkin.

I had a great time making this card. Hope it might give you an idea about making masculine celebration cards.




Till next time, May God Bless You…

Tuesday, September 3, 2019


…And Away We Go….

Hello there…and welcome to my blog. Hope this card will give you a few ideas for creating slightly different celebration cards. This one is for two very fantastic people – Cory and Jennifer. This is for their wedding this weekend. 

They love their motorcycles.    

Trying to come up with a card that was totally “them” was exciting.   As I started thinking and mentally designing their card, I came up with several different ideas but not exactly what I wanted. Eventually my thoughts lead me to search for chipboard wedding designs. That was when I found my inspiration with the wedding themes on the 14 Craft Bar website. That was all I needed. 

I'm so excited that this project has turned out the way I imagined. 


Material list for Wedding Card:

Card Stock:
Card and face layer – Neenah - Stardream - Quartz  for card base cut to 10.5x6.25 and fold to 5.25 x 6.25. Face layer cut to 4.75 x 4.75
Flowers and middle layer – Neenah’s – Stardream – 106C- Sapphire, Quartz, and Jupiter – 2nd layer Sapphire cut to 5x5

Fiskar’s - ProCision™ Rotary Bypass Trimmer (12")

Stamp:  Concord & 9 – Seasonal Borders – the grass border stamp 

Stampin’ Up’sStamparatus               

Inks:
Ranger’s Distress Oxide’s Forrest Moss and Peeled Paint used both for grass – let dry completely
Gina K’s Powder Blueapplied with blender brush

Tools:

Amazon.com - Life Changing Blending Brushes by Picket Fence 4 Pack 

Die:
*Susan’s Garden – Sunflowerthe centers are considered a flower (100s in that dark center of the Sunflower) cut as many as colors as desired.   Tonic’s – Nuvo Glitter Marker 177 Golden Ochre applied to flower centers   

*Susan’s Garden dies can be found on Amazon. Watch for her newer releases from Tonic very soon.

 Die machine:

Crafter’s Companion – Gemini Junior

Additional Tool: Ek Tools – Precision Tip Craft Tweezers (Amazon)

Chipboard:

14CraftBar.com:  Bride and Groom Motorcycle wedding and Treasure Love – color as you prefer – I used all the listed, pencils alcohol pens and markers

Prismacolor Pencils - Ginger Root, Indigo Blue, Beige, Black, White, Light Peach, French Grey 80%

Chameleon Alcohol Pens – BK4 Deep Black and WG7 Warm Gray 7 - for groom’s suite

Uni-boll Signo Gel Pens - White for bride’s dress and Silver for the motorcycle

Gelly Roll – Clear Starto accent bride and groom clothing

Glue:

Zig- Memory System (glue pen

3M Double Sided Foam Tape (Amazon.com)

Thank you for visiting. 

Till later. may we wish you a beautiful autumn.

May God Bless You…

 


Sunday, August 25, 2019


Arteza Watercolor Pencils vs Chameleon Alcohol Pens
Applied to
Sift Finish Cardstock vs Watercolor (90 lb. cold press) Paper




First Test:
Elizabeth Craft Design – Soft Finish -White Cardstock
Whimsy Stamps – Dove Art – Himalayan poppy

Paper: My 1st goal was to see how the Soft Finish cardstock would hold up with all the water that would be applied.  I went over some of the portions of the design multiple times with the color and water. When wet, it did not warp. There are a few dimples on the backside but once mounted, they will not show. I’m impressed and recommend you give it a try.

Soft Finish using Arteza: Used a generic water-brush

A024 White Quartz
A052 Pumpkin
A070 Blueberry
A075 Ivory
A094 Emerald
A111 Coyote 

Arteza: This was my first time to use Watercolor Pencils in a very long time. For the last 10 years or more, I basically used my Prismacolor pencils (bought almost 13 years ago) and a blending nub in order to achieve the desired appearance. However, after watching Sandy Parker’s video and several other non-company artists, it was time to expand my creative directions.

I really must admit that I love my results. I could go on about the packaging, the pencil shapes, the clearness for the identifying names, but you have probably heard it all. As for performance, especially on this slightly textured surface, it was exciting. I applied a light pressure to the surface and was pleased with the water blending. I used a little more pressure on the wet area then blended again with the water-brush.


 
Soft Finish using Chameleon Alcohol Pens: 

Bl6 Royal Blue
OL3 Olive Green
YO3 Warm Sunset
CG8 Cool Gray

Chameleon Alcohol Pens: If you have followed my blog, you know that I totally enjoy us these alcohol pens. They work great wherever I apply them – every type, texture or thickness of paper plus great on Foamiran. Happily, there were no problems with this Soft Finish cardstock. 

I infused the Royal Blue to between a 5 and 10 count for the lighter areas and of course full strength for the darker. Like most of the papers I’ve tried, the alcohol does bleed through but with no textural distortion.

Second Text:
Canson – Watercolor Paper  (cold press) 90 lb. – Aquarelle
Gina K Stamps – Rose Bouquet
Arteza Watercolor Pencils vs Chameleon Alcohol Pens

Paper: My 2nd challenge was to see how the Canson Cold Press Watercolor Paper withstood the use of a WC pencils with a heavy water application and the alcohol ink. As I said earlier, it has been a long time since I enjoyed the benefits of watercolor.

If interested, there is an excellent article regarding the types of papers that I thought you might enjoy: https://watercoloraffair.com/cold-press-vs-hot-press-watercolor-paper-heres-how-to-choose/.

Cold Press using Arteza:  

A029 Moss
A052 Pumpkin
A064 Yellow Ochre
A100 Pear
A111 Coyote

Arteza: I wanted to use the same application technique as I did with the Soft Finish paper. I did a little extra water blending and occasionally blotted the surface when I felt it was getting too wet. I have used this paper weight with other types of watercolor but because of the WC pencil applications and extra water, the paper warped a little more than I wanted. I will try this again with a 140-300 lb. surface.

Because of the texture (unevenness) of the paper, the watercolor pencil has a softer, gentle appearance. Perfect for so many of our celebration cards.


Cold Press using Chameleon Color Tones:
OL3 Olive Green
YO3 Warm Sunset
Chameleon Color Tops:
YO3 Warm Sunset

Chameleon: Again, I followed my same application technique. However, if you notice I only used two colors for the entire project. Using the infuser with the Warm Sunset  do a 5-8 count. Reapply full strength for the more intense Warm Sunset. The leaves were infused with the Warm Sunset onto the Olive Green. I’m really impressed with this appearance.

MY RESULTS: This was a fun project. I learned a great deal about both types of surfaces and the color applications. Do I have a favorite? I can’t really say. Love both.


Thank you for stopping by today. Hope this might help when thinking about the next card on your list. Now for me, it’s to complete the projects.

Till next time … God Bless Each of You.






Friday, August 16, 2019

Poppy Flower– 


Thank you for stopping by today. As you may know, during the past few weeks, I have been refreshing my card-craft supplies and have fallen in love the the Dove Art stamp collection through Whimsy Stamps.The stamp used for this article is called the Himalayan Poppy, DA1013. The Himalayan Poppy is, in reality, blue! (See descriptive notes at the end.)

However, having never seen the Himalayan, I went with the poppy colors I am more use to seeing, an off red/orange.

For this project, I used:
                                                                                                  
White Card Stock – from Staples (top layer and base card)
Middle layer – Neenah's Stardream Collection - Onyx 105lb.
Inked Impression: Memento Tuxedo Black – no embossing
Prismacolor Colored Pencils – start lightly applying the color, then, build up to a deeper intensity, then using a blender stick, blend:
·         Canary Yellow
·         Crimson Red
·         Goldenrod
·         Green Ochre
·         Marine Green
·         Raspberry
·         White




Hope you will give this a try - just relax and have some fun.

Till later,
God Bless




Special Note: 
The Himalayan Blue poppy flower, Meconopsis, is one of the most prized in the poppy flower family for its true blue colored blooms. This member of the poppy flower family is particularly sensitive to temperature changes and therefore can be difficult to grow. Found mostly in the Scottish highlands and Himalayas, they have been successfully grown in Alaska and coastal Washington. Their optimum temperature range is 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tuesday, August 13, 2019


The Old Water Mill…  



This summer has been a time of reorganization for my craft areas (that seems to be a continual chore) and expanding upon some of my creative goals. During my “reorganization,” I realized that I have a large collection of inks, paints and colored pencils that I have not used in a while. So, I set a new goal … utilize those products.

Recently, I started collecting some of the beautiful Dove Art stamps from Whimsy Stamps. (See my July 31st posting). The Water Mill (DA104) is one of my latest additions. Did you know that the use of Water Mills goes back long before the rise of Rome?

Materials –

Whimsy Stamps: The Water Mill (DA 104)
Elizabeth Craft Designs: Soft Finish: White and  Dark Chocolate
Dies: Dashing Squares
Chameleon Pencils:  Avocado and Spanish Olive
Rembrant Polycolor: Olive Green and Brown Ochre
Faber-Castell’s Pitt Pastel: 151 Helioblue-Reddish, 165 Juniper Green, 179 Bistre. 185 Naples Yellow, 273 Warm Grey IV
Prismcolor: Limepeel, Green Ochre, Cool Grey 90%, Orange Mineral, Blue Slate and Dark Green

Memento: Tuxedo Black
Krylon: Workable Fixatif (1306)
US Art Supply: Artist Blending Stump




Hope you will stop by again.
Till  next time – God Bless

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Extracts from:


The Bridge


I stood on the bridge at midnight,
As the clocks were striking the hour,
And the moon rose o'er the city,
Behind the dark church-tower.

I saw her bright reflection
In the waters under me,
Like a golden goblet falling
And sinking into the sea.

How often, O, how often,
In the days that had gone by,
I had stood on that bridge at midnight
And gazed on that wave and sky!


      *******

And forever and forever,
As long as the river flows,
As long as the heart has passions,
As long as life has woes;

The moon and its broken reflection
And its shadows shall appear,
As the symbol of love in heaven,
And its wavering image here.

      *******


Fell in love with this stamp when I first saw it. It reminded me of a fantastic, romantic park we visited a few years back.

The stamp is from Whimsy Stamps, DA1004, Bridge Over Water, from their Dove Art collection. After much consideration, I elected to use all Chameleon Color Tone alcohol inks which produces such a smooth and well blended finish.

Chameleon Color Tone: Warm Yellow, Taupe, Olive Green, Cool Gray 5, Neutral Gray 4, and Lagoon.

Well, that is it for today.

Till next time,

God Bless….



Per August 12th Spotlight notification :